ABSTRACT
Anticolonialism grew in response to European colonial expansion. Its origins can be traced to the West itself, although it ultimately found its strongest expression in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Fueled by the maturing of commercial capitalism at home, and in pursuit of gold, God, and glory, Western Europeans in the fifteenth century began their great expansion overseas. What was different about commercial capitalism from earlier developments in the world was its inherently expansionist social order that stimulated the discovery of new lands overseas, the acquisitions of colonies globally, and the pursuit of economic theories and practices known as mercantilism. Simultaneously, Europe experienced the emergence of the scientific revolution, which, together with mercantilist theories, was to usher in the age of capitalist civilization.
