Economic Nationalism

Economic Nationalism:

Rise of ‘Economic Nationalism’ was an outcome of industrial revolution. Arresting the economic growth of rival nations along with fervently pursuing the economic growth of one’s own nation became very important. It became important to devise ways to put economic restrictions on the rival country. Measures such as prohibiting the import-export transactions of other countries, levying heavy tolls on their goods, establishing colonies mainly in the Asian and African countries, if need be, fighting battles with the natives of the colonies were part of economic nationalism.

 The chain of surplus production was the effect of industrial revolution and in turn the economy based on surplus production supported economic nationalism and also imperialism. It began the vicious circle of continuously capturing new marketplaces, searching for sources of cheap supply of raw material, to maintain an unbroken chain of supply of raw material, to attract more and more investors, to safeguard their investments and so on. It resulted into limitless exploitation of the colonies.

Extreme nationalism, industrialization, concepts of racial superiority, aggressive colonial policies supported further growth of imperialism. The result was the immense expanse of the empires of European nations like England, France, Belgium, Germany, etc.