Defining European Imperialism

Several scholars point to two events – the discovery of the “New World” and navigation around the Cape of Good Hope – as the catalysts which broke open a new era in human history and began the series of events categorized in our study of European Imperialism. Starting in the late 15th century, these new opportunities for global trade and territory acquisition were seized by the dominant European nation states and the world, and what it means to be human in it, has been irrevocably changed in a relatively short span of time.