Brief Look on Imperialism

Discovery Draft

Imperialism has been like a plague that has affected people from all walks of life from the dawn of mankind. It has uprooted, destroyed, and assimilated entire civilizations. Its devastating effect on economies has made rich nations richer and poor nations poorer.

From the beginnings of time, almost all people have been subjected to Imperialism as one nation conquers the other leaving behind the conquerors dominating ideals, culture, and ultimate rule. As we know, this began early on with examples in the Christian Holy book, The Bible, where several accounts have been mentioned of conquered kingdoms and the people being put into slavery and the lands resources being leeched out dry from the conquerors.

In this paper however, we must analyze the topic of modern Imperialism since some of its negative elements still exists today. If one looks to History, it has been noted that the largest territorial occupying powers of the world were Great Britain and France. Each nation vied against each other in a race to dominate the globe to add to the wealth and prosperity of their respective empires. Britain was especially successful around the world in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and the Americas. Almost every continent had a British flag flying above it. This paper however will highlight the key aspects of European imperialism in South Asia and the ramifications of those policies and methods it has had on the people of the subcontinent today.

I have decided to this paper because of my heritage, as per me being Indian by birth. Living in the United States and in the western world, I feel that before giving opinions of world conflicts of such as Palestine, Africa, and Kashmir it is necessary to understand the very source of these policies and how the shortsightedness of the British Empire has led these nations to long and grueling conflicts with there respective neighbors. I myself being somewhat educated on this topic but not truly learned upon the subject matter feel that to truly understand History one must examine all the aspects of a nation being affected. In this particular it is the Indian subcontinent being the main focus of my studies. Thus one must examine the impacts of attitudes , the economies, the cultural influences etc. to get a true feeling of what two great nations gained or lost from each other. Thus, I have decided to take upon myself a subject