Around that period there was a huge leap forward in the quality of the boats. England and Portugal were maritime powers. They were limited by the distance they could sail, and suddenly could sail much farther. Enforcing control on the opposite side of the world would have previously been unthinkable. Capitalism isn’t the reason they started conquering the globe. It’s the improved boats that allowed them to travel the globe in the first place. The spirit of imperialism was already there before capitalism came around.
Around that period there was a huge leap forward in the quality of the boats. England and Portugal were maritime powers. They were limited by the distance they could sail, and suddenly could sail much farther. Enforcing control on the opposite side of the world would have previously been unthinkable. Capitalism isn’t the reason they started conquering the globe. It’s the improved boats that allowed them to travel the globe in the first place. The spirit of imperialism was already there before capitalism came around.
“The spirit of imperialism” isn’t the same as “the yearning for never-ending and ever-growing profits”.
Infinite growth on a finite planet is literally impossible.
What propelled the hunger for exotic colonies? The foreign products which were so esteemed back in Europe.
We could argue all day what specific ideology it is what drove them, but I think it’s enough to say it was greed and cruelty of some sorts.
Greed absolutely. But feels like this meme is pretending that money only started existing in the 16th century and no one was greedy before that.