Imperialism In The 19th Century

The nineteenth century has led to the creation of innovations that have had a significant impact on the current wellbeing of civilization such as antibiotics, the printing press, and the telegraph. Although these all pertain to the advancements of technology, steam engines have not only been considered an advancement to technology, but have changed the view of transportation entirely. Transportation rapidly became the focal point in all areas embodying civilization, including but not limited to, social structure, the government and culture as we know it today. Transportation, could be argued to have become civilization itself and furthermore, led way to the envisions of a technological utopia. Rudyard Kipling once suggested that “Transportation is civilization,” which is evident when analyzing steam transport during the nineteenth century. Prior to steam transportation it was common for individuals to have not gone farther then ten miles from their home. Additionally, on the rare occasion that someone
Technological imperialism ran with the belief that a nation has a moral obligation to share new technology with the rest of the world. Some nations resisted this conversion and this led to imperialism, in which modern countries would have the other nations “see the light.” An example of this can be seen in Mumbai, where the railway station in Mumbai is similar to a Victorian castle. They even purposely removed the statue that was there, and replaced it with the “goddess of progress,” a large statue of Queen Victoria. This demonstrated how England was reinforcing their mission of “out with the old and in with the new.” Additionally, England utilized steam ships in India, in order to bring together the Ganges and Indus Rivers. The vast majority of these ships were gun boats used as a means of keeping the peace and extending imperial