Imperialism SAQ

“Basically the new imperialism was a nationalistic phenomenon. It followed hard upon the national wars which created an all powerful Germany and a united Italy, which carried Russia within sight of Constantinople, and which left England fearful and France eclipsed. It expressed a resulting psychological reaction, an ardent desire to maintain or recover national prestige. France sought compensation for European loss in oversea gain. England would offset her European isolation by enlarging and glorifying the British Empire. Russia, halted in the Balkans, would turn anew to Asia, and before long Germany and Italy would show the world that the prestige the had won by might inside Europe they were entitled to enhance by material exploits outside. The lesser powers, with no great prestige at stake managed to get on without any new imperialism, though Portugal and Holland displayed a revived pride in the empires they already possessed and the latter’s was administered with renewed vigor…”