ABSTRACT
Throughout the revolutions and reactions of the end of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century the social consciousness of the ruling classes in western Europe became ever more sensitive to the rights of their less fortunate fellow-men. Colonial grievances found a hearing in the parliaments at home, and an almost religious belief in "progress" linked the elevation of the depressed classes to the rationalism of a new and liberal political economy. The era of modern imperialism began when the formation of powerful national states in Europe was concluded and when the military and industrial and technological development of the West raced ahead of the rest of the world at a pace never witnessed before. It looked as if the white race were destined to dominate over all mankind with an irresistible material power. Territorial expansion became an objective in itself, because it meant expansion of controlled markets.
