Chapter 2 Chapter Summary

This chapter examines the long history of European expansion and conquest into what is now known as the “developing world.” Although the initial steps, often unplanned, were taken by traders, chartered companies, fortune-seekers, and “men on the spot,” the Industrial Revolution marked the arrival of “high” imperialism, as European countries raced to carve out rival empires that circled the globe. Europeans encountered diverse and different societies. In the Americas, the populous empires of the Aztecs and Incas as well as many other Indigenous peoples suffered demographic collapse as a result of diseases, especially smallpox, brought by the Europeans. While Africa remained largely unsettled until the “scramble for Africa” after 1884, it provided the enslaved people that powered the plantation economies of the Americas. Throughout the colonial period, imperial powers remained ambivalent about the endeavour and sought to use private chartered companies for expansion, as well as to govern cheaply through indirect rule. Despite important differences across countries, the colonial experience has played an important role in structuring developing societies in the post-colonial world. Indeed, the first concerns for “development” emerged as the colonial powers responded to national struggles for self-determination after World War II.