World History A

Intro

After 1870 the industrialized nations of Europe engaged in an unprecedented competition to acquire overseas colonies. A struggle for economic and military power largely motivated this intense rivalry, which historians refer to as the “new imperialism.” The “Jewel in the Crown” of the vast British Empire was India. The British attempted to dominate every aspect of Indian life, including the culture. One Indian who resisted this cultural imperialism was the Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore.

The nineteenth century was known for a new wave of imperialism as European powers, Japan, and the United States seized control of new territories and conquered peoples in Asia and Africa. The race for new colonies was fueled by competition among the European powers, nationalism, demand for raw materials, superior technology, and a belief in racial hierarchies. In Latin America, independence movements struggling to throw off Spanish authority succeeded by the mid-nineteenth century.