The Role of Nationalism and Racism in European Imperialism, Papers of World History

Download The Role of Nationalism and Racism in European Imperialism and more Papers World History in PDF only on Docsity! Logan Creque March 23, 2008 HIST 1214 David W. Murphee The Big Picture #1 Initially, European imperialism would have never existed without this idea of nationalism. The plan of establishing foreign colonies was to yield money and power for the conquering empire. Without the idea of national identity, it seems, there would not be such a major goal to establish these colonies in order to produce money and power for simply the country you originated from. Prior to the emergence of nationalism, there seemed to be little to no emphasis placed on conquering and establishing foreign colonies for national wealth. Racism, I believe, provided the expanding European empire with an ethical justification to simply conquer these foreign places and prevent them from, in any way, becoming independent. The view of their nation is that it is superior to others. Without this idea treating society as a racial hierarchy, there would not be such a weight placed on holding these potential nations back from becoming successful. It would be extremely dangerous to allow nations of inherently inferior, morally flawed, and evil groups of people from gaining power in the international spectrum. This new belief of racial inferiors was, obviously, not adopted by the “inferior” races. In turn, these races began to have a negative outlook, racism, upon these self- proclaimed superiors; so any action or forced impression by these superiors was met with an automatic resistance and skepticism. This leads to a brand new sense of necessity for community among these “inferiors.” This was the beginning stages of nationalism around the world.