Defensive Developmentalism - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... The following script depicts Professor Gelvin’s findings on the defensive developmentalism study and the territories that practiced the approach, with the apparent reasons of assimilating the approach.
According to Professor Gelvin, the approach revolved on military and economic prowess. Early in the 17th century, the western economies were fit in military and economic factors, which served as a threat ton the Middle East and North African nations (Kia, 2011). Therefore, the challenged regimes assumed that the best way to stand unchallenged against the rival European nations would be through the implementation of the same policies of leadership. Ottoman Empire and North African communities imply the earliest adapters to the system (Quataert, 2005). Their idea revolved on militarization with a stiff maintenance or improvement to the nations’ economic performance. ...
The following recitation implements on the practices the two phenomena, that is, modernism and fundamentalism, with the successes and failures of each theory towards European encroachment. The Middle East empires were trailing behind their western counterparts in the 19th and 20th centuries. In order to clear retrogress, they shifted towards a favorable method of improvement thus they adapted to modernism in order to reshape their states. This would ignite industrialization and political stability as it was the key to stand firm against hostilities. The ottoman and Persian empires allowed the British and Russian aids and involvements in their territories respectively. The result was that the Islamic countries would drastically change their religious and cultural values. The continuous aggression of the European nations was not significant to the Islamic nations who focused on the advantages associated to the white nations. At the long run, the nations became colonies and the modernism theory had not borne the desired fruits (Quataert, 2005). On the other hand, Islamic fundamentalism led to the restoration of the Islamic phase with a modified approach to political and economical environments. It emanated from the Christian protestant, but the Islams assumed it to imply a revolved approach to counter any future atrocities and cravings from the western colonial powers, with a consequential approach to economic and military competence. The theory was successful to shield the nations against aggression, although the western nations would at other times fund revolutions on the theoretical basis at their own advantage (Kia, 2011). Therefore, both modernism and fundamentalism had positive and negative ...Download file to see next pagesRead More