Introduction
The following essay looks at and explores European imperialism in Africa, North America, South America, and Australia between the 1400s and the late 1900s; and its effect and impact on the people who were conquered.
Overview of Imperialism
Imperialism is the domination of one countries political, economic, and/or culture over another in which powerful nations seek to extend and maintain control over weaker nations and people (Discovery Education 2009; Mastanduno 2000). The colonising and imperial rule over other colonies, continents, countries, etc. was common practice in Europe by the 1400s and most Europeans thought colonising …show more content…
As the British attempted to colonise Australia they had many effects on the aboriginal people (Baird 2015). The Aboriginals, at first, saw the British settlers as no threat, and even welcomed them (Baird 2015). Slowly the British presence became unwelcomed as they began to induced strife and destruction on the Aboriginal people (Henebry 2012). Over the eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth century Aboriginals were pushed aside as capitalism in Australia developed (Hill 1975). There were ruthless methods used to eradicate the Aboriginal people such as shooting, poisoning, starvation, and forced assimilation (Hill 1975). The Aboriginal people resisted in various ways, but the British had superior weapons and displaced the Aboriginal people resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Aboriginals (Hill 1975; Henebry 2012). Disease added to the loss of Aboriginals, diseases such as smallpox and measles brought by the British resulted in devastation as the Aboriginals lacked the immune system to fight off the foreign diseases (Henebry 2012). There was a wide range of effects from Great Britain that caused disruption among the Aboriginal people that reshaped their ways of life (Henebry