HIST 410N WEEK 1: 1900: THE AGE OF HOPE AND THE AGE OF ‘ISMS’ DISCUSSION

1900: THE AGE OF HOPE AND THE AGE OF ‘ISMS’ DISCUSSION – Here’s a statement to consider: “Imperialism has been the most powerful force in world history over the last four or five centuries, carving up whole continents while oppressing indigenous peoples and obliterating entire civilizations.” Defend or condemn the argument by giving examples of the interaction between Western industrial powers and traditional, non Western societies. Were these contacts essentially positive or negative? ”

Class….how do you react to this question? Did you cringe a bit to see “Western” and “imperialism” linked?

If you did (or even if you didn’t) please note the power of words. Words have a meaning beyond their dictionary definition, a connotation that can overpower what they are trying to say. I think it is well to understand this as we begin to use printed words to respond to each other here in this forum. Watch what you say, what you mean, and what others may catch from your meaning…

Regarding “imperialism,” do you have a hard time linking it to the Western way of life? Does it fly in the face of truth, Justice and the American Way? What does “imperialism” mean?

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1900: THE AGE OF HOPE AND THE AGE OF ‘ISMS’ DISCUSSION

The power of the words in the above statement was noted.  It gave an absolute: “Imperialism has been the most powerful force…”  This is not phrased as a question, or a ‘maybe.”  The use of the word “carving” also spoke to me.  I interpret it as a more “delicate” way of this author drawing up images of force and bloodshed, and to support his/her statement of oppression and obliteration.

As for me, yes, I personally cringe when I hear imperialism linked to Western, but then again, I cringe at the whole idea of force, oppression, and honestly our whole history of stakes of claim to this beautiful world.  I recognize that the world cannot be a utopia, but in my limited knowledge of history, as I stand afar, it’s all quite embarrassing as a human to realize that throughout time, we have often failed to find a better way in which to operate our world and governments.  It sounds like toddlers with guns power fighting over which corner of the playroom is theirs.

As our class textbook has noted, Westerners took the land of Native Americans for farming, forcing them out of the “choice” land (Brower & Sanders, 2014).  Again, our reading also points to the vast amount of land that became accessible in the 19^th century with the use of industrial resources, noting that although some land across the seas were “settler” areas and open to new people, that the main focus of the Westerners was to extract economic resources (Brower & Sanders, 2014).

I do feel that this somewhat flies in the face of the “American Way.”  The “face” of America to me, and I believe many others, portrays one of justice.  We fight for what is right…yet if we were to read certain aspects of our history, without knowledge of who these actions came from, I’m afraid it doesn’t often appear just.  In some aspects, I feel that America has trampled many people to get to the top, and then after the fact, declared they will be “just” in nature.

Don’t get me wrong…I have love and admiration for my country….as well as for those who fought to retain our freedom.  I just can’t say that I 100% support every action in every realm.  Is that not the same in every relationship though?  Is there anything or anyone that is perfect in nature?

1900: THE AGE OF HOPE AND THE AGE OF ‘ISMS’ DISCUSSION References

Brower, D., & Sanders, T. (2014). The world in the twentieth century (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Learning Solutions.

Imperialism is described as a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through diplomacy or military force. I think personally the European history is one of expansion and domination. Let’s just think about trade because it is something that Europeans had that greatly influenced the rest of the world. Now, when it comes to the word “Western” and “Imperialism” I don’t really have a hard time linking the two because if we are talking of complete dominance over a nation it is what was done to the Native Americans that were here before taking over their land. But I wouldn’t say that is all bad because even till this day I don’t see the bad influence or too many negatives the western world has on other nations it seems to grow or have influence on. Most people are happy when it comes to Western world influence especially when it comes to trade, medicine education, and even certain resources that will help other countries grow to their full potential. Yet again in some ways I do feel like we are put on this pedestal as if we have some kind of responsibility to the rest of world. Yes we fight for what we want and what we have but we can’t forget sometimes that when or while doing so we sometimes destroy things that might get in the way of doing so with no question and that is why i have a hard time sometimes separating these two words.

Brower, D., & Sanders, T. (2014). The world in the twentieth century (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Learning Solutions.

