by Richard Para

Created on: September 30, 2010   Last Updated: October 01, 2010

Imperialism is the exploitation of fresh opportunity. Within a complex and developed society, over time, opportunity begins to diminish due to the confines of resources and available assets such as agricultural land, minerals and other things. The sophistication of the people of the complex society and their proliferation creates a pressure, caused by these limitations, which can lead to some form of unrest unless some type of relief is made available through some type of new opportunity.

When another new land that is underdeveloped and teaming with assets, so desirable to the complex society, becomes known to them it, the new land, becomes a relief valve for the inhabitants of the complex society to find a way to spread into that new land, utilize their inherent knowledge, and continue to pursue new opportunities that were not hitherto made available to them. Of course, this is a splendid development for that complex society, but there are problems.

Within the new land there are, most likely, indigenous people. These indigenous people more oft than not take exception to the interlopers, and, one way or another, they resist. A struggle begins wherein each party claims their inherent rights. These indigenous people self-righteously contend that this land is theirs, they were here first, and, unless invited, others have no right whatsoever to their land.

The interlopers claim that this land had been and is underdeveloped and ill-used leaving vast resources and assets wasted. They claim that their knowledge of managing a complex society can not only benefit them but also those peoples who now inhabit the land. Both points of view are arguable. The result usually boils down to the fact that adjudication comes about through brute force. It is the use of brute force that so often sullies the word imperialism.

However, when one apologizes for imperialism it must be done on a larger scale, it goes well beyond any argument for either individual party. The true bottom line of imperialism is the question of the amount of benefit distributed to the most people involved. Ultimately, more people benefit from imperialism than not. For instance, if it were decided that the people of Europe could not intrude on the land in North America could you imagine what disaster would befall upon the peoples of Europe while those wide open spaces of the North American continent remained mostly vacant?

The root causes of imperialism is social pressure not unlike the pressure of air being forced into a balloon, continual pressure begets an explosion. None of the atrocities attributed to imperialism could ever match the disaster and chaos that that explosion would inflict upon society.

Naturally, imperialism is not confined to simply hard assets, it can involve ideology, like freedom. Dictatorships throughout the world resist the imperialism of freedom.

Imperialism, warts an all, on balance, is truly a good thing for the bulk of civilization.

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