Colonialism - Negative and Positive Consequences to the Colonies - Coursework Example

Final Library Research Paper: Colonialism Thesis: although on the surface it appears that colonies still resist the empires, a closer analysis of[X, Y and Z places] in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries reveals that colonialism had a more of a positive than negative impact. Introduction Colonialism can be defined as a political-economic incident where powerful nations explored, settled, conquered and exploited various parts of the world. A number of factors influenced colonization: following the second industrialization momentum in Europe, hence there was need to sell the surplus production; hence need to find new markets. The surplus capital had to be invested for profits.1 Due to overpopulation in Europe, the colonizers reckoned that they could settle their extra populations in areas such as Australia and South Africa that had the same climatic conditions as the mother countries.2 The main colonizers were countries such as Germany, Italy, France, Portugal and Britain. Each of these countries wanted to prove their supremacy; the colonizer that could take more colonies than the rest was deemed the most powerful. Again, they believed that their civilization was the most powerful hence the need to spread it to uncivilized countries. Due to industrialization, there was the need for raw materials to be used in the factories, hence the need to find new sources of raw materials.3 Most of the colonies were in Africa, Asia and India. While there may have been negative impacts of colonization such as loss of autonomy, slave trade, loss of lives and property, overall, colonialism had more positive than negative benefits. For instance, Africa, India, and Asia became more developed in terms of infrastructure and economy.4 Members of the colonies acquired education and civilizations, factors that perhaps helped to reduce warfare. Colonialism resulted into political stability as well as civilized religions such as Christianity and Islam.5 General Positive Impacts of Colonialism The economies of the colonies greatly expanded due because of increased demand for goods and raw materials on the overseas counties. This was greatly influenced by the growth of industrialization that meant there was increased need for raw materials in Europe. Sanitation tremendously improved, thus rate of life expectancy did increase especially in Africa. The colonizers taught them to eat healthily and introduced health facilities to cure diseases that hitherto claimed lives of Africa people.6 The European colonization resulted in Africa being industrialized since most of the raw materials such as cotton, coal, sugar, coffee and tea had to be processed first in Africa before being shipped to Europe and other destination.7 Due to colonization, the high rates of local warfare that had been experienced in most African states were significantly reduced. Colonization resulted in the spread of Christianity throughout Africa. 8 Mineral Potential of Africa Colonialism led to the full realization of the African mineral potential. As a result, the mining industry roared as and in the mean time farming of cash crops such as coffee, tobacco, cocoa, rubber, and sisal spread. In the West Africa for instance, the West Africans produced these cash crops themselves, evident of their ability and willingness to respond and adapt to the precise incentives. The economic revolution had tremendous consequences. Prior to the colonial period huge tracts of land in most African countries were underexploited and underutilized.9 The beginning and extension of cash crops as well as mining industries ended this under-exploitation of raw materials and minerals. Again, the economic revolution resulted into an increased purchasing power of the African nationals. With these, there was great demand for the goods that were produced. Growing cash crops allowed individuals of any sort and whichever status, especially in the remote areas to obtain wealth.10 Perhaps a major revolutionary influence of the mineral exploitation resulted into the money economy. Because of this, there was an emergence of a novel class of salaried groups and wage earners.11 With the money economy, banks and financial institutions developed in Africa. This was another major economic feature among the independent states of Africa. As of 1935, the African economy had been inextricably pegged on to those of the world in common, and of the capitalist economy in singular. The after years of 1935 simply depended on this connection so that not even independence could essentially alter that relationship. This then shows that the colonialism had a more desirable than negative impact on not only African economy but also economies of other states that were colonized.12 Infrastructure Although pundits could argue that the infrastructure that colonialism provided was not useful or adequate, most of the railways and the roads constructed were constructed not just to open up the states, but simply to link the states that had deposits of minerals as well as the prospective for cash crop production with the sea, as well as there were barely any branch or feeder roads. In essence, the railways and the roads were to facilitate communication and inter-African travel.13 This economic growth happened in these colonies as was determined by natural resources of a particular area. This therefore implied that the states not naturally productive were completely ignored. A characteristic colonial economic feature was the complete and perhaps intentional neglect, or dissuasion of industrialization as well as the processing of raw materials that were produced locally. This also applied to agricultural produce from many of the colonized countries.14 Basic and simple items such as edible oil, matches and candles, some of which could easily be produced in Africa had to be imported to Europe. This meant that Africa states from