The Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Colonialism - Essay Example

The Advantages and Disadvantages of the Colonialism History Essay

Colonialism is a situation where members of one community intrude into another colony and take full charge of it. It leads to the enslavement of local communities in the intruded colonies as the intruder always seeks to exercise full authority over the land and people. Colonialism was witnessed among European states as they conquered and settled in different regions around the world.

Being a political-economic situation means that these states did not just exercise their political influence but also exploited the various resources that were found in their new territories. It is a scenario that turns natives in colonies into strangers in their own country as they are required to submit to the rules and requirements of the colonizer fully.

People whose territories are colonized have to change their lifestyles as they are forced to adopt the kind of lifestyle proposed by the colonizer. It might have to be done even in cases where there is a significant conflict between the local culture and the one brought into the colonies by the colonizer. Natives have to find a way of making both lifestyles work out for them.

Notably, there are numerous other challenges brought about when two communities with two different lifestyles and cultural practices are forced to co-exist. Nigeria is a perfect example of the challenges brought about when foreign powers expand into other territories. The country is a colony of Britain and has maintained this status quo since its colonization in the late 19th Century.

Advantages of Colonialism

Religion: Religion and its beliefs have effectively been spread through colonialization. Christianity has been the most extensively spread religion. It happens when missionaries, especially European missionaries, visit different countries to spread their Christian faith. It is how lifestyles and culture changed when European powers entered into different colonies. Colonies were also equipped with skills that made them more empowered even as they changed their previous outlook on life.

Such measures immensely reduced cases of illiteracy and pulled colonies like Nigeria from years of ignorance that saw such colonies struggle with poverty. Most locals had to abandon their regressive religion. Others took a religion like Christianity as an addition to a concept they already had on God. So this religion only drew their focus to the deity. With the new religion, they felt closer to God. A new, more defined religion gave them more hope in the deity in moments of adversity.

Modernization through colonialism: colonial powers contributed to the development of many weak colonies. These supported most of these colonies by providing much-needed technology. For instance, some were able to equip hospitals, improve transport systems, and improve education systems to modern standards. It is with such improvements that many developing nations managed to experience increased rates of development in their land. So, whatever development is being seen in these colonies today is attributed to such technological support.

Natural resources: colonies used the advanced technologies provided by their colonial rulers to discover different minerals from their country. Unlike before, the use of a more sophisticated technology meant these minerals could easily be located or identified and easily extracted. With this also came more jobs for natives as they could work in different mines and have slightly better lives than they had in the past. The economies of these colonies were also improved as they could now extract more minerals than they did before. With a more skilled workforce, the colonial masters took the opportunity to use natives as cheap labor for the extraction of these minerals.

Land Expansion: Nigeria had no territorial boundaries before the coming of colonial masters. It brought about uncertainties at these different limited groups. However, all this changed when boundaries were well defined, and ethnic communities were suddenly not restricted in their movements. It is for this reason that anyone in Nigeria can move and live in any part of the country. People are no longer limited to their tiny villages and towns.

Common language: the colonial masters introduced a universal language in their colonies. It broke the language barriers that impeded unity in the colonies. Nigeria is one of the colonies that have greatly benefited from its colonial masters. It is because the country has over 500 languages, with none being regarded as being greater than the other.

Obviously, there was a need for one common language to break the language barriers that existed in the country. So when the colonial masters brought English, it was widely accepted as a unifying factor. Its acceptance by most communities in Nigeria was caused by the fact that English was a universal language that gave no single Nigerian community right over the other. It wasn’t like having to take the language spoken by one community and imposing it on the rest as a national language.

Disadvantages of Colonialism

Strange system of government-imposed through colonialism: the colonial power forced new systems of government on its colonies. It was in utter disregard of the fact that natives already had a system that worked out for them. However, these changes meant that most colonies had to make drastic changes in their lifestyles.

They had to be acquainted with the system introduced by their masters to understand how it worked and avoided the mistakes that would otherwise be caused due to lake of familiarity with it. Some challenges brought by this new system were primarily based on its demands on all the people in the land. For instance, it introduced the concept of taxes, forcing natives to fulfill their tax obligations to the government.

Culture change shock among people: the colonial master placed a lot of pressure on colonies that saw them lose their culture and heritage. Some of these were values passed from ancestors and which were dear to most of these natives. Natives had to change their dressing codes and were even forced to speak the colonial master’s language. It became almost impossible to find anything that attached natives to their traditions as they had lost most of it.

Destruction of property: the land was taken from natives and used by colonial masters to build institutions like schools, hospitals, and prisons. Some of the dispossessed properties had sentimental value to natives, but their masters disregarded this. It was more devastating to think that most of these natives were taken as second-class citizens in their land. In other words, they had less influence on whatever decisions were made by their colonial masters.

Dispersion and loss of lives: Colonialism led to the dispersion of natives from their land. It was a result of the unbearable suffered inflicted on natives, and that made it impossible for these people to continue living in such a harsh environment created by colonialists. People who remain in their lands did so only if they felt they could bear with the suffering caused by these colonialists. Sadly, some ended up losing their lives due to the hardships inflicted on them by the foreign masters. Families were disconnected from each other due to these high rates of dispersion and deaths in the hands of their new masters. It made life even more unbearable for people who were left behind.

Disease infections: colonialism brought with it some new infections. Such that had not been witnessed before by natives. For instance, many women acquired sexually transmitted diseases as they were forced into having sexual intercourse with some of these colonial masters. Natives also acquired new strains of infectious infections from these colonial masters. However, the colonizers also had their share of locally acquired infections. Colonial masters in Nigeria and other developing nations also acquired diseases like chickenpox, malaria, smallpox, typhoid, and malaria from their colonies.

Economic dependence brought by colonialism: Developing nations have been forced to depend on their colonial masters even after they gain independence. In fact, the levels of underdevelopment in most developing countries has been attributed to the exploitation witnessed in the hands of their colonial masters. Most of the resources from these colonies were only used by colonial masters to enrich their nations. It is for this reason that people in developing nations still live in poverty. Countries like Nigeria, for example, have had to depend on Britain for so many things.

For instance, while the country has oil as one of its primary resources, this oil still has to be exported to developing nations to be refined into finished products. As a result, the country has to buy back some of its refined oil, making it expensive even to natives. This country also has to increasingly depend on Britain for essential products like clothing materials for use by its people. It is some form of neocolonialism, where the colonizer still has much power over its former colonies even though the colonies have already attained independence.

It is clear that colonialism still affects many countries in the world. These effects are experienced by the colonized as well as the colonizer. Through it, people can now tolerate each other regardless of the differences that might exist. However, it has also brought scars of underdevelopment and loss, which might take years to correct. It is also highly likely that some of these scars might never be fixed since some people experienced a permanent negative change in the way they live.

Some are permanently detached from their culture, others lost an entire clan due to the harsh treatments and foreign diseases, while some never recovered their lands. Regardless, colonial rule has both negatively and positively affected nations. Each colony and colonizer has to be singled out to understand the extent of good and evil that occurred to or between them in the pre-colonial period. Only by doing this will anyone realize the scope of harm or support people received.

Above all, it would be unfair to concentrate on the negative and forget about the positive entirely. There has to be a balance when analyzing the effects of colonialism. Such are the arguments that are to be made when providing the advantages and disadvantages of the colonialism history essay.