Skip to main content

What were the motives of western expansion into Asia?

When Western countries started to expand into Asia via colonization, Western countries were motivated by economic factors and a desire for prestige and power.


When Western countries colonized Asia, they did so in part because they thought it would help them economically.  They wanted valuable goods like rubber and spices.  They also wanted captive markets in which to sell goods they had manufactured as they industrialized.  If they colonized Asian countries, they could be the only ones to benefit from those countries’ resources.  They could also be the only ones who were allowed to sell goods in those countries.  In these ways, taking an empire in Asia would help them economically.


Western countries also colonized in Asia because they wanted more prestige and power.  They wanted far-flung colonies so they could project their military power around the world.  For example, if the British controlled Hong Kong, they could base military ships there.  This would give them the ability to use those ships to project power in the South China Sea.  Naval power was very important in those days, and Asian colonies increased a country’s naval capabilities.  In addition, a country with colonies had more prestige.  A Western country with an empire in Asia would seem like it was an important country because it was big and strong enough to take and hold that empire.  Thus, expansion into Asia also helped countries in geopolitical terms.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more