where the raw materials were made economically benefitted. What does this who? That all African states, Indian states as well as other colonies became markets for the utilization of the goods manufactured from the countries and raw material producers for exportation.15 In this regard, it means that industrialization was greatly fueled by colonialism. It need more good than bad to the colonies.16 Perhaps the same can be said of India, an economy that greatly improved following its colonization. Industrialization boosted industries such that had hitherto been defunct in pre-colonial period. With this infrastructure, the elites from the countries that were colonized gained expertise in areas such as crafts; areas that became beneficial to them and that they used to uplift their economies and bring developments to their countries even long after the colonizers had left.17 Technology Colonialism led to technological advancement of the colonies. They would used this technology even long after the colonizers had left. Whereas pundits could argue that technology has long existed in the countries that were colonized, the technology has been simple and could not match production expectations. As a result, most of the minerals and raw materials from these colonies had remained under-exploited and perhaps underutilized.18 The colonizers came with advanced technologies that improved production of the process of industrialization in general in the colonies. Technology led to introduction of roads and railways. These technologies helped open up African countries and other colonies to the rest of the world. Hence, Africans reaped big time from these technologies.19 What is more, colonialism meant more African integration into global trade. Simply put, technology brought by the colonizers elevated living standards for most Africans, especially following independence. In South Africa, mining technology led great land exploration and the birth of dual economies.20 Evidence suggests that South Africa is perhaps the best African economy at the present, thanks to the technology brought about by the colonizers. Formal sector wages improved. The aforementioned mining technology can still be witnessed in Johannesburg and Transvaal where gold mining industry thrives. 21 Without the technology that the colonizers brought, Africans would not have made substantial advances in innovation. Additionally, the colonizers, with aid of the missionaries, brought technology in medicine. Agriculture as the Main Source of Income Arguably, agriculture is the main source of income and in fact backbone of most African economies. This trend was greatly influenced by the colonizers. The colonizers made attempt to diversify agriculture.22 Prior to colonialism, agriculture in some of the colonies had not been as exploited as it should have been perhaps due to lack of appropriate technology or sensitization. By 1935, countries such as Gold Coast, Gambia, Senegal, Uganda, and Tanganyika had not realized the need to turn the crops they were to known to produce in large amounts into cash crops that could help elevate their economies.23 It took the intervention of the colonizers to crops such as cocoa, groundnuts, cotton, coffee and sisal into cash crops. Although critics could argue that they did this for their won gain, the colonies would later reap bid time even long after the colonizers had left. In fact, most of the African economies are agriculturally driven. Thus, following independence most colonies including India, African States and Australia found themselves engraved with a monoculture economy-that of agriculture.24 Besides, they were greatly sensitive to the existing international trade currents. In this regard, therefore, colonialism indeed completed the incorporation of African economies into a new world economic order. Anyway, this may have been in an exploitative and rather disadvantageous manner. As they were mainly encouraged to grow cash crops as opposed to food crops, Africans were thus forced to grow cash crops at the expense of their own consumptions.25 The disregard of food manufacture, tied with forced labor can be argued to have caused severe famine, malnutrition and a number of epidemics in some parts of Africa; however, these were only during the earlier stages of colonialism.26 African states were later to reap from cash crops. The colonizers encouraged African to produces cash crops so that they could improve the economy, a clear evidence of the significance of agriculture to an economy. The presence of colonizers resulted into Africa becoming a scene of many expatriate banking, trading firms, and shipping and thus from the 1940’s onwards, their consolidation and amalgamation into lesser oligopolies.27 As the trading companies controlling the import trade as well as the export trade and set the price of both imported as well as exported commodities produced by Africans, the huge profits accrued by the these ventures were relatively enjoyed by both the Colonizers and the colonies. Colonialism did enhance inter-African trade since the flow of trade from the colonies was oriented towards the metropolitan countries. Eventually, whatever economic growth during the colonial era was attained at a justifiable and phenomenal cost of African Labor, induced cultivation of cash crops, migrant labor, among other necessary measures, such as evictions from fertile lands. Of course, some sacrifices such as moving populations to less fertile lands had to be made by the colonizers. As a result, some of the consequences in achieving such growths included disruption of family life, high mortality rates, and pass systems as well as resistances from most of the members of the areas colonized.28 Colonialism and Socialization Colonialism led to an upsurge of African population. The populations increase can be estimated at 40% following the initial decrease of in the first three decades. Perhaps the increase in population can be attributed to