How European Imperialism Affected Countries In Different Countries

Stephanie Moreno
Captain Daniel
2nd Period World History
11, March 2015 European Imperialism affected countries in many different political, social and economic ways such as modernizing and industrializing these colonies, changing the governments to follow European patterns by setting colonial rule, and replacing traditional ways. Cultural diffusion spread religion between colonies and European countries. The political effects of imperialism were both good and bad. Foreign European governments ran local African governments and these colonial powers gave Africa a more organized political system and a more structured government. They introduced concepts such as democracy and a constitution. However, this was not the only thing that Western
This created cheap labor and low wages for the workers during industrialization. On the positive side it led to development of industries in Asia and Africa. The various imperialist powers set up industries in their colonies to make profits and thus paved the way for the industrialization of the colonies. On the negative side, the imperialist powers exploited the colonies by importing raw materials at the cheapest possible rates and exported the finished products at very high rates. They also tried to cripple local industries, trade and commerce by enacting necessary industrial and taxation laws. This policy of systematic exploitation resulted in the draining of wealth and greatly contributed to starvation, backwardness, and poverty of African colonies. Along with economic growth, Europeans were spurred on by national rivalry. Since land equaled power, the more land a country could acquire, the global power they had. They used cultural diffusion as well as missionary work to spread religions such as Christianity. Cultural diffusion was transferred between the traditional colonies and the new industrialized