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1 results

  • 19 - War and Empire

  • from Part II - Factors Governing Differential Outcomes in the Global Economy
  • Edited by Stephen Broadberry, University of Oxford, Kyoji Fukao, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World
    Published online:
    03 June 2021
    Print publication:
    24 June 2021, pp 526-550

  • Summary

    By the beginning of the twentieth century, a combination of military and economic advantages had allowed imperial powers to expand the territory under their jurisdiction to include large parts of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. This conquest of territory was both driven by and helped to facilitate the movement of people, goods, and capital in the decades leading up to World War I, with varied impacts on the development of both colonized countries and their colonizers. At the same time, imperial expansion also contributed means and motivation for the global conflicts which erupted during the twentieth century. After these conflicts, empires proved to be fragile. Little more than a half-century after they had reached their peak, most European empires had collapsed, and a new hegemonic order had emerged. This chapter examines the origins and legacies of empires, and asks why European countries lost their empires, despite persistent gaps in technological, military, and economic assets. It also examines the similarities and differences of the new order with the old.