Impacts of Imperialism on Economies, Politics and Societies

This paper discusses the historical impacts of imperialism practices by world powers around the world, focusing on the economic, political and social effects on the affected nations. It highlights the negative and positive effects of imperialism on economies, policies and societies. The paper also explores how the world powers' act of controlling other nations' economy and politics has affected the nations. The subject of the paper is imperialism, and it does not mention any specific course code, course name or college/university.

Running head: IMPERIALISM
Imperialism
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Cover sheet
Acknowledgements
The people who helped me to come up with this paper are my friends. They assisted on
researching books and video tutorials which were helpful in writing quality solution.
Purpose of the paper.
The aim of this pare is bring out the historical impacts of imperialism practices y the world war
around the world.
What I got after writing the paper.
After writing this paper I learned that, imperialism did not only have negative effects but also
positive impacts around the world.
What pleased me when writing the paper.
The motivating issue while writing this topic was that the resources were readily available and I
could come up with the final paper quickly.
My worry.
My worry was that I was not understanding if there are still some parts of the globe experiencing
imperialism.
Question.
What are the economic, political and social effects of imperialism around the globe?

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How have imperialist practices of world powers impacted economies and or policies around
the globe?
Introduction
Imperialism is the act in which one country uses its powers to extend its policies,
practices, and dominion to a less powerful country according to Baylis, Smith & Owens, (2017).
When this act happens, the dominant country will enjoy the economic and political control of the
victim nations. The states which propagate imperialism are the world powers. The term world
powers refer to the nations which have strong economic, military, political and economic
stability; these countries use their level of confidence to extend their capabilities to the less
developed nations. Some of the great world powers include America, Germany, and France in
reference to Boyd-Barrett, (2016). However, the act of controlling other nations resources have a
severe effect on other nations both positive and negative. The impact includes political and
economic implications. In this assignment, it is going to elaborate on how the imperialists or
world powers act of controlling other nations economy and politics have affected the nations.
Economic effects of imperialism
When it comes to the economy, Stuenkel, (2017) argues that, Africa was the most
affected continent when the practice of colonialism began. Before the action of imperialism
started going around Africa, there was slave trade going on around the continent, whereby able
men were sold to other kingdoms to work in the plantations as women were forced to work as
king’s servants in reference to MacKenzie, (2017). Consequently, European nations sent their
adventures to the continent who reverted to their countries that Africa had a lot of resources to
explore. At that juncture, European organized their military to start practicing imperialism to

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Africa. One of the visible economic effects of imperialism was that European squandered several
raw materials such as minerals and land for their benefit. The members of the affected nations
became beggars in their own countries. The second negative consequence was that the World
powers began the slave trade, whereby they took ale men to their countries. The action left the
colonies unproductive because of insufficient labor. The men who could work in their country to
boost their economic ended up working for the European countries and expanding their economy
according to Foster, (2015). The third issue was that after the European countries made products
from raw materials, they got from the colonizers, they brought back the products and sold them
to African people. The citizens from the affected nations were forced to buy the products which
were sold at a high price than what the member countries expected.
Even though there are adverse economic effects of imperialism, there exist some positive
results which the colonized countries still enjoy up to date according to Smits, (2014). The first
positive impact is that the world powers introduced some new crops which after the left their
colonies, the colonized countries still live to enjoy up to date. For instance, when the British
came to Kenya, they came with exotic crops and animals, example of the plant is tea. Up to date
tea, is one of the crops that is boosting the economy of Kenya. Secondly, the imperialists revived
industries and farms which were not working. For example, the farms which were not active,
they prepared them and planted the crops. From the colonial period up to now, the affected
countries still make use of the farms to grow crops and sell which have boosted their economy.
Apart from the above economic issues, there is also an improvement in transport and
communication. The colonizers needed a means of transporting the raw materials from their
colonies up to their country due to that demand they built roads and railways to deliver goods
and services. The colonized countries today use the roads to continue growing economically.

