I

Imperialism

A set of policies, processes, and strategies that contribute to the construction of an

empire. Imperialism has been pursued by some states since the Egyptian and

Sumerian empires, dating to as early as 3500 BCE. Usually imperial states subju-

gate weaker states around them, or establish colonies that they then dominate

politically and economically in a relationship known ascolonialism. Numerous

empires have been formed across the span of history, including the Assyrian,

Roman, Mongolian, Ottoman, British, and Soviet. States pursue expansion into

empires to secure additionalnatural resources, establish markets through mer-

cantilism, spread a religious ideology, or acquire advantages ingeopolitics.The

drive to absorb other territory and peoples into an empire is often accompanied

byethnocentrismon the part of imperial powers, who subjugate others in an

attempt to “civilize” them. Some historians identify a “New Imperialism,” often

called the “Age of Imperialism,” a period roughly corresponding to the Industrial

Revolution from about 1825 to the conclusion of World War I. During this era,

the United Kingdom, France, Belgium,Germany, Japan, and the United States

all seized additional territories overseas. The European powers came to control

virtually the whole of Africa, during the so-called Scramble for Africa—only

Liberia and Ethiopia retained independence by the end of the 19th century. Japan

built its empire along the east coast of Asia, taking parts of China and Korea, while

the United States inherited a sizable portion of Spain’s colonial holdings, after

defeating that country in the Spanish-American War, as well as a handful of addi-

tional territories, including Hawaii.

Imperialism invariably involved the subjugation of less powerful groups by

those who are numerically superior, possess greater force of arms, or have more

advanced technology. The economic relationship betweencore and periphery

was exploitative. The margins of the empire, frequently represented by overseas

colonies in the case of European empires, supplied the economically advanced

“home country” with a supply of raw materials, extracted with either slave labor

or a work force that was frequently underpaid and brutalized. The degree of

exploitation and brutalization varied greatly, depending on the nature of the gov-

erning power. In the cases of Great Britain and France, an effort to establish local

institutions of education and governance based on those in the home country was

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