Colonialism

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The way society is structured today, it is difficult to understand Colonialism for what it truly was. For example, A Stranger walks into a house and claims it is his, while he enslaves the real owners and demands they follow his rules. It might seem like an unlikely scenario, but about 400 years ago, this was reality. European countries such as Spain and England wanted to expand their territories and become the world powers. Explorers like Christopher Columbus, soon started declaring regions that they discovered in the name of their countries. They thought that spreading their own ideas, culture, and religion would have a positive effect on colonized native countries. In fact, these changes had an adverse effect on the people of these countries. There were many efforts to spread Christianity to these countries although some question the motives of these countries in dealing with the everyday needs of these people. The colonizers saw the natives as inferior to their mother country and thus, were able to justify their treatment of them. As the colonized population soon realized the negative impacts on society caused the Europeans. They rebelled against the colonizers and brought out violent acts on both sides. These violent reactions to colonialism were brought out due to the main factors unequal social rights and the destruction and enforcement of other cultural values.

In the colonization era, egocentrism was strongly enforced, as the norm was Christianity. If an individual was not Christian, then they were seen as animals and ruthless treatment was acceptable. Statistics show that “The population of the Belgian Congo fell by fifty percent and that of the Herero’s by eighty percent as a result of the oppressive and inhuman t...

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... them to treat us. This simple minded thought could have helped prevent the violence and destruction caused by colonialism and its wipe lash effect that we still see in society today.

Bibliography

Boahen, A. ADU. African Perspectives on Colonialism. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Univeristy Press, 1987.

Bolland, O. Nigel. The Politics of Labour in the British Caribbean. Jamica: O. Nigel Bolland, 2001.

Ferguson, Niall. Empire . London, England: Allen Lain, 2002.

Gilmour, David. The Ruling Caste. Great Britian: John Murray, 2005.

Hobson, Kevin. The Indian Caste system and the british. .

Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. United States: Mariner Books, 1999.

The Mission. Dir. Roland Joffé. Perf. Jeremy Irons, Ray McAnally Robert De Niro. 1986.

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