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Colonialism and its adverse impacts
The effect of colonialism on colonies
Colonialism and its adverse impacts
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Colonialism has plagued indigenous people worldwide and has spelled disaster for countless cultures, languages, and traditions. Over the past 500 years there have been different phases of colonization in Africa as well as other various parts of earth. There were many reasons behind exploration and colonization including economic and tactical reasons, religion, and prestige. Colonialism has shaped the contemporary understanding of individuals from Niger as well as other parts of Africa and other places too, like the Chambri and Tlingit people; mainly in economics. Because of the colonial past of so many cultures, numerous indigenous people today face many issues. Today colonialism is still active, known as Neocolonialism, which has devastating effects on global cultural groups. To begin, the term colonialism is defined in the dictionary as “control by one country over another and its people”. Throughout history colonialism has confounded and damaged numerous cultures and people. Indigenous people have undergone a series of massive modifications to their culture as well as spiritual beliefs and morals and obligations they’ve held since before the first coming of Western cultures. In regards to this, there are many concerns of loss of culture among several different groups. Exploration led to colonization and was carried out for many reasons but the main reasons include religion, status, economic purposes, resources and militarily tactical purposes. Much of early colonization was for trading of raw materials between continents and countries. Dominant religions sought to spread gospel and “civilize” the indigenous people by making them conform to Western beliefs and ways. Status and recognition was also pursued by country leaders w... ... middle of paper ... ...olonialism has afflicted aboriginal people worldwide and has demonstrated perilous effects for countless cultures, languages, and traditions. There were many reasons for exploration and colonization including economics, religion, resources, and prestige. Colonialism has shaped the contemporary understanding of individuals from Niger as well as other parts of Africa and other places too, like the Chambri and Tlingit people; mainly in economics. The colonial past of so many cultures has caused numerous indigenous people today face many issues. Today colonialism is still active and continues to have devastating effects on global cultural groups. Bibliography Lampe, Frederick P. "Class Lecture." NAU. March-April 2014. Project, Harvard. The State of the Native Nations. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. 221-222. Webster, Merriam. Dictionary and Thesaurus. 2014.
The English took their land and disrupted their traditional systems of trade and agriculture. As a result, the power of native religious leaders was corrupted. The Indians we...
The colony is not only a possibility in the geographical; it is a mental dominance that can imperialize the entire self. Entire continents have be domineered, resources completely dried, and at colonialism’s usual worst, the mental devastation of the indigenous culture has left a people hollow. Indigenous culture is no longer that. In the globalized world, no culture is autonomous; culture cannot breathe without new ideas and new perspectives, perspectives that have traditionally come from the people who have lived within the culture. But, the imposition of dominant cultures has certainly benefited from culture’s own vulnerability, as global similarities now exist throughout most different, yet not separate cultures. Postcolonialism is imperialism with a mask on, nothing less. As Franz Fanon puts it “that imperialism which today is fighting against a s true liberation of mankind leaves in its wake here and there tinctures of decay which we must search out and mercilessly expel from our land and our spirits.”
After colonization began there were countless detrimental changes to the indigenous way of life that took place. Neu (2000) discusses these detrimental changes in detail. The author accounts for the lost of their land and natural environment, the discouragement of their lifestyle focused on hunting and gathering, the separation of families via the residential school system, and the punishment received for the usage of traditional customs and language. In many ways the colonists disrespected the Aboriginal people by disregarding their fundamental needs and wants. Additionally, the process of colonization implemented some drastic gender role changes into Aboriginal culture. Colonization imposed European patriarchy, accompanied by racism and sexism, on the matriarchal Aboriginal cultures. As a result, the Aboriginal women of Canada lost their sense of purpose and responsibility, burdening them with less respect and power compared to the men. This loss contributed to many negative effects for these women and made them feel a strong sense of cultural estrangement.
Beginning in 1880, there was a growing desire for European countries to expand and control their rule. The only continent at that time that was left uncontrolled and, in the European's eyes uncivilized, was Africa. This was the start of Western Imperialism. All European countries wanted their piece of Africa and to get it, they would let nothing stand in their way. They would change the entire government, religion, market, and behavior of most of the African nation and affect almost every person living there. An account of the impact of Imperialism is given in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. This book shows the changes that occurred in Africa during Imperialism and its affect on the community and the people of the tribes that existed there.
Pre-dating to the early 15th century, when contact with European settlers was originally established, Indigenous peoples have been required to succumb to settler – colonization in an attempt to be integrated into mainstream culture. The initial purpose of colonialism was to be used as a tool to gain access to resources not otherwise available. As colonialism evolved, it has become a method by which foreign populations move into unfamiliar territories, and attempt to remove the colonized group from the currently occupied space.
The source of problems in some modern African nations lies in the colonial legacy of the past. Imperialistic policies often denied the native populations their political, economic, cultural, and basic human rights. Many imperialistic practices promoted ethnic rivalries, unequal distribution of resources and wealth, and undemocratic governments which prevented local participation in governmental decisions and actions. The impact of colonization on Angola is similar to that of many other African nations.
