EUROPE AND THE NEW IMPERIALISM

The era of new imperialism started majorly after the Berlin conference of 1884/1885, which could otherwise be known as the scramble and partition of Africa.

As a student of history the major question that has bugged my mind overtime has been "what is the difference between colonialism and this new imperialism?". i actually stumbled on a write-up several months ago that actually clarified and gave a vivid explanation and differentiation between these two terms.

Colonialism according to the oxford English dictionary, "is the colonial domination policy pursued by European powers", this signifies that colonialism does not only cover the aspect of religion, politics, or economy, rather it covers everything that has to do with a state. for example, a member of your fathers extended family comes over to baby sit you because your parents went on a business trip and they did not want to leave you alone at home, this family member all of a sudden solely decides what you eat and when to eat, what to put on to church and how to dress, and he/she completely takes over your day to day activities and seizes control over everything. that is what is known as colonialism.

Colonialism simply put is the total domination of an entity by a stronger entity. however imperialism on the other hand does not necessarily mean domination, according to the oxford English dictionary it "is the policy of forcefully extending a nations authority by territorial gain or by the establishment of economic and political dominance over other nation".

According to the definition provided above it is obvious that imperialism is not colonialism as colonialism tends to deal with the total domination of other states while imperialism is a sided dominance that suits ones aims and objectives.

For example before the British industrial revolution, the British pursued a colonialist policy towards Nigeria until after the industrial revolution and the introduced the new imperialism. the major reason why they called it the new imperialism was to subsidize the use of resources in their colonies and maximize the export of the raw materials of those colonies.

It was bad for the Europeans to exploit their African colonies and deprive them of their economic development but it is unwise to dwell in the past as it would have little or no effect in the actualization of a better future.