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What are some ways in which the colonizers benefited from imperialism?

There are at least three ways in which colonizers benefited from imperialism.  They benefited (or at least could potentially benefit) economically, militarily, and politically.


A major reason for imperialism was economic.  Colonizers were industrialized countries that needed sources of raw materials and new markets in which to sell their goods.  If they colonized countries that had resources that they needed, they could take those resources for themselves. They could produce finished goods and sell those goods back to the people in their colonies.  The colonized people would be a captive market, thus benefiting the colonizers.  For these reasons, industrialized countries often wanted to take empires.


A second reason for imperialism was military.  Powerful countries wanted to be able to project their military power around the globe.  When they took colonies, they could place naval bases in those colonies.  If England had, for example, a colony in Yemen, it could use that as a base for naval forces that would protect shipping that went between England and India through the Suez Canal.  In order to be more militarily powerful, European countries took colonies.


Finally, colonizers could benefit in political/prestige terms.  If a country had a large empire, it would seem much more important to other countries.  It would therefore have more political prestige and power.  This was another reason to have colonies.  In all these ways colonizers benefited, or at least felt that they benefited, from having colonies.   

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