How Imperialism changed the world we live in today

First what is Imperialism? Imperialism is when stronger nations extend economic, political and, military control over weaker territories. Imperialism can be caused by four major causes, economic, military strength, nationalism and socialism and, "no more frontier." All of these causes are how imperialism can be enforced in a country.

One of the causes of imperialism is economics when stronger nations see value in a smaller country and want to take over their market of raw materials. For example when The U.S found out that Hawaii had a rich market of sugar the U.S was very intrigued and wanted a piece of it because they saw big value in the sugar market, the sugar plantations in Hawaii dominated 75% of the Hawaiian market. This dominance of the market led the U.S president McKinley putting a tariff on sugar so the government could make money off of the imported sugar which was a 4% tax on the sugar from Hawaii. This is a perfect example of imperialism because the U.S saw a weak country and saw a strong powerful market and took over it.

The second main cause of imperialism is military strength when a country knows they have a stronger military than another country and when they do they like to show it off so that the smaller countries can know who is the boss. An example of this was " The Great White Fleet" which was the popular nickname for the powerful United States Navy battle fleet that completed a journey around the globe from 16 December 1907, to 22 February 1909, by order of United States President Theodore Roosevelt. The reason he wanted to do this was because he wanted the world to know how powerful the U.S was by showing the world our military strength.

The Third cause of imperialism is Nationalism and Social Darwinism. This is when a country thinks they are better than another country. The definition of Social Darwinism is " Social Darwinism is a term used for different movements. Charles Darwin was one of the main discoverers of evolution. Evolution is a concept from biology that tries to explain how different life-forms change over time. Social Darwinism theories try to use these ideas from biology for human society." This explains the thought of empowerment over weaker countries just because of the pride a stronger country has in itself over smaller weaker nations. An example of this was "The panama canal" this is a great example of Nationalism and Social Darwinism because, " President Theodore Roosevelt oversaw the realization of a long-term United States goal a trans-isthmian canal. Throughout the 1800's, American and British leaders and businessmen wanted to ship goods quickly and cheaply between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts." By the building of this canal the U.S took over a part of panama to build a canal that would benefit us only by building the canal. This is an example of imperialism because the U.S wanted to make it easier for themselves to trade and expand their market with the world.


The final cause of imperialism is "No more Frontier" this is when the a country has gone as far as they can and they have nowhere else to go or expand. Many countries like the U.S and Germany have the want to expand, which is a form of imperialism by taking over smaller countries and territories for their own personal gain to expand.

All of these reasons are very important reasons of how Imperialism changed the world we live in today!!!!