Title: ﻿The European conquest of the world - Global Learning
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﻿The European conquest of the world
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Content: And there were important exceptions: China and Japan. But in essence, during the course of four and a quarter centuries, Europe conquered the world. Conquest has been the way of humanity since the agricultural revolution ten thousand years ago. It was through conquest that political structures were centralized, kingdoms and empires formed, and advanced civilizations came into being. But the modern European conquest of the world was more penetrating. In previous eras, the conquering power required a tribute from the conquered societies or kingdoms, but the basic structures of their political-economic systems were left intact. In contrast, European colonial domination involved the transformation of the economies of the colonized, so that the colonized regions were converted into peripheral zones in a developing world-economy. They were turned into suppliers of raw materials, on a basis of forced or cheap labor, and purchasers of the surplus manufactured goods of the colonial power. With their traditional industries destroyed, and their traditional agriculture transformed, the colonies became impoverished and economically dependent on the core.