...I will illustrate briefly the effect of European colonialism in North Africa especially in those main sectors. Politically, the most important inheritance of European colonialism in Africa is the demarcation of the borders between the African countries, which essentially reflected European colonial interests in the region and did not recognize African interests. Thus, the inherited European colonial boundaries led to the division of ethnic groups between two or more countries, A history of hostility and conflict within a single regional border, which has encouraged the increase...
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...COLONIALISM IN AFRICA How does the legacy of colonialism affect contemporary African international relations? If questioned today about Africa in general the first reactions I would have are poor governance, poverty, conflict, economic instability and hunger. These are the major characteristics that dominate most of the states within the continent as a whole. The question would be has it always been this way? Different debates and differences have been focused on the colonial legacy for post-colonial Africa and the nature of colonialism. Various characterizations and conceptions tend to differ considerably among the international relations and African scholars. Between 1800 and 1900, majority of the European powers colonized the African continent. Colonialism, a political-economic occurrence whereby the various European nations exploited, took over, explored and settled down in great parts of the world still has a far reaching impact on the African continent. The colonialists; prolonged their ways of living beyond their domestic borders, economically exploited their colonies natural resources and this was done in order to strengthen and develop the colonies of the West and lastly created new markets. The African continent was indirectly impacted on the social, political, economic and cultural way of living. The colonial legacy is the inheritance of the state that belonged to the colonial administration from this administration by post-colonial rulers in...
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...Writer] [Name of the Institution] Introduction Neo-colonialism is used to illustrate the interference and involvement of the developed countries in third world countries. It describes how the system of capitalism and cultural behaviours are being used by these developed nations to take control over a country. Basically, neo-colonialism is no different than traditional colonialism but simply masked in an altered shape. While in colonialism, the country or colony is being ruled by political involvement or by means of military support, neo-colonialism is more refined but uniformly harmful. Rather, it can be more destructive than colonialism. In the traditional way of colonialism, the country taking control of a colony is accountable for its actions, by reporting back to the mother country. All actions and decisions are monitored to a specific level. Also, the country being colonised has a protection of the colonial power. While in neo-colonialism, the developed country is free of any accountability. There is no official system of check and balance and colonial power is not officially responsible to provide protection for the country being affected by its colonial power. All the foreign capital and investments are utilized for the profits of the developed country, leaving the less developed country oppressed with a very nominal or no investment for its betterment. Apart from economical and financial damage, neo-colonialism also casts some health related impacts on the less...
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...Early Colonization Ethnic and cultural diversity is an internationally shared social experience. In today’s society several countries possess “natives” of different ethnicity. Many ethnicity who are believed to be original natives of their country are usually descendants of colonists or a race made up of a mixture of ethnicity from a particular region. Early colonialism is one cause for such diversity. Colonization is the establishment of a colony through the organized migration to an outside territory. From the 1600’s to 1800’s Western Europeans were the colonized groups dominating many parts of the world for a variety of reasons. Many conquest to other countries were to discover natural resources like, spices, gold and other trade-able material unique to its region. Some expedition set out to explore for other reasons like proving a theory or to follow up on stories told by their fellow explorers. Once reaching their destination, other factors made them stay such as the discovery of monetary gain, religious freedom and political powers. While some countries like China, were unable to become colonized, others were dominated to the extent of their people eventually becoming a minority in their own land. Imperialistic ambition was a major element in the colonization of many third world countries. As immigrants settled on foreign soil, they believed they were legitimately entitled to occupy the land. They eventually impose their economic, religion, and social systems onto an...
