Colonialism Again
Imperialism during this era was performed by the Great European Powers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who sought to extend and maintain control or influence over the weaker nations of the world, particularly in Asia and Africa. The practice of imperialism, by July 1914 had managed to encompass more than half the land surface of the earth and a third of the global population. (Anzsprenger 13). . The motivation for such undertakings lay in their desire to obtain both living space and the extraction of riches from colonized territories. With the advent of WWI, however, colonial expansionism was brought to an abrupt halt as fighting erupted in Europe between the Great Powers. This battle, which would later be referred to as 'The Great War', saw Empires call upon their colonized subjects for the purpose of fighting on their behalf. The result was that millions of foreign troops came forth from the Empires and converged upon European battlefields; in addition, although the colonies were more than compliant to aid their masters, the war would eventually turn out to have dire consequences for imperialism as empires began to break apart in the decades following the conflict.
ution of the colonial empires? Was it simply the weakened state of the Great Powers following the war? Or was the disintegration more complex, connected in some way with the changing relationship between colonizer and colonized? I believe that it was this factor that led to colonial dissolution; therefore, this paper seeks to explore how WWI shifted the attitudes of colonized peoples towards their masters from earnest compliance to increasing disdain and animosity. The beginning of WWI, however, brought this trend to an end. The Allies consisted of France, Russia, Britain and the United States while the Central-Powers included Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. Through complex sociological frameworks, Europeans were able to control colonies by instilling a sense of superiority to their colonized peoples. This hypocritical act weakened the foundations of the colonies sociological frameworks as foreign soldiers returning home from the war gave their peoples a first-hand account of Europe fabricated cultural superiority. It was a time of enormous undertaking and occurred within a relatively short period of time when compared to its grand scale. Their challenge to colonialism came after WWI when Wilson outlined the steps he believed were required in order to achieve world peace in a document known as his Fourteen Points. Colonialism Prior to WWI Prior to World War I, Europeans had managed to build colonial empires that roughly covered all land on earth. This weakening made them more susceptible to national movements in the colonies; as a result, colonizers were now focused on maintaining the command and ownership of their territories instead of expanding them. It began on July 28th, 1914, and it was to be a devastating struggle that pitted two great military alliances against one another. This dismantling of the Central-Powers' colonies, therefore only seemed to strengthen the remaining Empires of France, Belgium and Britain because these acquisitions seemed to represent a new peak of Imperial Expansion . WWI The Great War of 1914 to 1918 was a global conflict with an enormous loss of both life and property that disturbed the expansionism of the European Empires. Their economic monopoly of the world's resources, at the expense of colonized peoples, had given them the ability to expand and industrialize at an accelerated rate. These leaders found primarily in Asia were ironically educated in the west and they took the ideas of democracy and equality, and employed them with their situation at home . In Europe, the public embraced the Empires acceptance to fight as a sign of unified colonial empires as much of the skepticism, which had been felt regarding colonial policies, faded as it was now seen as been a remarkable success and therefore justified.
Common topics in this essay:
Asia Africa,
World War,
War' Empires,
Conclusion Prior,
European Powers,
Henri Grimal,
European Empires,
Vladimir Lenin,
Imperialism European,
Instead Europeans,
asia africa,
european empires,
colonized peoples,
colonial empires,
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estimated approximately,
sociological frameworks,
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ottoman empire,
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