Imperialism and its Justifications

The textile industry in Great Britain sparked industrialization and manufacturing.
Industrialization spread to Mainland Europe (Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands).
British textile market lost its monopoly.
Markets dry up, profits decrease, and factory growth slows down.
Unemployment Rises
The text mentions the government becomes responsible for managing unemployment through welfare systems.
High unemployment correlates with higher crime rates.

Factories seek new markets to create jobs and inspiration to build more factories even when markets are slow with examples of lemonade stand.
European nations focused on continents without shirt manufacturers: China, India, Africa, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific.
The US leads the charge in imperialism by the early twentieth century.

Nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: European nations colonize new places.
Motivation:
- Access to raw materials.
- Forcing colonized people to buy goods.
Colonizers impose laws dictating where colonists can buy clothes.
Colonized people are forced to sell raw materials at prices dictated by the imperial power and buy manufactured goods from them while paying taxes.

Factories initially remained in Europe to employ Europeans, ensuring tax revenue and preventing revolts.
Capitalists later realized it was cheaper to operate factories in foreign lands with cheaper labor.
The Trump administration's efforts to encourage domestic manufacturing by taxing imported goods faced criticism from both the left and the right.
Left: Higher prices for consumers.
Right: Increased costs for manufacturers using American steel.
Trump's argument: Tariffs incentivize foreign countries to buy more American products and keep money circulating in America.

European nations competed to colonize new territories (e.g., Vietnam) due to nationalism.
Colonization provides military outposts and satellites to police colonial possessions.

Saving souls.
Belief in superior farming practices.
Belief in intellectual inferiority of colonized people.
Europeans claimed to improve lives by building roads, hospitals, schools, and creating medicine.

The nineteenth century saw the rise of scientific racism, using so-called scientific data to justify imperialism.
Measurements of skulls were used to argue that certain races were less intelligent or less evolved.
Charles Darwin's biology used as justification for conquering territories.
Social Darwinism: If Europeans don't step in, certain people will die out.
Survival of the fittest applied to humanity.
Social Darwinists believe uncivilized creatures will eventually become extinct.

Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden" justified imperialism on racial grounds.
European's are built to think an give orders.
Moral imperative to usher colonized people into an age of civilization through force.
Racist opinions about uncivilized people needing help in their advancement.
Scientific racism used to validate racist and uninformed notions.

Gregor Mendel's work with peas led to genetic studies.
Theories of plants and genetics were applied to human beings.
Eugenics: the idea of speeding up evolution by eliminating certain populations to improve genetic qualities.
Hitler put eugenics into action, targeting Jews and people with disabilities.
Eugenics advocates argued that intelligence and social behaviors could be phased out by eliminating certain populations.
Facial structure correlated to intelligence.