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...December 14, 2013 Shades of Colonialism The continuum of history plays an important role in human thought. History and Colonialism, to the superficial thinker, is a collection of individual actions, social change, periods, regions, civilizations and other events that are long gone. However, as Prof. Montrose points out, history is not just about the past. All that happened in the past was happening in the present at that time. We are living in our present which will be the past in the future. The history of colonialism is being written every moment that we live, and the attached articles aptly illustrate the fact. Events that molded the colonial past are interwoven in the present and are shaping the future. The commonality and diversity of causal forces and human reactions with regard to colonialism, over time is remarkable. The struggle between a dominant and suppressed culture is a common thread. The clash could be between distant cultures, such as the Europeans and Africans or somewhat similar cultures, such as the British and Irish. This can be loosely labelled as external and internal colonialism respectively. External colonialism has declined and changed character in today's world of connectivity and interdependence. Nations now do not directly or outright rule other less powerful nations. Instead, they take a more subtle approach, influencing the political class and deriving their benefits. This has even been called neo-colonialism, such as being practiced by China...
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...Professor Orgala March 22, 2014 AFAM-101 The Negative Political and Economic Impacts of Colonialism on Africa In October 1884, Otto von Bismarck, the German Chancellor, summoned European countries to a conference in Berlin, Germany. At the conference diplomats from Europe and America signed the Berlin Convention, which ultimately ended the Berlin Conference. This conference was created to diminish intensifying colonial struggles in Africa. This conference effectively established the boundaries of European powers. The signing of the Berlin Conference led to the scramble for Africa, which is defined as “efforts to fully occupy” portions of Africa that remained independent. With the exception of a couple countries the continent of Africa became controlled by seven European powers, including: Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. After European powers possessed control over the continent, they began to transform African society and its politics. The reason I have for choosing this topic is that a thorough understanding of colonialism in Africa is key to comprehend the obstacles that the continent of Africa and it’s leaders have to face to lead their countries into prosperity (Schraeder). Peter J. Schraeder, author of the book African Politics and Society: A Mosaic in Transformation, credits the spread of the Roman Empire as the precursor to European colonialism. The Roman Empire’s spread to Africa started in 146 B.C. when the city of Carthage, (present...
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...one to six with thought provoking and are stimulating issue at each chapter. A post script as well as a biography of the author is attached at the latter part of the literature. A chapter by chapter method of review have been adopted to do justice to this work for an incisive appreciation. The conceptualization of the notion of development and underdevelopment took the central stage in the first chapter, as the author attempted a penetrating analysis into the duo concepts in order to demystify their justification of capitalism which myopically conceives economic development with little or no consideration for human social development. Chapter two focused mainly on the developed nature of African territories before the coming of the Europeans up to the 15th century. The unique status of African civilization which is characterised by certain peculiarities some of which include the possession of distinct institutions/ideas of government etc as...
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...Colonialism: The One-Armed Bandit In every essay that we have read over the past few weeks, all of the authors talk about how colonialism has ultimately destroyed Africa and their hopes of ever being as great as the other leader nations. Authors like Maria Mies, Walter Rodney, and Jerry Kloby all contribute different explanations as to how the European colonizers have basically destroyed Africa. Mies explains how Africa has no chance of “catching-up” to the other developed countries because of European colonialism. Rodney disputes the claims that colonialism has modernized Africa and how the new advancements being brought in by the colonizers were being more used against Africans than to help them. Then Kloby helps us look at real examples of different times in which colonialism has hurt Africans more than helped them. All of these authors have come to one clear consensus: colonialism has ultimately destroyed Africa’s chances of becoming a great and powerful continent. In Mies’ essay, she tends to be very pessimistic about the Africa being able to “catch-up” to other already developed countries. Mies says that, “the poverty of the underdeveloped nations is not as a result of ‘natural’ lagging behind but the direct consequence of the overdevelopment of the rich industrial countries who exploit the so-called periphery in Africa” (151). She denies that possibility that Africa can catch up by following the same path of industrialization, technological progress, and capital accumulation...
