How did economics drive European empire building?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A. Economic imperialism
1. most indirect form of imperial rule was business imperialism
a. left government in local hands but bought up resources
b. skimmed off wealth
c. introduced foreign business elites
d. reduced economies to dependency
e. diverted wealth and political influence abroad
2. industrialization made business imperialism possible
a. gave the rich of the industrialized countries surplus capital with
which to buy up the productive capacity of the rest of the world
3. Latin America
a. Native Americans became exploited human resources of their
countries' own elites
b. foreign investors became a powerful extra elite tier in much of
Latin America
c. new form of dependency arose, this time on international big
business
4. reliance on foreign investors
a. Britain, Germany, France and the United States
b. business imperialism almost became the forerunner of reimposed
European rule in Mexico
5. local interests attracted foreign investors
a. leading to foreign control of key technologies for the production
and transportation of primary commodities
b. reliance on foreign markets and financiers
c. political control by foreign businessmen
6. business imperialism was a collaborative project between locals and
strangers: local elites and foreign capitalists
7. imperialism was clearly profitable
a. revenues from the Dutch East Indies covered a quarter of Dutch
state expenditure
b. phosphates in Morocco, diamonds in South Africa, and gems, ivory,
and rubber in the Congo enriched, respectively, France, Britain, and
the king of the Belgians
c. Russia's expansion into Central Asia was—in part at least—directed
toward lands that could grow cotton for Russia's fledgling textile
industries