Imperialism Essays (1998 words) - Culture, Postmodern Theory

Imperialism VHistory 101B 10/25/00 Section 8 Western Imperialism We live in a world in which the consequences of nineteenth and twentieth century Western imperialism are still being felt. By the early nineteen hundreds Western civilization reached the high point of it's long standing global expansion. The expansion took many forms such as economic, political, and cultural imperialism. Europeans invested a lot of money abroad to build railroads, ports, mines, plantations as well as factories and public utilities. Trade began to grow between nations and the economy became more developed. Western civilizations became much more prosperous than the rest of the world due to the land usage and industrialization of Western colonization. The European economic invasion began as peaceful trade, but Westerners became quite willing to force isolated nations of Africa and Asia to open their doors for them. Aside from the economical influences on certain countries, another aspect of the Western expansion was that European states established huge political empire s in Africa and Asia. This event, categorized as the ?new imperialism?, occurred when European governments began searching for new territory. Small groups of Europeans began to rule millions of Africans and Asians. The causes of the new imperialism are still hotly debated, but competition for trade, superior military force, advanced technologies, and politics are among the most important. Western imperialism itself is also one of the greatest controversies of world history. Westerners justified their imperialistic reign by explaining their economic, political, and cultural motives for imperialism. Although imperialism seemed destructive to tribal societies, I feel that the justifications hold true and the impact of imperialism has strengthened society. One of the justifications that the Westerners gave for imperialism was that it was in the best interest for the world's economy. John Hobson describes the imperialists arguments as ?we must have markets for our growing manufacturers, we must have new outlets for the investment of our surplus capital and for the energies of adventurous surplus of our population: such expansion is a necessity of life to a nation with our great and growing powers of production? (Hobson, John. Imperialism. London: Allen and Unwin, 1948. p. 35). A point was made that overseas colonies could serve as sources of raw materials that were not available in Europe and were necessary in industrialization. Europeans explained that Africa and Asia were far behind in the main abilities of manufacture and trade, and imperialism would help them adapt to these new technologies. Westerners claimed that imperialism was important for political and military reasons to maintain strategic locations in other areas. Westerners explained that it would benefit Africa and Asia to conform to western politics in order to be in touch with the rest of the world as well as gaining protection from the greater powers. Another justification of imperialism that the Westerners gave was the cultural aspect. Advocates of imperialism sent missionaries to African and Asian lands to convert the people to Christianity. Europeans accounted that by bringing their traditions and Christianity to Africa and Asia it would help bring those people out of their savage state. The benefits that imperialism would bring to the economy, politics, and culture aroused much support in Europe, however the so-called ?savage people? did not return this support. In the book, Traditions and Encounters, it explains that ?the policies adopted by imperial powers and colonial officials forced peoples of different societies to deal with one another on a regular and systematic basis. Their interactions often led to violent conflicts between colonizers and subject peoples.? (Bentley, p. 869). Many of the effects of imperialism exploited the African and Asian people and culture. They were made to assimilate to European ways and were forced to forget their own culture. In the text, The Global Experience, a Micmac responds to a catholic missionary on the idea of conversion, ?I am greatly astonished that the French have so little cleverness, as they seem to exhibit the matter of which thou hast just told me on their behalf, in the effort, to persuade us to convert our poles, our barks, and our wigwams into those houses of stone and of wood which are tall and lofty.?(Schwartz. P.110). This passage portrays how most people under imperialistic rule felt ab out being forced into a

