Dbq Imperialism

Imperialism is the idea of spreading out a country for the best of only their people. Most people are familiar with Japan and how they imperialized, but Europe was imperializing at a much higher rate. With imperialism, the country tries to expand because it needs supplies or even just space due to over population. During the late nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, countries especially in Europe needed more land due to over population, and the need of supplies. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there were political, social, and economic causes that were responsible for the age of Imperialism.

The political forces were a huge contribution to the idea of imperialism. On the map shown in Document 9, there are only a few places in Africa that are independent. This is because their government stayed strong and couldn’t easily be taken over. Other places were taken over by European nations. Since Europe took over Africa, they were controlled by the Europeans. Now the Africans had to do and give up whatever was needed. “They were unfit for self-government. There was nothing left for us to do but to take them over” (Document 7). This was a political decision made by president McKinley. Also politics showed that the
“evolutionary teaching [about survival of the fittest]” (Document 5). Survival of the fittest is a famous saying that most people know. The strongest live on, and the weak can be seen as just an obstacle. This relates to imperialism because, one main thing about imperialism is taking over another country, and the strong can only take over the weak. “more territory simply means more Anglo – Saxon race, more of the best” (Document 4). Being racist was a big thing during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They wanted their race to over populate and spread out. These were social aspects that forced imperialism during the nineteenth