With the disappearance of the Western frontier, missionary-minded
Americans felt compelled to carry the benefits of their
civilization to backward areas of the world. At the same time,
European imperialism was gaining new vitality. Businessmen were
looking for new markets and for new sources of raw materials. Patriots,
in their turn, believed that they were being called
upon to assume the "white man's burden" and to civilize and
democratize the world. Both drives seemed to coincide. The Berlin
Conference in 1885 divided those parts of Africa not yet annexed
among the major European nations. The point of the conference was
to plan national exploits in such a way as to reduce conflicts.
In the course of a very few years, the rest of Africa was
colonized by these nations. Africans, of course, were given no
voice in the matter. China, though it was not colonized, was also
divided into spheres of economic influence. The United States was
quick to join in this scramble. Its influence, however, was
limited largely to Asia and Latin America.
This new imperialist expansion was not interpreted by its
proponents as being exploitative.
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