Comparison and Contrast 19th Century Colonialism and Contemporary Globalization

Recent decades have witnessed increasing globalization, in which interdependence is escalating among countries around the world, politically, economically, and culturally. Given this background, some people liken this global interaction to the 19th century colonialism (Mufwene 2002), which is characterized by the occupation and control of African and Asian nations by European countries. From my point of view, however, 19th century colonialism is a special form of globalization; it has many distinct features of contemporary globalization, while leading to more severe consequences in comparison of globalization. Yet, without the colonialism landing the foundation, globalization would not happen nowadays.

From a political point of view, both 19th century colonialism and globalization have impacts on the countries’ politics, but 19th century colonialism seemed to lead to more grievous outcomes. In the colonialism, colonies’ political systems were overridden by the colonial powers. When Europeans sought a source of raw materials as well as a market for manufactured goods in Africa, they intervened in the local governance and centralized administrations. The indigenous authorities were then forced to subordinate under Colonial rule. In addition, to weaken the local power networks or constitutions, the colonists also applied “divide and rule” by implementing policies (Colonialism and the African Experience 2012). All these damaging factors have contributed to Africa’s current political instability.

During globalization, almost every country remains sovereign on a whole. However, with the growing connection with other countries, domestic governments are supposed to formulate and implement international policies to ensure mutual inter...

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...every well-known language after several foreign invasions, which has made it more dynamic and effective. Thus, it is plausible to suppose that the encounter of differing cultures in globalization is the requisite of the language assimilation where a language is enriched and expanded.

To sum up, the 19th century colonialism and current globalization are quite alike in terms of their political, economic, and cultural impacts. However, had colonialism never happened in history, there would have been no cultural assimilation and colonies’ reliance on colonizers, and hence there would not be the extinction of languages at unparalleled speed and increasing economic interdependence, which characterize present globalization. Consequently, it is safe to conclude that 19th century colonialism and today’s globalization are similar, since the latter is the successor the former.