Many economic and social changes occurred throughout the world as a result of imperialism. For one, local manufacturers were transformed into suppliers of raw materials and consumers of imported goods. In India, for instance, cotton was cultivated solely for export to England, and inexpensive English textiles were then imported. India, once the world’s leading manufacturer of cotton fabrics, became a consumer of British textiles.
Migration increased as well. Europeans migrated to the United States, Canada, Argentina, Australia, and South Africa in search of cheap land and better economic opportunities. These Europeans often served as a new labor force in industrializing areas. Most traveled as free agents, though some were indentured servants.
Migrants from Asia and Africa, on the other hand, were most often indentured servants and went to tropical lands in the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, and Oceania. With the decrease in slavery, planters still needed laborers to work on their plantations. Because most of the migrant laborers were men, gender roles in the home societies shifted as women took on roles that men had done previously. Indentured servants were offered free passage, food, shelter, clothing, and some compensation, in return for five to seven years of work. As a result, large communities from around the world migrated to new lands, bringing their culture and traditions.
Despite their success at creating supportive ethnic enclaves when they were allowed to immigrate, migrants were often subjected to regulations aimed at blocking their entry into a new nation. For example, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1882. This act placed a ten-year moratorium on Chinese immigration. The rationale for this discriminatory law was that Chinese migrants threatened the social order.
In addition, Social Darwinists adapted Darwin’s evolutionary idea of “survival of the fittest” to explain the development of human societies. These ideas were used to justify the invariably unequal and often brutal mistreatment of non-whites by European imperialists and colonizers.