Assess the relative importance of economic factors in leading to imperialism from 1870-1914

Imperialism refers to the economic and territorial expansion of the industrial west to developing countries of the world. Someone believed that the economic purposes were the major factors leading to imperialism from 1870-1914. However, in my opinion, economic factors were not the main factors in leading to imperialism during that period. Someone believed that countries had imperialism was to find investment opportunities. However, here is some evidences show that the export of capitals did not have very direct connection with imperial expansion. Most investment of the European states was on other European states, not the colonies. Cite Germany as an example. She had only 3% of her foreign investment in Asia and Africa in 1913. For France, she sent most of her capital to Russia and other European countries, investing less than 7% of her foreign investment in Africa and Asia but only a small proportion of her capital was invested in her own colonies. In addition, people also thought that countries expanded for markets and raw materials. Nevertheless, I think it is not a crucial factor behind imperialism. The great powers obtained only a small amount of their raw materials from the colonies and the colonial trade in generally played a relative unimportant role in the total foreign commerce of the industrial nations because of the low purchasing power of colonial nations. Indeed, the industrial nations were each others largest market. Finally, we can find out that many colonies had little economic value only. For example, most of the colonies of Germany were countries in Africa, like New Guinea and Marshall Island in East Africa.

Hence, I do not agree that economic factors were an important factor in leading to imperialism comparing with the other factors. From my point of view, the political factors and social factors were relatively more important than economic factors in leading to imperialism from 1870-1914. For a start, I would discuss the political factors. Political factors are closely related to nationalism. Under the nationalism, a great colonial empire was a symbol of status and strength. Thus, the European powers competed for overseas colonies to show their national status and strength. For example, after the France-Prussian War, France would like to restore the national glory by establishing a French colonial empire in North Africa. For Italy, she wanted to revive the glory of the Roman Empire. Thus, she expanded in Tunisia. As a result, there was a rivalry over Tunis between Italy and France. Next, with the rise of new super-powers, the balance of power maintained in the Congress of Vienna was disrupted. The old great power, such as France, Britain and Russia, began to extend their control over the undeveloped regions of the world, like Africa and Asia. Moreover, the European powers took colonies not only for their present value but also to prevent others from getting them. Besides, whenever one power seized a certain place, it was necessary for another power to dominate a neighboring place to counter balance the influence. This would set the balance of power in Europe. For instance, when Germany had forced China to lease Jiaozhou and to grant Shandong as Germanys sphere of influence, Britain leased Weihaiwei and turned the Yantze Valley as her sphere of influence. In addition, strategic consideration should be mentioned too. Just like Britains annexation of Gibraltar, a barren rocky place, was purely for strategic purposes. It is because the route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea was controlled. So was

Britains control over the Cape of Good Hope, which connected the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Furthermore, the European powers regarded imperialism as a mean of integrating the people and gathering political crisis or political disunity, the government would try to get a now colony to divert the attention of the people. Apart from the political factors, social factors are important in leading to imperialism. There were many prevailing ideologies like Social Darwinism and White Man Burden. They did play a role in bringing about overseas expansion of the European powers. Darwinism emphasized on Struggle for survival, this justified colonial expansion. For White Man Burden, it stated that the Europeans had the responsibility to bring their knowledge, technology and Christian ideas to those backward nations like Asian and African countries. Such ideologies gave an excuse for the European powers to acquire colonies. In addition, the growing influence of mass media worsened the problem. To boost sale, the media extensively reported colonial activities and in time a dangerous social attitude was formed. Europeans in general considered the acquisition of colonies as the duty of government. Moreover, with industrialization, there was now a large group of workers and White- collar class in Europe. They soon found life to be monotonous and routine. Colonial expansion gave them a sense of achievement. What was worse, Europe entered an age of people. No government could afford to ignore the will of the people. To sum up, economic factors are relatively less important in leading to imperialism. Indeed, I think political and social factors are more important to that.