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New Imperialism

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The economic, political and social motives for the new imperialism Starting from late 19th century and early 20th century, European great powers were not content with the land and the power they possessed within Europe. They took a broad view on the international level and paid attention to places that were less developed or had not been exploited, like Asia and Africa. They invaded, colonized and exploited both natural and human resources. This was the so-called new imperialism. By examining the behaviors of those European powers, we can conclude several motives for the new imperialism. The needs for raw materials, a dangerous nationalism and a manifestation of the superiority of races each corresponds to the economic, political and social forces.
Firstly, European powers required various resources and raw materials to develop the economies and facilitate trades. The quantity they could obtain within their own territory was far more insufficient for production. It was also the time when the industrial revolution just started. The needs for materials like iron, coal rose up quickly. So, in order to obtain more resources, European countries directly established factories in colonized regions, unbridledly exploited all kinds of resources and traded them with high profit. It was very ‘wise’ for them because the cost of production was really low. They could use free resources and cheap labors from local areas. On the other hand, some valuable products were also grabbed directly for exorbitant profits. For example, a company called ‘Debeers’ was created by an English colonist Rhodes in 1880. He grabbed diamonds and gold from South Africa. It only took him 30 years to monopolized 70% of the diamonds and half of the gold worldwide. It was a huge amount of profit. The document 1 from the packet that provided stated that ‘The makers of cotton and iron goods have been very

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