Alison Silver
Mr. Hertz
English 2
4 August, 2014
The Benefits of Imperialism
Imperialism, colonialism, conquering. All these words bring about negative thoughts like cruelty and murder. Of course these thoughts are valid but there is no good without the bad and there are plenty of benefits to imperialism. Civilizations such as the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the British Empire, and the Egyptian Empire created some of the things that lead to the creation to life as we know it and nothing in the world would be the same without them.
A benefit to imperialism is all of the new ideas and inventions that were able to be formed. One of these includes trade routes (Pros and Cons of Imperialism). Before empires cultures mainly stayed to themselves, making do with whichever resources were on hand. Conquering nations often set up trade routes and commerce that connected different areas and allowed sharing of resources and ideas. In fact the first roads were invented by the Roman empire. Technology was able to be exchanged and built upon. Many new ideas were formed and inventions created. All of these modern technologies helped the economies of smaller nations. Romans alone created roads that connected cultures, calendars, battlefield surgery, bound books, welfare to those unable to work, newspapers, concrete, aqueducts and more (Andrews). All of these inventions greatly improved lives and longevity. Many Roman buildings are still standing strong after all those hundreds of years due to their concrete, the modern calendar hanging on everyone’s walls is a close copy of the Roman Gregorian calendar (Andrews), Egyptian eye makeup techniques are still used today, the plow was invented by the Egyptians as well (Ancient Egypt). Let’s face it, so many of things that make modern life possible were invented by evil empires.
Another possible benefit to being conquered was gaining stronger leadership. There was a reason all those empires grew to be so large and powerful. Very strong minds were behind them and many people backed them. Alexander lll of Macedonia, known as Alexander the Great, King of Greek Macedonia was a powerful conqueror who took over many parts of the known world (Alexander the Great). He was an excellent leader and was skilled in inspiring a sense of purpose and worth into his people (Alexander the Great). It is said that many citizen’s lives improved after he became their ruler. Cultures were allowed to flourish and thrive under the rule of the empire. Yes some culture may have been lost but strong leadership and a strong way of life was gained.
The larger the country, the more people it has, that is not hard to calculate. When you have more people and more resources you can put more effort into education. With more people able to do jobs like farming and food production there were more places in society for intellectuals and scientific thinking was very encouraged in most empires (Pros and Cons of Imperialism). Romans valued education greatly and even the poor learned to read and write which was rarity at the time. Many scholars and great minds came from imperialist empires. There were also strong workers coming out of a large population. Fast thinkers were needed to solve the problems of the age (Pros and Cons of Imperialism). Empires gained workers and people gained jobs. Food production was increased due to better farming techniques and more farmers (Pros and Cons of Imperialism).
It is easy to think of older civilizations as backward but a few of them have ideologies that are more forward than our current way of life. Education, hard work, readiness, faith and loyalty were major parts of any empire. Most empires, including the Roman empire, had no issue with homosexuality. It is even speculated, if not proven, that Alexander the Great the most successful conquering of the world was at least bisexual (Alexander the Great). Cleopatra VII of Egypt is one of the most well known rulers in history. In fact many empires had women at their head most famously including the powerful queens of England. Queen Victoria the monarch of England and Ireland and Empress of India was the longest ruling female in history and despite a period of depression she was a widely popular ruler (Queen Victoria). How many superpowers in the world today are truly headed by women or openly homosexual people? I am going to give you a hint, not many. In a way some empires were more progressive then a good many world governments today.
All in all empires had some very high points that are not often recognized. They helped connect cultures, provide jobs and education, provided strong leadership and even some moral values of society and equal rights. Even without all these points they were a major part of history and deserve to be remembered and at least respected.
Bibliography
Andrews, Evan. “10 inventions That Built the Ancient Rome”. HISTORY . 20 November 2012. 9 April 2014. http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/10-innovations-that-built-ancient-rome
“What were the beliefs and values of society”. Ancient Egypt. 12 September, 2011. 9 April, 2014
“Pros and Cons of Imperialism”. Buzzle. 23 September, 2013. 10 April, 2014. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pros-and-cons-of-imperialism.html
No comments:
Post a Comment