Between 1880 and 1914 the West pursued global imperialism. Unlike earlier colonialism, this new imperialism was driven by both the expectation of economic gain and nationalist competition for prestige. Seeking raw materials and markets for finished goods, both wealthy and struggling nations expanded into Asia, Africa, and Latin America, often losing more money than they gained. Racists and Social Darwinists saw imperialism as a way to assert the superiority of the West over lesser peoples. Western imperialism both drove and was driven by the growth of a global economy. The resulting economic interdependence generally worked more to the benefit of Western consumers than of native producers.

Imperialist powers controlled their conquests through a variety of means. After taking over from the East India Company, Britain ruled large tracts of India directly with the help of native troops and English-educated elites who staffed the civil service. The rest Britain controlled through dependant rulers. Western powers forced both China and Japan to open to Western trade. After the Opium War the European powers and, later, Japan worked through the U. S.-backed Open Door policy to claim economically important areas of China as spheres of influence. Leopold II's activities in the Congo drew European attention to Africa. After the Berlin Conference tried to regulate expansion, the European powers quickly took most of the continent. Britain advanced south from Egypt, which it controlled to protect the Suez Canal, and France moved east from West Africa. Other nations, including Germany, seized territories where they could. After casting off Spanish rule, the new Latin American states soon fell under the economic dominion of Europe and later the U. S., whose "dollar diplomacy" shaped relations between North and South American into the late twentieth century. These imperial incursions were often extensions of the evolving European alliance system. For example, conflicts between Britain and France in Africa and southeast Asia, and between Britain and Russia in central Asia were ultimately resolved by the nation's shared fear of Germany.

Native resistance to imperial expansion was equally various. Violent uprisings such as the Sepoy Mutiny in India and the Mahdi's fundamentalist campaign in the Sudan generally failed and resulted in tighter Western control. One exception was the Boer War: although the Boers lost the war, they won special rights under British rule. In India nationalist movements led by the educated elite rose and called for home rule. After World War I these often-competing movements drew closer together, demanding complete independence, which they achieved under Gandhi's leadership after World War II. Japan's resistance to Western influence began almost immediately, resistance that culminated in the Mejii Restoration. A vigorous campaign of westernization enabled Japan to defeat Russia and thus gain recognition by the West as a major power. Japan's efforts to build and Asian empire ultimately brought it into disastrous conflict with the U. S. The Ottoman Empire had long been caught between the expansionist aims of Russia, Britain, and Germany. However, after the breakup of the Empire after World War I, Turkish nationalists under Atatürk successfully pushed the Allies out of Anatolia and established a secular state. Of all the Latin American states, only Mexico suffered direct European incursion. Although it successfully cast out the French-backed regime in 1867, it fared no better than the rest of Latin America again U. S. dollar diplomacy.

After World War II, Europe largely dissolved its empires, and decolonization became intertwined with Cold-War politics. Since the fall of communism, anti-Western movements have risen to oppose the continued expansion of Western culture and economic interests. Suspicious of globalization, these movements that often draw upon traditionalism and fundamentalism, as well as lingering bitterness over the legacy of imperialism.