the establishment of strong economic foundation, the spread of railways and roads that ensured foods could be hurried to areas that were famine-hit.29 They also campaigned against endemic illnesses such as yellow fever, bubonic plague, and sleeping sickness that claimed many lives in Africa during the pre-colonial era. Perhaps this is closely connected to the tremendous influence of colonialism-urbanization.30 The empires and kingdoms of Africa such political or capital centers such as Benin, Kumbi Saleh, Kumasi, Ile-Ife, Zimbabwe or Gao; commercial centers such as Sofala, Jenne, Kano and Malindi; educational centers such as Fez, Timbuktu and Cairo.31 Needles to say, these progresses were due to colonialism. The speed of urbanization was tremendously accelerated and totally new towns were formed. Additionally, the populations of both present and novel towns greatly grew during the colonial period. For instance, the population of Nairobi begun in 1896 as transportation depot during the construction of the Ugandan railway, inflated from a mere 13,145 during 1927 to over 25,000 during 1940; that of Lagos increased from 74,000 to 230,000 in 1914 and 1950 respectively; that of Dakar increased from 19,800 to 132,000 in 1916 and 1945 respectively.32 Besides, there was evidently progress in quality of life, especially for people living in cities. This could be attributed to provision of dispensaries, hospitals, sanitary facilities, pipe-borne water, better housing and abolition of slavery and slave trade. What is more, there were increased employment opportunities. The spread of Islam and Christianity was another significant impact consequence of colonialism.33 Indeed, it was during the colonial era that Christianity became embedded in central and eastern Africa. Trade also followed Christianity. Likewise, Islam did spread rapidly in eastern and western Africa due to broad improvement in communication during the colonial era and were influenced by both the British and the French rulers.34 Perhaps it would also be noteworthy that the religious gains did not in any way interfere with traditional religions.35 Colonialism indeed strengthened and perpetuated African religious pluralism thus enriching African religious life. Western education was closely related to spread of Christianity.36 Undoubtedly, at the stop of the colonial era, there many areas among the colonies that had at least basic schools. The stretch of western education had broad social effects, including increased number of Western-educated African elite; the elite currently makes up the ruling oligarchy as well as the foundation of African States’ civil service.37 Another significant colonial impact, perhaps an infusion of blessing, was the stipulation of lingua franca for every colony of groups of colonies. In every colony, the native language of the colonizers became the official language. For instance, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania adopted English as their official language. Perhaps, the last beneficial social effect of colonialism was the new social structure that the colonialists introduced into parts of Africa.38 This novel social structure emphasized on individual achievement and merit. Thus, the changes altered the changed the conventional social structure.39 Conclusion This paper has looked at the basic aspects associated with colonialism, the reasons for its spread and the general impacts of colonialism. Some of the impacts highlighted were in areas of education, religion, social stratification, infrastructure, agriculture, and technology. Evidently, colonialism had both negative and positive consequences to the colonies. The colonies that have been mentioned include African states and India. Although there were negative effects of colonization such as loss of lives, destruction of property, assimilation of cultures and loss of cultural heritage, overall the positive impacts supersede the negative impacts. Africa, for instance, became more developed and industrialized perhaps influenced by improved technology and emphasis of agriculture as the backbone of economy. What is more, without colonialism continents such as Africa would still be primitive: no formal education, good economy and established social order. Infrastructure such as roads and railways made it easier to transport raw materials, which as a result improved the economy. Improved technology made exploitation of hitherto underexploited and underutilized resources such as minerals easier. Thus, it can be argued that colonialism indeed had more positive than negative impacts on the colonies. Bibliography Bartlett, Bruce. 1989. "The State and the Market in Sub-Saharan Africa". WORLD ECONOMY. 12 (3): 293-314. Colonialism in Africa 1, 1. 1969. Cambridge: Univ. Press. Fieldhouse, D.K. 2005. The West and the Third World: trade, colonialism, dependence and development. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishers. Gann, L. H., and Peter J. Duignan. 1975. Colonialism in Africa, 1870-1960. Vol.4, Vol.4. London: Cambridge University Press. Heidrich, Joachim. 1994. Changing identities: the transformation of Asian and African societies under colonialism : papers of a symposium held at the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin, 21-22 October 1993. Berlin: Verlag Das Arabische Buch Katchka, Kinsey. 2001. "Colonialism and culture". Putting Art in Place: Exhibiting Community and Cultural Policy. 41-65. Olivier, Gerrit. 2011. "From colonialism to partnership in Africa-Europe relations?" The International Spectator. 46 (1). Umozurike, U.O. 1978. "International law and neo-colonialism in Africa". The Indian Journal of International Law : a Quarterly. 18: 352-363. Van Kemseke, Peter. 2006. Towards an Era of Development the Globalization of Socialism and Christian Democracy. Leuven: Leuven University Press. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1763052. www.hrmars.com/admin/pics/170.pdf www.jstor.org/stable/1186734 Read More