Economic Effects Of Imperialism

Throughout history, nations have sought to expand their boundaries. There were a variety of reasons for expansion, such as transportation purposes, such as trying to discover faster routes to engage with trading partners, or economic purposes, like travelling to areas to obtain materials that were high-demand, such as silk or spices. As the Industrial Revolution began, this need increased more. More countries needed more natural resources and eventually more labor in order to produce the goods that were increasing in demand. prompted a new age, The Age of Imperialism, in which developed nations began looking for foreign places with fervor in order to keep up with other nations' industrialization. The search for natural resources led many nations
The slave trade, an element of imperialism had many effects on the economies of LDCs. For example, according to Andy Baker, author of Shaping the Developing World, the slave trade "may have slowed Africa's population growth" (Baker, 2014, pg. 82). This in turn lowered population density which prevented the ability for natives to trade among themselves and develop the economy. Baker also mentions that the items Africans received in exchange for their slaves were often useless baubles or even harmful things like weapons (Baker, 2014, pg. 82). These objects in turn made it hard to make money and elevated already existing conflicts, which in turn hurt economics, respectively. Similarly to the slave trade, the concept of colonial drain also hurt the economies of LDCs by not giving colonial subjects fair compensation for their labors and resources. Colonial drain, as defined by Baker, is the "transfer of wealth from colony to metropole" (Baker, 2014, pg. 92). Europeans had quite a few practices that enabled them to take resources without giving fair compensation to their subjects and Baker cites the example of forced labor (Baker, 2014, pg. 92). These practices resulted in an uneven distribution of wealth, in addition to colonies being hurt economically as as their resources were depleted, there was not enough money going back into the economy. There are also other examples of metropoles not putting enough back into their colonies, thus hurting them economically through technology. There have been numerous examples were more developed countries do not transfer their technology to the LDCs, which impedes technological development in those countries. In this current age, it is becoming increasingly more important to become technologically