According to Brower & Sanders (2014) industrialization is “the transformation in the means of production, distribution of goods, and ownership of productive property (p.5)”. This created wealth and control by both financial and industrial corporations. New discoveries were made such as cars and electricity (Brower & Sanders, 2014). Definitions (2017) describes militarism as “a political orientation of a people or government to maintain a strong military force and to be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests.” This relates to industrialization because governments were creating new weapons that had never been even thought about before and quantities of these weapons were also increasing rapidly. The advancement of their militaries were dependent on industrialization. The desire for their military to become stronger and more advanced went hand in hand with industrialization. Ethnic Nationalism in defined by Brower & Sanders (2014) as “one people sharing a collective identity based on common ancestry (p.28).” I believe that this type of nationalism relates to both industrialization and militarism because governments put everything they had into their military in WWI in order to defend themselves and prove to be powerful. Every citizen was involved in WWI even if they were not fighting in war. This relates back to nationalism because of their desire and love for their country. All citizens were willing to do whatever it took for their country and each other.

Brower, D., & Sanders, T. (2014). The world in the twentieth century (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Learning Solutions.

militarism. (n.d.). Definitions.net. Retrieved July 8, 2017, from http://www.definitions.net/definition/militarism.

Professor and class,

Well this is definitely a loaded question. As I stated in my Introduction, I don’t have a lot of background on the history of our world so I wanted to dive in to get to the bottom of it. The Industrial Revolution definitely had an impact on how the world was run. Prior to the rapid expansion of technology that began in the 1800s, goods were produced in cottage industries and the value of the goods was correlated with the worker who produced them. Once James Watt created the steam engine, the IR took off! Factories began to produce all of the goods, railroads and canals were put into place, and farmers were forced to move to cities in order to find work. This new advancement in technology definitely had a negative impact on a lot of people because it led to harsh working conditions, loss of human dignity and child labor. I think that the Industrial Revolution was a huge factor in the beginning of Imperialism. Since the world was becoming so much more connected via the new technology, the empires wanted to continue to expand and grow to increase their power, which is where imperialism comes into play. Manufacturing became so cheap from the new factories and more money was able to be spent on expanding their nation and growing their territory (Brower & Sanders, 2014).

I hope to look into this more in order to get a better understanding of it and would appreciate any additional input on how the industrial revolution had an impact on imperialism.

Brower, D., & Sanders, T. (2014). The world in the twentieth century (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Learning Solutions.

The European countries gain the control over the other continents through imperialism, gaining political and economic control of those continents. It is indeed true that in the last five centuries, imperialism has been a dominant force that Western industrial powers used to oppress indigenous people from non-western societies (Hobson, 2016). I, therefore, defend the argument that imperialism has caused carving up of whole continents while obliterating and oppressing the rest civilizations.

There exists a frosty relationship between the Western industrial powers and non-western countries that have set forth a clear hypothesis of what the future may look. The decisions that are often made to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and U.N Security Council represent the interest of the West powers but are portrayed as desires of the whole world (Hobson, 2016). The “world community” has become euphemistic replacing the actions taken by world bodies in the interest of western nations to be seen as if they represent the whole world-inclusive of non-westerners (Brower, D., & Sanders, 2014).

The domination of the West and decisions at the U.N Security Council has proved the U.N is legitimating of the use of force of western forces to frustrate and demand Libya to hand over bombing suspects or impose sanctions if they fail to do so (Hobson, 2016). The western countries such as the U.S use military power, economic resources, and international institutions to run the world so as they maintain their predominance as well as protect their interests both politically and economically. The effect of this new era imperialism has been very negative. The results go to the extreme of creating unnecessary tensions between the Western industrial powers and non-western countries. Scenarios such as the xenophobic attacks seen in South Africa have been as a result of revolutions that are anti-imperialism  (Schumpeter, Norden, & Sweezy, 2014).

References

Brower, D., & Sanders, T. (2014). The world in the twentieth century (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Learning Solutions.

Hobson, J. A. (2016). Imperialism. Routledge: Read Books Ltd.

Schumpeter, J. A., Norden, H., & Sweezy, P. M. (2014). Imperialism and Social Classes. Mansfield, CT: Martino Publishing.