Was colonialism a result of slavery and European expansion?
Basically, colonialism has two phases: 1 The Columbus Effect in which the major powers (England, France, Portugal and Spain) expanded to get the gold, silver, build tobacco and sugar empires and then carry on a trade with those territories that sent those goods back to their European mother countries. This lasted until the end of the 18th Century, or thereabouts, and this end coincides with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. 2 The Industrial Revolution Era, in which cities and factories were producing enormous quantities of goods for mass consumption, ranging all the way from clothing, furniture and china to clocks and mass produced rugs for home floors. Never before had people been in possession of such enormous quantities of goods, much of which was non-essential and collected purely for vanity’s sake. Nevertheless, the need for metal ore, fine wood Africa’s West Coast and cotton fiber from India all sets off a second round of colonization on a massive scale. Now, Germany an