Imperialism is the domination by one country of the political, economic, or cultural life of another country. Throughout the 1700 and 1800’s many powerful countries such as Britain, France and Spain took part in the Scramble for Africa which is one of the largest scales of Imperialism. Many people believe that the nations which were imperial colonizer owe reparation to the people and countries they colonized. Nations that were imperial colonizers owe reparations to the people and countries they colonized. This is especially true in the case of Nigeria and other African countries that were colonized during the Scramble for Africa.
Africa has had a long and tumultuous road of colonization and decolonization the rush to colonize Africa started in the 17th century with the discovery of the vast amounts of gold, diamonds, and rubber with colonization hitting a fever pitch during World War I. However, the repercussions of colonization have left deep wounds that still remain unhealed in the 21st century. Early on, European nations such as Britain, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany and Belgium scrambled for territories. Countries wanted land so they could harvest the resources, increase trade, and gain power. The European colonization of Africa brought racism, civil unrest, and insatiable greed; all of which have had lasting impacts on Africa.
Overall both the Africans and Americans suffer abuses from their colonial rulers, with revitalization movements believing that the European conquest is a punishment for not fully observing their old indigenous traditions (p66 – 67)
The resulting civil wars, genocides, apartheid, social tensions, and hierarchies detained societal progress and disadvantaged African countries. The long-term consequences of Western imperialism continue to be felt in modern society; Belgian colonial rule fueled racial tensions that led to the 1994 Rwanda genocide, descendants of American settlers maintain disproportionate control over Liberia’s political and economic structure, and negligent withdrawal of imperial powers undermined future self-government and stability. When questioning Africa’s humanitarian status today, the modern implications of Western imperialism cannot be ignored. In accounting for the domination, oppression, and exploitation of native Africans, a more holistic perspective better explains the historical legacy of
In the Western world European colonialism is hailed as an accomplishment. It is the time where Europeans flourished economically after finding and taking control of the lands of the New World. Because of European colonialism and the need for free labor, millions of Africans were forced from their homeland and were forced into slavery. Years later the Europeans came back to colonize and take the rich resources of Africa without any regard to the native people who lived there. Though colonialism ended in the United Stated in the 1700’s and other parts of the Americas in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, many of its racial and injustices are still an ingrained in society today There have been many instances where groups of people within African
By altering the perspectives of West Africans, it created two major problems. The indigenous man believes he is behind the rest of the world and must assimilate, and the colonizer becomes the ultimate goal of the colonized man. This is an imagined state of inferiority. Europeans have to power to influence one another and the one’s they colonize. Europeans provided a “need” for industrialization that was not relevant to African life. In order to legitimize industrialization, Europeans played on the ego’s of the ambitious. Marketing an ideal that Africans could be just as successful as the Europeans. Aimé Cesaire says, “No human contact, but relations of domination and submission which turn the colonizing man into a classroom monitor, an army sergeant, a prison guard, a slave driver, and the indigenous man into an instrument of production”. (Cesaire, 50) The colonized man no longer needs the colonizer, he must perpetrate their principles. Some West Africans will now take on the role as exploiters in order to gain approval. This type of Laborer becomes the sub-oppressor. West African citizens are split into bourgeoisie and impoverished. The bourgeoisie believe that they have reach success by becoming educated in Europe and must come back and help their homeland, when in actuality they begin to harm their home rather than help. By believing that the colonizer has better schooling, opportunity or knowledge, they devalue those
Colonial Mentality theory grounds this study in recognition of colonialism’s lingering impact. Colonial Mentality theory attempts to shift the dominant ways in which people perceive the world (Young, 2003). Young (2003) stated, “Colonialism claims the right of all people on this earth to the same material and cultural well-being” (p.2). Young (2003) asserted that colonialism “names a politics and a philosophy of activism” that challenges the pervasive inequality in the world. In a different way, it resumes anti-colonial struggles of the past. Historically, American powers, deemed the west, subjected many regions, the non-west, to colonial and imperial rule. American powers felt it was their duty to colonize and felt justified in doing so: Colonial
An overwhelming majority of African nations has reclaimed their independence from their European mother countries. This did not stop the Europeans from leaving a permanent mark on the continent however. European colonialism has shaped modern-day Africa, a considerable amount for the worse, but also some for the better. Including these positive and negative effects, colonialism has also touched much of Africa’s history and culture especially in recent years.
The practice of colonialist actions usually involved the transfer of population to a new territory, and so the term of colonialism can define such as, it comes from Latin word colonus, it means farmer, and Margaret (2014) writes the definition of colonialism is a “practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another” (p. 1). Also, culture is one of the way of talking about any nation, practices, beliefs, the congeries of values, and to analyze and identify a new set of problems and events. In my opinion, colonial peripheries, the anthropological givens of culture have been transformed over again by colonial encounters. For example of the relation between culture and colonialism is that variety of cultural tools which are language, traditions, and etc. Frantz Fanon was a crucial role of libernation of African citizens in their history, and Fanon (2008) assumed that “some Whites consider themselves superior to Blacks. Some Blacks want to prove at all costs to the Whites the wealth of the black man’s intellect and equal intelligence” (p. xiv) I think, this analysis indicates that the effects of language for native people because “whites” symbolize colonialist powers, on the other hand “blacks” are exhibited like second-class citizens. Another example of Frantz Fanon’s (2008)