European Colonialism in Rwanda

In the era of colonialism, European authorities all cynically insisted that they acted to promote such higher commitments entitled the "white man's burden,” a vital aspect claimed to be in their national interest and of prodigious importance. Yet when these global and transnational forces increasingly usurp the power of states, in order to determine their own fiscal policies, newfangled ideologies spread, and eventually rivals spur in conflict and tragedies befall. Such a case was found in the dramatic fallout of the Rwandan Genocide. The root of the carnage is entwined in the European colonialism in Rwanda; where the hunger for power and land lied in Belgium colonist’s interest. Ultimately, upon their unwanted arrival, European colonists assumed their own superiority and esteemed those physically and geographically close to themselves. Through the progression of the European invasion, it is this sense of elitism that lucratively refashioned into racism. Done chiefly in response to Belgian colonization of Rwanda, the two inhabitant tribes, Tutsi, and Hutu grew increasingly further, and further apart. Initiating their foreign ideologies onto to tribes, the Tutsi, being most like the Europeans, were branded as the more supreme of the two, the ones who were naturally born to rule. However the Hutu were considered as inferior and dumb, yet loyal subjects nonetheless. With these notions instilled into the tribes’ lives, this bestowed the Tutsi unavoidable admittance to become as great as the colonizing powers; they had the right to education, certified occupations in the administration, and soon preached Catholicism. While contrastingly enough, the Hutu became illiterate, scantily toiled as slaves, and practiced Protestantism. Even tho...

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...lian resistance to his dictatorship eventually led to his plummet from power; Mussolini was overpowered in 1943. In his final conclusion, he proposed to transfer a proportion of leading power to the king, and though fascist extremists balked, attempting to persuade Mussolini to have those who were divergent to his rule detained, the Il Duce stood paralyzed, unable to choose any course of action in his final defeat. Finally, in April of 1945, Italian rioters seized the ex-dictator, slaughtered and mutilated his body—a dreadful termination for a man once considered to be the savior of the Italian nation.

From his seizure of control to the conquest of his desires and ensuing downfall, Mussolini’s dictatorship reveals that when beliefs and confidence for your counties power becomes enflamed, the resulting greater hardships outweigh the botched benefits to your nation.