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To understand the impact of different empires that existed during the Long Nineteenth Century, we must seek to understand three topics. The first is the how and why of "imperialism." We know that industrialized countries like Britain, France, and the United States built and ruled empires in this period. But why then? What motivated the governments and their people? What made it possible for them, at that particular point in history, to expand their authority so far around the globe?Of course, you can probably answer a lot of those questions right now, thanks to previous units. You'll remember how nationalism drove some countries to compete with each other, and one way to compete was by seizing overseas territory. Ironically, reformers–who in theory are the ones trying to make things better–sometimes actually drove imperialism. They argued that taking territories was OK, or even desirable, if the goal was to (in their words) "civilize and improve" their populations. Unfortunately, their idea of improvement was often less "how can we help?" and more "how can we change you to fit our needs?" Imperialist claims of racial superiority were also becoming powerful in this era, so colonial subjects were often treated as racially inferior.
Possibly the most important factor in the construction of new and larger empires in this period was industrialization. In the first place, industrialized countries were now able to conquer and rule other societies, especially those that were not industrialized. Machine guns and artillery obviously played a role, but it wasn't just about weapons. When only one side has steamships, railroads, telegraphs, and new medicines, they have a great advantage occupying and ruling whoever doesn't have those tools.
Industrialization also provided one of the motives for empire-building. Industry needed raw material to turn into goods, and it needed markets in which to sell them. Colonies promised to provide both. The minerals of a colony's land could be mined, its forests cut, its fish caught–all to feed the factories of the empire. Then, those factories could produce goods that could be sold to people in the colonies, who would have little choice except to buy them.
All of these motives came together in what we call imperialism. Imperialism was the set of ideas and actions that people in some societies supported in the conquest and rule of people in other societies, who were treated unevenly. It was a set of ideas and actions that were especially relevant in a few industrialized societies that built empires, but that also came to be shared quite widely during this era.
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