Imperialism, also known as neocolonialism, was the policy of expansion of power and domination of one State over others in the 19th/20th centuries.
Imperialism is called a set of geopolitical actions characterized by the establishment of power relations in geographical spaces located in Asia, Africa and America.
Imperialist practices were carried out by the great industrial powers from the second half of the 19th century onwards.
The big countries like England, France, German Empire, United States, Belgium and Japan, had as their main objective the conquest of new territories.
For this, they created a power relationship in the political, economic and cultural field with the dominated countries.
Imperialism and neocolonialism: what's the difference?
Unlike what many people think, the terms neocolonialism and imperialism have the same meaning and both are used to name the practices taken by the great imperialist powers over other nations, in the period of the 19th / 20th centuries.
Geopolitical actions in Imperialism
The concept of geopolitics is strongly linked to that of imperialism, as it concerns power relations in the world's demographic territory.
These relationships were intended to establish dominance over strategic territories, to ensure the supply of raw material, consumer markets, labor and other natural resources.
Mastering all these resources was essential to sustaining the country's economic growth, ensuring political and social stability, as well as the military defense of its own state.
Furthermore, in the second half of the 20th century, imperialism sought to ensure control of the transport system for the benefit of the main world powers.
This system was used mainly to move people, objects and food, in addition to providing easy access to new places.
See more about the meaning of Imperialism.
Colonialism vs. Neocolonialism
Imperialism is also known as neocolonialism. for having the same motivation of the colonialist phase: the exploration of new territories.
However, neocolonialism was carried out in different places from the territories colonized in the 16th and 17th centuries. Their goals were also different.
The main differences between colonialism and neocolonialism were:
- Territories dominated: while colonialism spread across North America, the coast of Africa, South America, among others, neocolonialism started after the Industrial Revolution, when European countries began to conquer areas in Africa and Asia, especially the areas close to China, Japan and India;
- historical contexts: colonialism developed in the context of European maritime and commercial expansion, between the 16th and XVIII, in the period of great navigations and the integration of continents through maritime transport in the oceans. On the other hand, neocolonialism took place from the second half of the 19th century, during the second phase of the Industrial Revolution;
- the method of domination: the conquest of America under colonialism, for example, was developed through alliances with the indigenous peoples who were rivals among themselves, with wide cultural domination, mainly with the imposition of the Catholic religion and the Spanish language and Portuguese. In neocolonialism, the domination established by the Europeans was mainly done with the use of military superiority, showing its military strength to the dominated territories. Unlike classical colonialism, we have less state intervention in neocolonialism, since economic liberalism predominated;
- goals of domination: in the period of classical colonialism, the fundamental objectives were to obtain spices, tropical products of high commercial value on the European market and precious metals such as gold and silver. Imperialism, on the other hand, had as its main objective to obtain raw materials, consumer markets, and an area for the surplus of capital and population. All of these goals were strategies designed to sustain the industrial growth of nations involved in the conquest of new territories.
- Religious Doctrine: the Protestant/Anglican Church was interested in evangelizing the dominated territories, just as the Catholic Church did in the colonial phase.
- use of labor: while colonialism was marked by a large use of slave labor, imperialism was marked by the use of labor with the exchange of goods or even local currency.
Charge over the broad domination of one of the greatest empires in the imperialist phase: the British.
See also the meaning of Autocracy and Empire.
The motivation of imperialist development and social Darwinism
The greatest justification given by the great world powers for imperialism was industrialization.
Countries that went through the industrialization process during the Industrial Revolution, especially the England, they needed raw materials, a consumer market and places for investment in areas strategic.
The great states wanted to expand their empires to carry out population flow. So they sent some people to countries dominated in the imperialist era, as their large urban centers were suffering from a huge population growth.
Throughout this phase, the imperialist countries claimed that the process of territorial domination was a "humanitarian" cause. Thus, they took civilization to other peoples, considered less developed and not yet industrialized.
This whole idea was also justified due to the work of Charles Darwin on the evolution of species, where the author stated that there are species more evolved than others.
Even though Charles Darwin did not direct his theory to the social context, the great powers used it as an excuse to create the Social Darwinism, justifying that some peoples were more evolved than others.
Based on this interpretation, they could present or teach their knowledge and industrialization, indoctrinating places they considered less developed.
Within Social Darwinism, Europeans divided humanity into three races: the caucasians: European whites; you mongoloids: American Indians and Asians; and the negroids: blacks and Africans.
In the context of this theory, Europeans called themselves more genetically evolved and powerful, segmenting themselves within the group of Caucasians.
According to the speculative theory, they had the mission of bringing civilization and industrialization to peoples considered by them as less evolved: the Mongoloids and Negroids.
Colonial structures in imperialism
Unlike colonization, territories dominated by the imperialists were structured in a unique way, with distinct objectives. The basic structure was:
- colonies: were directly governed by the metropolis, by the European country. States designated a ruler for the place, who would consequently form part of the empire or imperialist country. An example is the British empire that conquered 1/3 of the world;
- Protectorate: the place dominated by the empire maintained its original government, but this government was totally allied to a European state;
- Influence area: dominated zones that had a formally autonomous government, but that were subject to an unequal treaty or agreement with some European country. This agreement was unequal because it favored the imperialist country and not the dominated country, or because a forced agreement was made.
See also the meaning of:
- neocolonialism;
- Geopolitics;
