Motives for British Imperialism

1. According to Halstead, Slavery was in decline during the 1800's because "Britain sought to abolish slavery not from considerations of morality, but because slavery did not pay, slavery was not commercially beneficial after the decline of mercantilism and the rise of laissez-faire, free trade capitalism." This means that slavery was not helping Britain make money and therefore they wanted to get rid of it. This effected British Imperialism because now they could focus on expanding their land and resources rather than worrying about the capturing and taking care of slaves.


2. According to Halstead, Britain's power did not have an influence on Britain's Imperialism. Their power did not have an influence because they already had enough power. Instead, Britain was influenced by philanthropy. Also, they "sought to establish models of its own government". I agree with this because Britain did have a lot of power at the time however they wanted to expand their land and get more valuable resources.


3. Halstead's belief differs from that of Richard Coben and other's economic reasons. Seeley thought of imperialism as " the apotheosis of all British history, the culmination of Britain's destiny," while Halstead thought of imperialism as "an appendage of British foreign policy". Gallagher and Robinson thought that the imperialism of Africa "was motivated by concerns over security and nothing else while MacKenzie pointed out that Britain had created an elaborate image making apparatus, a widespread propaganda, that extolled militarism, monarchism, and Social Darwinism." There is a wide spread of different views on imperialism.


4. Halsteads's final reasonings on motives for British Imperialism are "national security, protecting free trade, protecting commercial routes, competition for markets and spheres of influence, settlement, colonization, diplomacy, and ideology." Imperialism is not simple, but rather "a complex historical phenomenon which we can examine only piecemeal, but eventually from which a fuller picture emerges." Which means, that Imperialism is very complicated and can not be stated simply.