Imperial Systems

Section I: Imperial Systems (Question 1)
Imperial expansion in a great way, accelerated certain global “cultural norms” across much of the world before 1920. First, it did this through the suppression of the native religion and ensuring it replaced it with an outside faith (Seigel, 15). European norms and various cultural values that were upheld came to be spread globally through the spread of Christianity. The native religion of the people was quickly replaced by the use of Catholic and Protestant missionaries. An example is that, despite the Dutch empire being almost exclusively based on trade, a significant number of missionaries were dispatched to ensure that the native people were converted to Protestantism. Thus, the imperial expansion globally accelerated a religious culture, Christianity, which is considered a “cultural norm.”
Secondly, the imperial expansion accelerated the global “cultural norm” by suppressing and, in some cases, eradicating various native cultures. An example is in Africa and the Caribbean, where the existing agrarian and hunting cultures were gradually replaced with the European economic systems (Benmelech 550). The European economic system was mainly based on ensuring there were large-scale agriculture and various resource extractions (Lewis127). In the Caribbean, individuals were influenced to adopt large-scale agricultural farming, which led to them abandoning their native cultures. Thus, imperial expansion was responsible for the global adoption of large-scale agriculture and the absorption of indigenous farming methods.
Additionally, the acceleration of certain global cultural “norms” before 1920 took place due to the colonial powers opting not to pay the cost incurred by their empires (Cope 157). The colonial powers did this by making sure that the colonial territories, for different reasons, became subservient to the mother country in terms of politics. Through this, the colonial powers had control over colonies, which gave them economic profitability. The colonies provided them with resources that were unavailable or limited in quantity, and this gave them the power to continue to control their cultures globally. Thus, the European political culture was introduced gradually, and through the natives’ adoption of this culture globally, they remained submissive colonies. Another example is the Aztec Empire in Mexico, which had a strong political system. With such a stable political system, there was a possibility of anti-colonial insurgencies, and this is something that imperialism opposed. Thus, the colonial powers aimed to exterminate the indigenous political leadership to ensure that they remained in control. Therefore, the global “cultural norm” of adapting to the European political culture resulted from imperial expansion before 1920.
Section II - World War I and Its Repercussions (Question 1)
World War I and the treaties that ended impacted imperial systems as it led to the fall of the four monarchies. The four imperial dynasties were Germany, Turkey, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, which failed due to World War One. Because different African and Asian countries were European colonies, they were automatically inclu...