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...sector. “Colonialism was not merely a system of exploitation but one whose essential purpose was to repatriate the profit to the so called mother land” [page 177].It means that the development of Europe as a part of the same dialectical process which Africa was Underdeveloped. African labourwas cheap. The employer often required more from the worker but paid him less not even enough to maintain his physical self. This was not the case in Europe when feudalism gave way to capitalism. Employers paid their employees a living wage. Wages paid to workers in Europe and North America was far higher than that of Africans. The Africans were discriminated from occupying official positions and even when they did they were paid less compared to the wages of the European officials. This chapter’s main point is to explain how much greater was the exploitation of African workers. Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa Part 4-6 The fourth chapter is entitled Europe and the Roots of African underdevelopment to 1885. It evaluates the European slave trace as a dominant factor in African underdevelopment, all in the interest of European capitalism. Further, a penetrating discuss on the advancement of Europe technology as against that of Africa which is stagnant (this culminating into a distorted economy) was evaluated. Again, the continuing political/military development in Africa from about 1500 to 1885 was attributed to the imperialist incursion /scramble were African territories...
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...12/1/10 Anti-Colonialism Professor Nanes When European countries went to Africa for various resources and control of land they greatly affected the natives that were there. Resentment grew in the hearts of Africans towards their imperial leaders and the only way they knew how to deal with it was with violence. When the Europeans finally left the people of Africa were free to live as they wanted but that did not mean things would get much better with their governments. After years of being controlled by European colonists, the Africans or the “colonized” will not allow others to have power over them without a fight. According to Fanon, the colonists are in a position of envy because they have taken control and made their presence in Africa be viewed as supreme beings above the colonized. The colonized have rage built up inside them and when they have their chance they will strike on the colonists. It was written in Wretched of the Earth, that the colonized “is dominated but not domesticated. He is made to feel inferior, but by no means convinced of his inferiority. He patiently waits for the colonist to let his guard down and then jumps on him.” From this statement, the colonized man wants to get rid of the colonist because the colonist has attempted to make the colonized feel inferior and subservient. The colonized are stimulated by everything the colonists do to prove their superiority, but this fight will not be postponed forever. Eventually...
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...Firstly, women were affected by the alienation of land experienced by most Africans. However, women appear to have been more personally affected by this land alienation. This is because, ‘As women lost access and control of land they became more economically dependent on men. This led to an intensification of domestic patriarchy, reinforced by colonial social institutions.’ Among the Kikuyu of Kenya women were the major food producers and thus not only had ready access to land but also authority over how land was to be cultivated. Speaking about African women in general, Seenarine, in quoting Sacks explains that, ‘the value of women’s productive labor, in producing and processing food established and maintained their rights in domestic and other spheres – economic, cultural, religious, social, political, etc.’ The advent of the British colonialism and the settler economy negatively impacted Kikuyu women because the loss of land meant a loss of access to and authority over land. Kikuyu women found that they no longer had the variety of soils needed to grow indigenous foodstuffs. Traditionally, certain pieces of land were associated with the growth of certain crops. Thus the variety of soils was required to ensure food security . Moreover, land loss meant women were restricted to smaller tracts of land for cultivation. Continuous cultivation of these areas of land led to soil exhaustion and nutrient depletion which ultimately adversely affected crop yields. Land alienation...
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...early 1900’s the Europeans started the colonialism of Africa. Europeans chose to use their power to take over Africa for several reasons. Europe wanted to prove its political power and one way to do so would be to acquire new territories. Europe was also over populated in some areas and so they sent some of their population to Africa new establish new colonies. Europe also had an economic reason to exploit Africa. Africa’s territory would be able to provide much needed raw materials and would help with capitalist industrialization by meeting this demand (2011 Africana). This would also provide a much-needed monetary investment for Europe. The Europeans took over control of the waterways and other routes used for industrial purposes in different areas of Africa. Africa was such a promising place for many other countries to consider colonizing so there was urgency for Europeans to claim their stake in Africa (2011 Africana). There was a concern that it could even lead to wars with other countries trying to take over Africa at the same time as Europe. A German chancellor named Otto von Bismarck helped to protect Europe’s interest in Africa and scheduled what is know as the Berlin Conference (2011 Africana). This conference resulted in the Berlin Act to put into place. This was a treaty that would give standards for conduct of the European inter-imperialist competition that could possibly take place in Africa. Africans did not have a say so in the treaty, which...
