Colonialism

Colonialism

It is almost a given now that most everyone considers colonialism as a mistake. They thought that the spreading of ideas, culture, and religion would have a positive effect on the native cultures they colonized. In fact though, these changes had an adverse effect on the peoples of these countries. For although many laud the efforts of these countries to spread Christianity, some question the motives of these countries in dealing the everyday needs of these people. In seeing the natives as inferior the mother countries were able to justify their treatment of them. At this time many subscribed to the belief of manifest destiny and social Darwinism. This is the belief in which the colonizing of other countries is justified by the belief that if God hadn’t wanted these people to be colonized He wouldn’t have let it happen, or would have provided the colonized with the same technology which would make an invasion impossible.

Another item that has caused a lot of strife within the lives of the natives is in the area of education. For many natives the history of their country before colonization is very foggy. They have been schooled from day one on the histories of their European conquerors, but seldom is the history of the native cultural even discussed let alone taught. This reminds me of the point made in Jamaica Kincaid’s novel “A Small Place” in which she comments about getting a day off of school for Queen Victoria’s birthday. In the book Kincaid states that most of the people on the island of Antigua don’t even realize why they have been given a holiday. This type of confusion is typical in dealing with the relationship between colony and colonizer.

It is however easy to sympathize with the colonizing count...

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...states that it is unfair to harshly judge the job of ruling that the Antiguans did after independence. Her point is that if corrupt ruling is all that you have ever witnessed, one can’t be expected to know how to suddenly run a successful country. For in many of these countries they are neck deep in problems with no end in sight. Yes, they were given their independence by the mother country, but in most cases the natives were left high and dry by the mother country financially.

In conclusion, it is unfortunate that our world has been marred by the practice of colonialism. And even more unfortunate that so many countries in the world subscribed that same practice. It is hard to argue that we as a people have matured all that much since the days of colonialism. But if we as humans are able to avoid this terrible practice we are taking a step in the right direction.