WW Chapter 18: Colonial Encounters in Asia, Africa and Oceania



Britania, the Warrior Queen, ruling over the world
(Source: http://www.melaskole.no/the-story-of-an-empire.html)

Chapter 18: Colonial Encounters in Asia, Africa and Oceania
This chapter, probably more than any other, ticked me off.  Since I am a business major, I understand the importance of a free market and how trade can make us all better off.  The colonies of the world powers durring this period certainly fueled the economic engines of modern empires, but the externalities generated by the activities led to local market failures that were never addressed.  Most egregious was the fact that the colonizing power replaced the production of goods and services by a country with the production of resources they wished to exploit or sell abroad.  And they did it with coerced local labor from the colony.  Not only does this ignore the free market position of what should be a soveriegn nation, but it destroys their ability to be self sufficient.  Often times, surplus was produced despite the market value of the export.  This is not good for long term strategy, nor is it ethical.  

In fact, (I don't think this is in the book, but it bears mentioning) France replaced North Africa's local grains with peanuts since the extraction technology made peanut oil valuable, and replaced it in the local diet with broken rice from French colonies in Vietnam (called middlin's in the south).  They effectively created a new market for goods to sell BACK to their own colonies.  African national dishes changed from being based on teff, fonio and millet -- Their traditional grains -- to being based on broken rice.  North African agriculture is still based that way today, using imported grains and exporting peanuts.  A culture was destroyed in the span of less than a century.  The Russians did the same thing with their centrally planned economy -- putting production in countries where they thought it should go replacing what was there before, destroying local economies and wiping out cultures.  These colonies became completely dependent upon their rulers, making it almost impossible to break free and gain independence.

When France, Britain and Belgium was through exploiting all the resources they could, they pulled out of Africa in the 60's.  They offered them pure independence or self governance with economic ties back to the empires.  Naturally, most countries selected the later, and decades of failed administrations due to a post colonial power vacuum followed.  Only now is Africa regaining its identity.

I just found the sheer ignorance of the world powers arrogant and clueless as to what is really important and how to build sustaining trade and encourage a free market.  Where once a flourishing market between Asia and Africa existed, complete with trade routes and cross cultural exchanges, Europe changed the entire landscape like locusts, devouring everything in their path.

Western educational systems taught the colonies that European thought was superior.  Over generations, cultural knowledge and identities were erased and forgotten or worse yet, disdained by the people that shared them in favor of a more modern and European view.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WW Chapter 22: The End of Empire

Image
The Economist - Africa Rising (Source: https://www.economist.com/leaders/2011/12/03/africa-rising) Chapter 22: The End of Empire The Global South on the Global Stage 1914 - Present After decades of imperical rule, the Western European powers losen their grip on the colonies, offering them independence.  But at what cost?  Freedom and the ability to govern yourself in the way your see fit certainly sound great.  But self governance sometimes isn't all it's cracked up to be when the economy is tied directly to your legitimacy as a government.  In those years when the European powers exploited the labor and resources from the colonies, often times reorganizing a country's economy to suit production needs of Europe, to the point of creating a country that is no longer self sufficient without importing basic goods.  I believe Europe granted these countries their independence largely because they had drained them of everything useful, leaving t...
Read more

WW Chapter 4: Culture and Religion in Eurasia/North Africa

Image
Ahura Mazda - The Zoroarstrian Diety (Source: https://www.ancient.eu/Ahura_Mazda/) Joseph Randall Cali Patti Andrews World History HST 2020-01 16 May 2019 Chapter 4: Culture and Religion in Eurasia/North Africa 500 B.C.E - 500 C.E As ancient empires began to make sense of the world and govern themselves, the earliest forms of organized religion began to take shape and have a profound impact on the culture of civilization.  What was the relationship between worship and culture?  How did it affect social norms?  What purpose did it serve?  I've always thought about these things - maybe a little cynically, but I'd always thought it served a purpose to legitimize wealth accumulation or power of one group over another simply by association.  Men over women, believers over non-believers, clergy over the "flock".   Perhaps I could get a clear picture from Strayer's text. After reading the chapter, I can see that it was likely t...
Read more