WW Chapter 22: The End of Empire

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 them with  populations on the brink of revolution.  New governments left without much to work with and having no experience with administration or management lost ground to military coups around the world.

Maybe I'm oversimplifying things, but with the exception of India's gradual transition, most new governments were ineffective.  I tend to blame the close ties between the economy and government.  Most new governements tended to shy away from a free market driven economy, opting instead for a state controlled one.  Once you do that, the flying finger of blame lands squarely pointed at you.  Fractured economies driven by the state did little to improve the lives of their citizens who, in turn, emboldened by independence, did nothing to defend the government against military takeover.

Of course, colonies with multiple cultures and little sense of nationalistic pride didn't help either.  As the years rolled by, democracy seemed to be an attarctive form of governance.  Strayer contends that this is likely due to what he termed the "unterthering of the ideas of democracy and human rights from their western origins" (1000).  A mouthful to be sure, and I might put it more sucinctly and just state that democracy wasn't seen so much as a western idea anymore, making it more palitable to new countries.