Present Tense Verb Conjugations of German Regular Verbs

Present Tense Verb Conjugations of German Regular Verbs The regular German verbs follow a  predictable pattern  in the present tense. Once you learn the pattern for one regular German verb, you know how all German verbs are conjugated. Yes, there are  irregular verbs  that dont always follow the rules, but even they will usually have the same endings as the regular verbs. The majority of German verbs are regular, even though it may not seem that way since many commonly used verbs are strong (irregular) verbs. The chart below lists two sample regular German verbs. All regular German verbs will follow the same pattern. We have also included a helpful list of the more common stem-changing verbs. These are verbs that follow the normal pattern of endings, but have a vowel change in their stem or base form (hence the name stem-changing). The verb endings for each pronoun are indicated in  bold  type. The Basics Each verb has a basic infinitive (â€Å"to†) form. This is the form of the verb you find in a German dictionary. The verb â€Å"to play† in English is the infinitive form (â€Å"he playsâ€Å" is a conjugated form). The German  equivalent of â€Å"to play† is  spielen. Each verb also has a stem form, the basic part of the verb left after you remove the -en  ending. For  spielen  the stem is  spiel. To conjugate the verb- that is, use it in a sentence- you must add the correct ending to the stem. If you want to say â€Å"I play† you add an -e  ending: â€Å"ich spiele† (which can also be translated into English as â€Å"I am playing†). Each â€Å"person† (he, you, they, etc.) requires its own ending on the verb. This is called â€Å"conjugating the verb.† If you dont know how to conjugate verbs correctly it means your German will sound strange to people who understand the language. German verbs require more endings for the various â€Å"persons† than English verbs. In English we use only an  s  ending or no ending for most verbs: â€Å"I/they/we/you  play† or â€Å"he/she  plays.† German has a different ending for almost all of those verb situations:  ich spiele,  sie spielen,  du spielst,  er spielt, etc. Observe that the verb  spielen  has a different ending in most of the examples in the chart below. If you want to sound intelligent in German, you need to learn when to use which ending. Check out the chart below. Spielen / To PlayPresent Tense -  Prsens Deutsch English Sample Sentence SINGULAR ich spiele I play Ich spiele gern Basketball. du spielst you (fam.)play Spielst du Schach? (chess) er spielt he plays Er spielt mit mir. (with me) sie spielt she plays Sie spielt Karten. (cards) es spielt it plays Es spielt keine Rolle. (It doesnt matter.) PLURAL wir spielen we play Wir spielen Basketball. ihr spielt you (guys) play Spielt ihr Monoploy? sie spielen they play Sie spielen Golf. Sie spielen you play Spielen Sie heute? (Sie, formal you, is both singular and plural.) Verb Stem Ends in -d or -t Connecting -e  examplesApplies only to  du,  ihr, and  er/sie/es arbeitento work er arbeitet Arbeitest du heute? findento find du findest Findet ihr das? Also see related verb links/pages below. Now lets look at another kind of German verb, a stem-changing verb. Technically,  sprechen  (to speak) is a  strong verb, not a regular verb. But in the present tense the verb  sprechen  is regular except for a stem change from  e  to  i. That is, the verb changes its stem vowel, but the endings are the same as for any other regular verb in the present tense. Note that all stem changes only occur with the singular pronouns/person  du  and the third person singular (er,  sie,  es). The first person singular (ich) and all the plural forms do NOT change. Other stem-changing verb patterns include   a  to  Ã‚  and  e  to  ie. See the examples below.  Note that the verb endings remain normal. Sprechen/To SpeakPresent Tense -  Prsens Deutsch English Sample Sentence SINGULAR ich spreche I speak Ich spreche am Telefon. du sprichst you (fam.) speak Sprichst du am Telefon? er spricht he speaks Er spricht mit mir. (with me) sie spricht she speaks Sie spricht Italienisch. es spricht it speaks Es spricht laut. (loudly) PLURAL wir sprechen we speak Wir sprechen Deutsch. ihr sprecht you (guys) speak Sprecht ihr Englisch? sie sprechen they speak Sie sprechen Italienisch. Sie sprechen you speak Sprechen Sie Spanisch? (Sie, formal you, is both singular and plural.) Other Stem-Changing Verbs English In Use fahren drive, travel er fhrt, du fhrst geben to give es gibt, du gibst lesen to read er liest, du liest Note:  These stem-changing verbs are strong (irregular) verbs, but they have regular verb endings in the present tense.

The effect of culture in International Marketing Essay

The effect of culture in International Marketing - Essay Example It is known that culture has a profound influence on peoples’ lifestyles, their preferences & tastes; this is important knowledge for marketing managers as tastes greatly affect purchasing behavior and trends. In addition, the nation’s attitude toward culture would impact on consumers’ behaviour, consumers’ lifestyle and beliefs. Therefore the power of culture causes consumption lifestyle among society. Hofstede and Trompenaars indicated that there is a level of cultural influence to purchasing around most of the countries, and an understanding of consumption practices can be made if the key attributes cultural influences are well known. As mentioned above, internationalization is closely associated with the standards of products, and this is in turn associated with proper coordination and execution of functions in the firm’s quality departments. The internationalization process of organizations is demonstrated by universal exchange theories. Considerations for internationalization are divided into two categories i.e. macroeconomic and microeconomic theories. (Dierkes 1999). Microeconomic scholars like Levitt, Ohmae, Howl, and Vernon have studied and written a lot on what inspires many organizations to strive so that they can achieve international recognition in terms of product ranges and market presence. The answer to internationalization practice by many firms is found in macroeconomic theories. The theories are concerned with and consider mostly on what factors and considerations inform many firms’ decisions to go international. The international product life cycle (IPLC) theories from Raymond Vernon (1966) explain the distribution methodology of companies’ expansion across national boundaries. The theory shows that many product lines are in the first place produced and processed in certain nations with the target of being sold on the international market. It very well and