Likely Enduring Issues Essay Material

Imperial-era documents most strongly support these enduring issues:

• Power and abuse of power: The defining match. Almost any document on imperialism speaks to this issue.
• Inequality: Racial hierarchies, economic extraction, exclusion of colonized peoples from political life
• Conflict: Imperial wars, suppressed rebellions, eventual contribution to WWI
• Cultural diffusion: Spread of European languages, religions, technologies in both directions
• Impact of technology: Industrial weapons, transportation, medicine made imperialism possible
• Desire for human rights: Colonial subjects' increasing demands for the rights claimed by their rulers