Imperialism and Human Rights During Wold Wars Essay Example

colonies in the West and North-west Africa, Indochina and some pacific Island.

Imperialism took a form of political control and created economic independence. In Europe for instance, imperialism came along with growing nationalism and unification when the political units that were divided for a long time came together. Before imperialism took place in countries such as Africa, trade in Europe was not as competitive as it is today. Imperialist brought industrial development to their colonies, for instance, imperialism led to railway construction in many African countries. Social injustices and breach of human rights in countries like Rwanda and other countries led to the deaths of many people (Power, Samantha 100). In China, the foreigners faced much opposition. The local were no willing to accept the foreigner’s directly. The boxers were willing to fight with the foreigners. They even rejected money offered to them in exchange (Pen, 10).

Human rights; before the world war one and world war two, there was much respect for human right in most of the countries across the globe. However, during the world war one, a breach of human rights of the highest order was observed. In the First World War, more than more than 18 million civilians and soldiers were killed. This brought a major conflict in Europe. In the Second World War, about seventy million civilian and fighters were killed, making Word War II the deadliest conflict in human history. Adolf Hitler Nazi leader was one of the most powerful infamous dictators. After World War I he established concentration camps to inter Jews and other groups that proved to be a threat to his leadership. (Porter & Quo, 20). More than

six million people were kept on this campus. They were denied freedom and some of them even killed. The German doctors took advantage of this people and carried out several medical trials unlawfully.

Social impact theory mentions the idea that conformity in social influence largely depend on the importance of the groups, the number of members and how attached they are to one another. Also, it expects an increase in conformity directly causes the strength of closeness to increase and the closer the group is to us, the more likely to comfort to it (Saul, Steven & Hazel, 290). In Auschwitz Camp, the Nazis army tortured and humiliated the prisoners from Hitler’s idea of Jews are an evil race and outcasts struggling to dominate the world. The Nazis racial ideology conformity enhanced by anti-Semitism considered the Jews as a race and subhuman who would be set by changed in political of anti-Semitism expulsion. This ideology of logics in racism led to the execution of Jews in gas chambers, cremation, and cheap labor (Porter, 150)

African countries experienced the worst breach of human rights. Before the world war, one and two, human rights in African were highly observed and respected. When the colonialist invades African countries, many people were killed and others forced to work for the whites for free. Some of the Africans were taken to the United States to work in the newly established white farms. Imperialism was important because it enabled the establishment of administration of the sidelined areas and this benefited the colonial power. Imperialism had both positive and negative impacts among the people.

Positive Impacts of Imperialism

Imperialism was beneficial because it enabled the countries

to be unified and this enabled countries to assist those countries that were in need. Imperialism also led to increasing in agricultural products, better hospitals and this led to increasing in the life span, and African goods and services became beneficial in the European markets. In Europe, imperialism made the region to access raw materials in a cheaper way and this made trade to prosper (Gallagher, & Ronald, 10). Africans benefited from the imperialism in that there was the introduction of new religion, education, administration system and trade.

Negative Impacts of Imperialism

Imperialism, on the other hand, had negative impacts because it made the natives to lose control of their lands, the population expanded and this led to famine, food crops were displaced by cash crops and this also led to famine and it also led to new diseases such as smallpox that led to the demise of thousands of natives. Imperialism caused World War one because powerful nations exploited and controlled more than one colonies (McNeill, William, 455).. In Africa, imperialism led to slavery, loss of independence, disunity, culture deterioration and exploitation of resources. Imperialism made it hard for underdeveloped regions to follow the path of capitalistic development.

Negative Impacts on Human Rights

During World War one and two, human rights were violated to a great extent. During world war one the German government deported people from France and Belgium and approximately 100,000 women, men, and children were to be used as slaves in Germany (Joppke, 50). However, the deportees were taken back to their homes after the government realized that it had violated their rights. During World War two, violation of human rights happened after Nazis deported

approximately 120,000,000 people to become laborers in the country. Another violation of human rights happened during the World War two when both Germans and foreign citizens were incarcerated and they were taken to whims of Gestapo (McNeill, William, 450). During WW1, women suffrage was all over the world and they were treated differently from men when it came to voting. Women were considered inferior and they were not allowed to do some tasks. Women in Great Britain were not allowed to own properties except their own land.

Conclusion

From the above discussion it is evident that the World War one and two had more negative impacts than positive impact on the countries where they took place. Countries with less or established military suffered most since they were not in position to resist brutality from their colonizers. Human right before the wars was highly placed in the society. The world wars saw many people die. There was an abuse of human rights. Children and women were the most affected. Imperialism brought development in some colonies since the colonies had to invest in transport and manufacturing industries. However, many locals were mistreated and forced to work for free. The disadvantages of World war and two are more than the advantages since both Wars breached human rights.

Work cited

• Gallagher, John, and Ronald Robinson. "The imperialism of free trade." The Economic History Review 6.1 (1953): 1-15.
• McNeill, William H. A World History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Print.
• Pen, Geoffrey. The fists of righteous harmony: A history of the Boxer uprising in China in the year 1900.
• Pen and Sword, 2016 edition.
• Porter, Jack Nusan. "&Quot; Bystanders&Quot; To The Holocaust: A Re-Evaluation,
  

And: &Quot; A Problem From Hell&Quot; America And The Age Of Genocide (Review)". Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 22.2 (204): 151-154