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Lastly, the World powers introduced other cheap goods to the countries which the members
states. The exciting part is that the action is like another way to perpetuate colonialism because
the world powers need money from the underdeveloped nations according to Wright, (2017).
Political impacts of imperialism
When it comes to politics and policies, every world power had its way of doing things.
For example, France had their system of administration different from British. However, the
consequence of the issue is that every world power stressed the implementation of its policies in
the nations they colonized in reference to Saeedpour, (2015). For example, France ensured that
countries lie Senegal embraced assimilation. Secondly, many continents had no boundaries from
one place to the other; people could walk freely and interact without victimization according to
Etherington, (2014). However, when the world powers came and colonized many nations mainly
the African continent, they introduced the issue of the boundary. They took the continent as their
own; they could make crucial decisions in matters affecting Africa without any further
consolation. One of the primary choices they made was to divide the African continent among
themselves according to Zolberg, (2015). No one had two cross one place to another. The
boundaries that exist up to today have caused several disagreements between countries as no
clear roadmap shows where the colonized nation should end according to Gittings, (2018).
Thirdly, the imperialism made the colonized nations to adopt the system of government the
world power nations were using. For instance, in the world power nation was headed by the
president, the colonized country could also adopt the presidential system according to Davis,
(2015). On the other side, if it was a king, the colonizer had to have a king which sometimes was
hereditary. Apart from that, the countries had constitutions that guided them depending on the
type of world power colonized the nation.

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Apart from the economic and political effects, there is also the social effect of imperialism. One
of them is that the world powers forced the member nations to operate the way their people do.
For example, the mode of dressing that the colonized countries adopted came from the world
powers. Apart from that, there is also the issue of food. The Europeans forced the members from
the less powerful nations to eat whatever their members were consuming in reference to
Vandenbosch & Butwell, (2015). The action has made the counties to abandon their traditional
lifestyle and adopt the European way of operating everything.
conclusion
Many nations did not agree with the colonization process; they staged several resistances
to abandon the pressure. For instance, some states use force as others diverted to the diplomatic
methods to oppose the powerful nations. The challenge to the resistance to imperialism is that
some governments and countries agreed to the way of life. The world powers were making use
of the communities which were complying with their rules to challenge the resisting
communities. However, it is important to note that many nations have fought for independence.
They no longer need the world power support to make crucial decisions in their country. In
modern life, imperialism has gotten to another level whereby the world power nations are not
using force to control the less developed nations, but they have reverted to the diplomatic
approaches. One example of the method is that world powers lure other nations with loans to
ensure they get interest and contract from the leadership of the particular country. The critical
thing to note is that the third world countries cannot stand on their own, they need support.
However, the world powers take advantage of the request and even exploit them further by
insisting they use their policies.

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References
Baylis, J., Smith, S., & Owens, P. (Eds.). (2017). The globalization of world politics: an
introduction to international relations. Oxford University Press.
Boyd-Barrett, O. (2016). Media imperialism. Sage.
Davis, J. B. (2015). Economics imperialism versus multidisciplinarity, Vol.2, pp. 34-89
Etherington, N. (2014). Theories of Imperialism (Routledge Revivals): War, Conquest and
Capital. Routledge.
Foster, J. B. (2015). The new imperialism of globalized monopoly-finance capital: an
introduction. Monthly Review, 67(3), 1.
Gittings, J. (2018). The World and China, 1922-1972. Routledge.
MacKenzie, J. M. (2017). The empire of nature: Hunting, conservation and British imperialism.
Saeedpour, V. B. (2015). Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. The International Journal of
Kurdish Studies, 19(1/2), 230.
Smits, K. (2014). Imperialism. The Encyclopedia of Political Thought, 1789-1795.
Stuenkel, O. (2017). Post-Western world: How emerging powers are remaking global order.
John Wiley & Sons.
Vandenbosch, A., & Butwell, R. (2015). Southeast Asia among the world powers. University
Press of Kentucky.

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Wright, H. M. (Ed.). (2017). The" New Imperialism": Analysis of Late Nineteenth Century
Expansion. DC Heath & Company.
Zolberg, A. R. (2015). Origins of the modern world system: a missing link. World
Politics, 33(2), 253-281.