Imperialism In The Twentieth Century

Imperialism encompasses and represents the world’s growth in the face of modernization in the twentieth century. Going beyond the idea of an empire that simply has a mother country and colonial territory; it instead has a very cultural reference that embraces the market of representation. As these growing empires charged head on into a new century, they were greeted with both surprisingly warm salutations and unexpected turbulences. Although many explanations can be attributed towards the causes of imperialism, the underlying reasons can be traced back to a desire to reform politics, divide and lay claim to the different parts of the world, and exploit the raw resources that the world abundantly had to offer. These causes proved to be no different
As the empires continued to grow away from the outdated practices of their histories, they sought to assert an aura of dominance among the other powers of the world. Japan notoriously had a sturdy force which comprised of a German trained army and a British trained navy (Roberts, 62), two countries that excelled in the fields found respectively. The United States however, found it quite difficult and lacking to produce a worthy candidate against the British navy, as they were seen to be the strongest navy force found anywhere within that century. Foreign warships nonetheless were created to display a perspective of supremacy and power over other, lesser countries. As seen in the picture of a Japanese portrayal of the black ship, the two empires had varying views about the representation of these black ships. Commodore Matthew Perry, who is captaining the ship, embodies the ideals and viewpoints of the America majority, in which their warships are domineering and demand respect and terror. Conversely, the Japanese saw the ship as a large entity representative of the entirety of the United States, most notably recognized through the steam and coal pollution emitting from the pipes on board. The image of Japanese cavalry scouting near a Korean location insinuates their desire to obtain control or access to Korean soil. The United States, as well as many of the European run countries during this time, began to acknowledge interest in Korea and the land that was readily available to exploit. The Japanese and American empire saw more radical changes, in politics and culture, throughout the course of the twentieth century than it had ever seen before in its