Imperialism's Legacy: Economic and Political Impact on Nations

Global Impact of 19th Century Imperialism

Imperialism's Effects on Metropoles and Colonies

The consequences of Imperialism differed significantly for the metropoles (colonizing powers) and the dominated nations (colonies).

Positive Outcomes for Imperial Powers (Metropoles)

Colonialism was generally positive for the metropoles. It provided:

• Political Power: Increased global influence and prestige.
• Economic Wealth: Access to raw materials and new markets for manufactured goods.
• Social Stability: Greater social peace domestically.
• Knowledge: Exposure to and knowledge of other civilizations.

However, this expansion also intensified international political and economic confrontations that would ultimately lead to World War I.

Negative Consequences for Colonized Nations

For the dominated nations, colonialism was overwhelmingly negative:

• Political Control: Local governments were removed or controlled by foreigners.
• Internal Conflicts: Internal conflicts were aggravated due to the arbitrary drawing of borders.
• Economic Alteration: Traditional economies were destroyed. Colonizing powers replaced subsistence agriculture with export agriculture; they prevented industrialization, imposed unequal trade, and created infrastructures based solely on their own interests.
• Societal Division: Society was sharply divided:
  • A foreign minority controlled the government and wealth, living in luxurious neighborhoods.
  • The indigenous majority was forced to work and confined to separate neighborhoods or reserves.
• Cultural Displacement: The cultures of the colonized people were displaced by the foreign cultures of the colonizing powers.

The Berlin Conference (1884–1885)

The Berlin Conference was convened to regulate the conditions of African occupation and trade.

Key Resolutions on African Occupation

Wishing to regulate the conditions most favourable to the development of trade and civilization in certain regions of Africa, and to assure to all nations the advantages of free navigation on the two chief rivers of Africa flowing into the Atlantic Ocean, being desirous to obviate disputes which might in future arise from new acts of Occupation on the coast of Africa, and concerned, at the same time, as to the means of furthering the moral and material well-being of the native populations; have resolved:

Article 34. Any power which henceforth takes possession of a tract of land on the coasts of the African continent shall accompany the respective act with a notification thereof, addressed to the other Signatory Powers in order to enable them, if need be, to make good any claims of their own.

Article 35. The Signatory Powers recognise the obligation to insure the establishment of authority in the regions occupied by them on the coasts of the African continent sufficient to protect existing rights.