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Economic factors were among the most important motivations for powerful countries to create empires. The following is an excerpt from an appeal from Jules Ferry (a French statesman) to the French monarchy to build a second colonial empire in 1890. “Colonial (Imperialist) policy is the child of the industrial revolution. It is necessary for wealthy countries where capital (money) is plentiful and accumulates (grows) fast, where industry is expanding steadily, where even agriculture must become mechanized in order to survive. Exports (goods sold to other countries) are essential for public prosperity (wealth). Both demand for labor and the opportunity for capital investment (starting new businesses) depend on the foreign market. All over the world, beyond the Vosges (a French mountain range) and across the Atlantic, the industrial revolution has resulted in an increasing volume of manufactured goods, the disappearance of traditional markets, and the appearance of fierce competition. The European consumer-goods market is saturated (full); unless we declare modern society bankrupt and prepare for its destruction by revolution, new consumer markets will have to be created in other parts of the world. Colonial policy is an international manifestation (representation) of the laws of competition.”

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Imperialism can bring some improvements in the quality of life to local populations. Imperialism can also lead to a power imbalance that results in a smaller group forfeiting its identity, culture and customs to the dominant group.

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The period of imperialism has witnessed many wars. Most of these wars have been caused by attacks of white races upon so-called “lower races.” They have resulted in the taking of territory by force. . . . The white rulers of the colonies live at the expense of the natives. Their chief work is to organize labor for their support. In the typical colony, the most fertile lands and the mineral resources are owned by white foreigners. These holdings are worked by natives under their take wealth out of the country. All the hard work is done by natives.

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This excerpt is adapted from The Economic History of India Under Early British Rule, by an Indian, Romesh Dutt. Englishmen . . . have given the people of India the greatest human blessing—peace. They have introduced Western education. This has brought an ancient and civilized nation in touch with modern thought, modern sciences, and modern life. They have built an administration that is strong and efficient. They have framed wise laws and have established courts of justice.  George H.T. Kimble, in a 1962 New York Times Magazine article, “Colonialism: the Good, the Bad, the Lessons,” gives his point of view . . . . they [the colonial powers] failed to provide the African with sufficient [preparation] . . . None of the newly independent countries had enough skilled African administrators to run their own . . . [or] enough African technicians to keep the public utilities working. . . . And no country had an electorate that knew what independence was all about. . . .

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This process continued throughout the nineteenth century. Other old Indian industries—shipbuilding, metalwork, glass, paper—and many crafts were broken up. Thus the economic development of India was stopped and the growth of new industry was prevented. . . . A typical colonial economy was built up. India became an agricultural colony of industrial England. It supplied raw materials and provided markets for England’s industrial goods. The destruction of industry let to unemployment on a vast scale. . . . The poverty of the country grew. The standard of living fell to terribly low levels.

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Imperialism brought European explorers into contact with new lands full of exotic plants and animals they had never before seen, many of which served medicinal or scientific purposes. The British explorer David Livingstone was the first European to travel through Africa. Below is an image of the map he created during his travels, as well as his account of the uses of native plant life dating from 1857.

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Sekou Toure, West African nationalist, 1962

Colonialism’s greatest misdeed was to have tried to strip us of our responsibility in conducting our own affairs and convince us that our civilization was nothing less than savagery, thus giving us complexes which led to our being branded as irresponsible and lacking in self-confidence. . .

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Many Europeans held the racist ideology, or belief, that they were better than other peoples. They believed it was their right and duty to bring “progress” and “civilization” to “primitive” countries. Below is a political cartoon titled “the White Man’s Burden” published in Judge Magazine in 1899. It shows personifications of Great Britain and the United States carrying baskets of Chinese, Africans, Arabs, Filipinos, and other native peoples up a mountain towards “civilization.”

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British brains, British enterprise, and British capital have changed the face of India. Means of communication have been developed. There are great numbers of bridges, more than 40,000 miles of railway, and 70,000 miles of paved roads. These testify to the skill and industry of British engineers. Irrigation works on a very large scale and have brought 30 million acres under cultivation. This has greatly added to the agricultural wealth of the country. Industrialization has also begun. India now has improved sanitation and a higher standard of living. It has a fine transport system and carefully throughout schemes for relief work. Because of these things famines have now almost disappeared.

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Mohandas Gandhi offers a complaint about imperialism.

You English committed one supreme crime against my people. For a hundred years you have done everything for us. You have given us no responsibility for our own government.

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Nnamdi Azikiwe, speech on British colonialism in Africa, 1947.

. . . Socially, the ogre [monster] of racial segregation and discrimination makes it extremely difficult for the colonial to develop his personality to the full. Education is obtainable but limited to the privileged. Hospitals are not available to the great number of the people but only to a negligible [small] minority. Public services are lacking in many respects; there are not sufficient water supplies, surfaced roads, postal services and communications systems in most communities of Nigeria. The prisons are medieval, the penal [criminal] code is oppressive, and religious freedom is a pearl of great price. . . .

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Roger Casement, report from the Congo Basin region, 1903.

Here Nkwabali took up the tale from Moyo [Bangongo chief]: “We said to the white men, ‘We are not enough people now to do what you want us. Our country has not many people in it and we are dying fast. We are killed by the work you make us do, but the stoppage of our plantations, and the breaking up of our homes…”