European Imperialism 19th Century

Throughout all of the 19th century, European countries were scrambling to obtain more power than each other by taking land, especially from Africa and Southeast Asia. These two areas were geographically the most convenient for Europe, as well as having incredible amounts of raw materials, resources, and territory. Assets unavailable in Europe were plentiful in these areas, which interested Europeans in the profitable trading opportunities that these supplies presented themselves with. This expansion of power, also called imperialism, led to many uprisings and changing of control in these areas. Europeans used imperialism to expand their land and gain resources and materials, thus increasing their power.
Land has always been an exceptionally important asset to countries that wanted to spread their authority, but this was especially true during the 19th century. At the time, a great deal of land was either open for the taking or poorly defended, meaning many countries could potentially take it for themselves and expand their nation and power to other areas. By the end of the 19th century, all nations of Southeast Asia save Siam were under European control, with Siam only staying separate by claiming to be a “middle ground” between French-controlled
The things that make up cans, certain dishes, and jewelry today were scarce at best in the Europe. These resources were things like rubber, tin, and rice found in Southeast Asia and diamonds, gold, and ivory in Africa. The discovery of these things and the overworking of the locals by the Europeans caused a large exportation of these supplies, but also the mass starvation of those enslaved to mine and farm them. The exportation of these things was fantastic for the Europeans that profited from it, but destroyed many towns and their economies by making them only produce one large cash crop at a