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Imperialism
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What is Imperialism?

Imperialism refers to the practice by which powerful nations extend political, economic, and cultural dominance over weaker territories and peoples. It appears frequently in political science, history, and international relations courses because it shaped the modern world order in fundamental ways. Students are drawn to the topic because it sits at the intersection of power, ideology, and human consequence, raising questions about how Europe and other dominant nations built empires across Africa, Asia, the Americas, and beyond. Its connections to colonialism, racial hierarchy, industrialization, and both World Wars make it academically rich and persistently relevant to understanding contemporary global politics.

The papers archived on this topic reflect a wide range of approaches. Many take a historical and regional lens, examining imperialism in Africa during the nineteenth century, its aftermath in Asia following World War II, or its dynamics in the Caribbean Basin through foreign policy analysis. Others are comparative, tracing connections between industrial capitalism and imperial expansion, or linking imperialism to racial othering as a broader ideological system. Some papers engage in literary criticism, using Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness to examine how imperial ideology was represented and challenged in literature. Still others adopt a broad survey approach, covering the Protestant Reformation, New Imperialism, and the lead-up to global conflict.

A strong essay on imperialism requires a focused thesis that moves beyond simply cataloguing events toward explaining causes, mechanisms, or consequences. Evidence drawn from specific regions, time periods, or policy decisions carries more weight than sweeping generalizations. Writers should be careful to avoid treating imperialism as a single uniform phenomenon — its expression differed significantly across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas — and a well-scoped essay will acknowledge that complexity without losing argumentative clarity.

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Paper High School

Eurocentric vs. Afrocentric Views on Colonialism in Literature

An analysis of how Euro-centric and American-centric perspectives influence how "savages" are viewed in Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse now. Additionally, an overview of how these perspectives differ from the perspective of a society or individual being conquered is also provided through an analysis of how Nigerians viewed imperialism and the evil attributes they gave to white men in Things Fall Apart.

Research Paper Doctorate

U.S. Colonization of the Philippines: Imperialism or Reform?

The Philippines historically suffered under Spanish rule prior to its annexation by the United States. However, American colonization of the region, while pledged to be altruistic, proved to support a hidden agenda of…

Paper Doctorate

UK and Chinese Newspaper Coverage of the BP Oil Spill

United Kingdom and Chinese newspaper coverage of BP Oil spill

Paper High School

Exotic Influences in Art Deco Design: Five Key Works

A long era of colonialism and imperialism led to a confluence of cultures at the start of the twentieth century. Art and design motifs could borrow from a perceived "exotic," an aesthetic from non-European cultures…

Paper Undergraduate

US Hegemony and the Continuity of Imperial Foreign Policy

To state that there are no fundamental differences between international politics in 1900-45 and afterwards would be to carry the argument to an extreme, even though the continuities are greater than the discontinuities. Above all else, the liberal, democratic states and empires in the U.S. and Western Europe were highly interventionist and aggressive in the developing world and Global South long before World War II, and this did not change in the Cold War and post-Cold War eras. Even governments that were democratically elected were sometimes overthrown and replaced by more pliable regimes, such as the ‘friendly' dictators of Central America and the Caribbean. At the same time, though, there has also been far more harmony and cooperation between the Great Powers since 1945 than in the previous fifty years, especially through NATO and the European Union. America's alliance with Japan, Britain, France and Germany has survived various stresses and strains over the decades, and even the collapse of the Soviet Union, and this requires an explanation. None of the imperial powers has fought a major war since the invention of nuclear weapons, even though they have intervened frequently against the non-nuclear states of the developing world. Perhaps this alliance is explained by political and ideological affinities, as liberals maintain, or by cultural affinities as opposed to Muslim and Orthodox civilizations, as Samuel Huntington explains—although admittedly Japan is left as quite an outlier here.

Paper Doctorate

Santa Anna's Dictatorship: Revisionist Biography and Legacy

In his self-described revisionist biography Santa Anna of Mexico (2007), Will Fowler has courageously taken up the defense of the Mexico caudillo, fully aware that he is all but universally reviled in the historiography of the United States and Mexico. From the beginning, he made his intention clear to vindicate the reputation of a dictator whose "vilification has been so thorough and effective that the process of deconstructing the numerous lies that have been told and retold" is almost impossible. He is the tyrant that "all Mexicans (and Texans) love to hate", blamed for losing the Mexican War for a "fistful of dollars" and selling another large part of it for personal gain with the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. Timothy J. Henderson asserted that "Mexicans ever since have blamed him for many, if not most, of the misfortunes their country suffered." He had a great talent for exploiting and manipulating political divisions but none for governing a country. In U.S. history and popular culture, he has always been portrayed as a corrupt megalomaniac, the ‘Napoleon of the West', responsible for the massacres at the Alamo and Goliad. As John Chasteen and James Wood put it, even his autobiography was an "extraordinary work of self-dramatization" by a dictator who put on a show of being a "vulnerable, introspective protagonist" but was in reality a power-hungry tyrant with "unmitigated vanity" and "obvious self-absorption."

Research Paper Doctorate

Medicine, Empire, and Disease in 19th-Century Colonialism

¶ … medicine, science and empire, with particular reference to malaria, the plague, and tuberculosis, in Great Britain, Africa and India, in the nineteenth century. The impact these diseases had on the imperial effort,…

Research Paper Doctorate

Major Events of the 20th Century: Wars and Revolutions

The twentieth century had been tumultuous, particularly during the former half, the world witnessing two major world wars, many revolutions and nationalist struggles, each holding a significant bearing on the other.

Paper Doctorate

Romanticism in Frankenstein: Themes, Symbols, and Movement

In less than six years, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein will be 200 years old. This novel, indicative of the romantic period, is a compelling narrative with numerous themes and vivid imagery to consider. In the context of romanticism, Frankenstein is a worthwhile piece of literature to examine. Literature and art of the romantic period is characterized with an emphasis on intense emotional reactions, specifically emotions such as horror, terror, and awe. These emotions are central to the narrative of Frankenstein.

Paper Doctorate

Western Imperialism in China: Esherick and Liu Compared

Both Joseph Esherick and Lydia Liu examine the ways in which western imperialism would have an effect on China by examining the bias and distortion that the imperialist project permitted in previous intellectual and…

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