7

Mr. Gillion
3/18/14
How does imperialism affect the invaded population? Is it good or bad?

The Impact of Imperialism

Imperialism is one country invading another country and then making its population work
to bring resources or perform a service for the mother country at little to no cost. This allows the
mother country to get very rich and very powerful and take over more and more land until they
become a world power and a force to be reckoned with. This style of gaining power was very
common up until the past 200 years or so when humane rights were put in place and enforced
very strictly. It still happens but this isnt how countries become powerful and rich anymore. But
for some countries like Britain and America they were either the most powerful nation in the
world at the time when they were doing it or they were growing at an unprecedented rate.
Imperialism is beneficial to the mother country but the invaded populations suffer and life is
terrible for them and so it is a bad practice that isnt tolerated in modern society.
Many of the Latin American countries have experienced imperialism from the
Spanish conquistadors back in the 1600s. These cultures were forced to do the work of these
strong empires in their own country and they had to give practically everything to their
controlling country just so that that country can go and take more land and make more money
and enslave more people. It is a great business model if the person doing it has no regard for the
lives that are being destroyed in the process because the country that does it becomes very
wealthy. One example would be the British Empire when it owned land in every corner of the
world. That is where the expression The sun never sets on the British Empire comes from, it
was because the British Empire had invaded some country from every part of the world and the
sun was always shining on some British owned land. Most of the European countries in the
1700s were doing Imperialism and they were all invading Africa and the Middle East. This kept
the African people in the poverty that they had already been experiencing for hundreds of years
due to slavery and it is also why they are still a developing continent and also one of the poorest.
If they hadnt been the target of Imperialism they could be more advanced. India was also a
invaded country by the British and they were also a very poor country for a long times but they
are only now starting to emerge as a powerful nation.
Imperialism has had a very negative effect on the
populations of the invaded countries while the invaders have gotten very rich off of the toils and
labors of the enslaved people. It is a good idea on paper but when the actually consequences like
setting back a whole country it turns out to be a very negative thing.