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...process and success of imperialism in Africa and Asia from Conrad’s story? Answer The European colonialism brought different changes to the domestic level in Africa and Asian regions. The period after 1870s brought imperialistic aggression in African and Asian countries alongside the diplomatic pressures, colonial conquest and military invasion especially in the regions of Africa. The domestic people faced the foreign domination and attempt of colonization. During the 1870s the Europeans succeed to under control only 10% of the African region and it was the period when Europe started to grab the African land by the 1914, around 90 percent of the African continent was under control of Europeans (The Creation, 2011). In Africa the Berlin conference played vital role in regulating colonization alongside the trade in the African regions. Similarly in the Asian region in subcontinent, the European Colonialism was established ant later on the imperialism was started in 1857 after the freedom war. The European colonialism gradually extend its control over the political powers that later on let the European regions to take control over the African and Asian Regions. After the 1870s, the European started to explore Africa with the industrial revolution that lend the European new ways to enter and new weapons to make its terror and till the 1914, it took control over ninety percent of the African region. This impact let the European to establish their...
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...The introduction of colonialism was brought about to civilise people and was used as a tool in the colonial power system. Not only did it help maintain the power structure, but it also aided in the maintenance of western ideologies inflicted upon the colonised. With this colonial power comes the perpetuation of other power symbols: Patriarchy is a medium to oppress under the category of retaining power. Colonialism and patriarchy are inextricably linked. Tsitsi Dangaremba's Nervous Conditions is used to portray the impact of these power hierarchies, and how it all comes down to the root of ‘Englishness’. The female characters are used in order to reveal how resistance to oppression works, even though the outcomes are successful to different degrees. Nervous Conditions demonstrates how the traditional, colonised women suffer the most. Dangaremba shows in the novel that regardless of the class and social status differentiating the women, oppression through colonialism and patriarchy exists in all forms: “The needs and sensibilities of the women in my family were not considered a priority, or even legitimate,” (Dangaremba 12). Tambu, the protagonist of the novel, right from the beginning explicitly reveals the hardship which the women endure. In the novel, the women all undergo oppression from Babamukuru, the main male figure, who epitomises the inextricability of colonialism and patriarchy. He is a ‘good African’, trained under western rule. His role is to set standards for his...
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...African Personality Opposing Colonialism Mykell Trunnell May 1, 2012 A number of individuals came to prominence in as political activists in the early twentieth century. In Nigeria, Herbert Macaulay founded the Nigerian National Democratic Party in about 1923, which advocated an independent Lagos government, higher education with compulsory primary education attendance, and the Africanization of the civil service, and non-discrimination in the development of private economic enterprise. Macaulay was one of the first leaders of the Nigerian opposition to British colonial rule. He formed the NNDP as a result of a new constitution being formed in 1922 providing limited franchise elections in Lagos and Calabar. He worked as a private surveyor and a journalist and in eventually became the editor in chief of a political newspaper, the Lagos Daily News. Herbert Macaulay was arrested twice for writing articles criticizing the Colonial Government. Macaulay opposed almost every attempt by the Crown to increase their hold on Lagos and the surrounding region in Nigeria. As a result of his anti-colonialism works, he became well known in the local political movement in Lagos and was sent to England by the King of Lagos, Oba Esugbayi Eleko, as a representative in a land dispute. While in London, Macaulay attempted to assert the authority of Oba Esugbayi Eleko. While this did not persuade the Crown to return lands to Oba Esugbayi Eleko, the British did appoint Macaulay as a representative...
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