Recap of 3/7

In this week’s class the word we most talked about was imperialism. Imperialism is a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through diplomacy or military. In class we discussed how capitalism is just like imperialism. In class we also got see all of the country’s that were taken over because of imperialism.

There is several similarities between capitalism and imperialism. A couple of examples would be that both have social injustices that go along with capitalism (rich get richer) and imperialism (invading and annexing another country).  Expansion and wealth are key in both. Competition is key because you want to get rid of all you competitors. The last example is consumerism if you want something and that weak country has it then go get it.

I found the class discussion about how Hawaii was taken over by the United States interesting. Hawaii was known for their sugar production at the time. The US didn’t want Hawaii to fall into the hands of some else’s country being so valuable as an island in the middle of the ocean that steam ships could resupply on the island and go to another place. So this eventually led to the sugar planter’s revolution. Hawaii was annexed in 1898 by the United States. Also America took over Guam and the Philippines.

In class we also talked about how Europe went aggressively after Africa. Africa was divided up into several pieces. The British obtained most of the territory in Africa because of their naval superiority.  The British also had under their control India and Australia.

In the readings that were assigned for this week I found Hobson view on imperialism kind of confusing at first his view is “social parasitic process by which moneyed interest in a state, uprising the reins of government, makes for imperial expansion in order to fasten economic suckers into foreign bodies so as to drain them of their wealth in order to support domestic luxury”.   Hobson called “it a ceaseless quest for more profits”.  In the reading it talks about why some of the excuses used for invading country’s an example of the excuse is that we need to educate the people and teach them our religion.

Hobson also talked about something that is also going on in today’s society and that is that the rich get richer. In the reading it stated that” The yearly income accruing to capitalist from their colossal wealth holdings was so large that even the most extravagant and luxurious of consumption expenditures would leave then with enormous amounts of excess income- or- saving for which they had no use but to invest in the accumulation of more capital”. So basically what is said is that the rich were so rich that they had so much money left over after their own expenses. That all they could do is spend their money to get more money.  In today’s society 80 of the richest people in the world control a high percent of the world’s available capital.