Kristen Shryack
Honors English II
9, May 2011
Imperialism
What I Know
In the middle of the semester, my history class did a unit on imperialism. It was brief, but I did learn from it. I knew that Europeans drastically changed the ways in which they live. They considered themselves superior because of how ‘civilized’ they were. They thought people of countries who weren’t industrialized, as almost barbaric. Europeans made it their duty to change them into a mirror image of them and the way they lived. They changed their culture and religion, and in a short time as well.
It didn’t take very long for the world to transform the weapons used in war, the transportation, and the use of earth’s natural resources. It spread quickly and rapidly and the world would never again go back to its old ways but rather, continue transforming in new and unique ways. The story of which this took place where trains, coal, and steel were becoming of use, is the basis of my report.
What I Want to Know
I picked imperialism because it is an interesting and cruel stage of our history. I live where there used to be millions of Native Americans. Now I know of only a few. I’m curious to know where they went and why it was so easy to make them a minority.
I want to know the different sides to imperialism. I want to get inside the heads of Europeans and understand why they did some of the crimes they commited. I want to learn if they tried to change the ways of natives out of selfishness or if they actually cared about advancing their intelligence. I want to know if there was more to it then just to help their conscience. I also want to know why violence was involved and also how much.
The different views I will be collecting are an article from a newspaper in Britain, an interview from a World History teacher, and also a book on imperialism that includes peoples’ stories from that time.
The Search
Book
Bonnie G. Smith wrote the book Imperialism A History In Documents. It was published in New York, New York by the Oxford University Press in 2000. This book explains the history of Europe and Immperialism around the world.
The book explains how imperialism used to be looked as how the Europeans gave ‘culture and political institutions’ to the natives allowing them to take over quickly. People looked back thinking that Europeans cured their savage ways. Instead, imperialism brought chaos by trying to convert cultures and a large amount of death. In the United States, millions of natives died from war with the Europeans as well as disease they had brought with them that they were not immune to. They took their land and pushed the natives into reservations. The area of Alaska had similar violence involved from the Russians. United States experienced rapid industrialization.
Imperialism came with the thought that their ways were the right ways and modern ways to keep from being barbaric. They tried, and often succeeded, changing the cultures of other societies. One culture that they changed was footbinding in China where women thought they were beautiful by breaking their feet and tightly binding them to make them smaller than the size of a teacup. A woman in 1903 wrote about her experience the change of the culture. She was onboard and motivated to stop binding her feet. It helped her gain self respect and enroll in Literary Society School by how impressed she was about a speech against footbinding.
Scholars in imperial countries studied the ways that people looked for studies of evolution to decide whether the people in those countries were “evolved” or not. They believed they had racial superiority by how developed they were and how much of a gap they had between them and people who weren’t industrialized.
Article
Andrew Thomson and Nick Lloyd wrote opposing viewpoints for the article, “Is Britain to blame for many of the world’s problems?” It was found in BBC News and explains the negative and positive effects of imperialism.
Nick Lloyd argued how imperialism was good for other countries by allowing them the knowledge they needed to grow and become prosperous. He used India as an example by explaining how they were able to build a strong government and succeeded by doing business around the world. This thanks to the Europeans because they oversaw “the spread of good government, western education, modern medicine and the rule of law, they also put in place local works, famine relief, and irrigation projects.” He goes on to explain how sure, they weren’t the nicest and understanding, but their presence was benefitted on both sides. The downside was that these kinds of benefits seemed to only come from India.
Andrew Thomson shows how the Europeans were brutal and the negative sides that imperialism had such as “detention without trial, beatings, torture, and killings.” Many natives also faced diseases that were brought on them by the Europeans. He went on to explain that these behaviors continued in the cultures later on that were not there before. It led to the populations of countries to become dependent on other countries in Europe for resources to keep up with the new changes that imperialism came with. It was very vague and didn’t give to much insight other than the torture and mistreat that many natives faced.
The article reinforced some of the ideas that I already had. Imperialism has two sides. It came with positive and negative effects. I learned specifically what the outcomes had been with India and how successful India had become with the help of Europe and imperialism. I also realized how the natives were taken advantage of.
Interview
Mr. Zuberbier is a World History teacher for sophomores at Youngker High School. I have personally had him as a teacher and he definitely knows what he’s talking about when it comes to history. He was my first choice to interview because the topic of imperialism is one he knows well. The interview took place in his classroom on May 9, 2011 after school.
I started off with asking him “Why did Europe feel the need to civilize other countries with imperialism?” He responded by explaining that originally Europeans used them for cheap labor and resources. It wasn’t until much later that they tried to change the ways of the natives. He went on to explain that Europeans believed that inside every native was a white man trying to get out. He explained to me about ways the natives tried to look like white man by changing the way they dressed, their hair styles, and even going as far as bleaching their skin. White man also felt that ‘civilizing’ them would “justify morally suspect things” as he put it. Sure, they benefited by their resources but believed that the natives benefited as well by becoming like them. I went on to ask, “How did the natives respond to the culture change and having to convert to Christianity? They must’ve rejected it by thinking their God was as mean and cruel as them, right?” He smiled and said “That’s a good question.” For a moment, it looked like I had stumped him, but then he reminded me of how much more the Europeans had. They must have assumed that their God had blessed them and was happy with them. If they did as the white man did, they would be blessed as well. They also realized that the quicker they adapted, the better they would be treated. My following question was, “Do you think imperialism was a good thing and helped them in the long run?” His response was, “Well it all depends on the way you look at it and people have different opinions.” I was quick to say, “Well what’s your opinion?” He realized that he would have to choose a side and ended up choosing yes because “It would bring the world up to speed to compete.” He used India as an example with how rapidly they have developed and how they are a leading competitor in technology, but he also mentioned a counterexample such as Africa who suffered from imperialism and is still having a hard time catching up. He also mentioned the early devastation that came along with imperialism. Their tribes were split up and combined with others. Their culture was taken away. They had to learn English and give up their language. I mentioned how natives in America on reservations get a huge paycheck from the government. Wouldn’t that be a benefit? He said it’s because how bad we feel for what we’ve done. It has also become something that they are dependent on and can’t live without. He went on to tell about a time when he taught in Apache. He had two students who literally didn’t do anything in his class. They told him that once they reached a certain age, the government would pay them, and they would be dependent on that as their income. It keeps them from learning to be independent and serves as a crutch. He compared it to welfare saying it once was a good idea, but now people don’t have the need to try to make something of themselves with that regular paycheck from the government. It was an interesting conversation and I got all that I needed. He answered my questions, and I got a chance to learn about my topic.
What I Learned
This topic was harder to research than I expected. It’s very broad and there are more than just a few perspectives. However, I learned of positive effects that I wasn’t expecting. There was more to it than just the harm brought to the natives. The help that Europeans brought exceeded expectations. Other countries that couldn’t’ before, can now compete with inventions and technology. It doesn’t make the Europeans cruelty okay, but at least some good came out of it. I believe that without imperialism, the world would be very different from the way we know it.
Bibliography
Smith, Bonnie. Imperialism A History in Documents. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print. May 10, 2011.
Lloyd, Nick and Thompson, Andrew. Is Britain to blame for many of the world’s problems? BBC News. May 10, 2011.
Zuberbier, Dan. Personal Interview. May 9, 2011.
