Imperialism
Throughout time more powerful countries
have extended their influence over
weaker countries and then colonized those
countries to expand their own power.
Imperialism causes the stronger
countries to grow and become nations or even
empires. There are many examples
throughout European history of nations
enveloping weaker countries and
increasing their own wealth and power to form
strong nation-states and even
empires. Through imperialism one culture is
invading another culture and most
of the time the European colonialists are not
thinking about the effects this
invasion might have on the natives of that land.
Problems caused by
imperialism have prevailed to this day. Imperialism caused a
breakdown of the
previous cultures and lifestyles that the natives had followed.
The
European imperialism caused many of the now prevalent ethnic rivalries
that
can be found in northern India, parts of Asia, and parts of Africa.
"Africa
and much of the developing world have been struggling for nearly half
a century
to come to terms with grinding ethnic and tribal rivalries that
remain, in a
way, one of the most enduring legacies of their colonial past."
In many
cases of European imperialism, the European colonialists would pick a
favored
minority in one of their colonies to govern their colony locally and
with this
priority came assurance of the best jobs and favored treatment.
This caused a
sort of rivalry between that minority and the majority of
natives who were not
given this priority. Resentment towards these favored
minorities grows and after
the country achieves independence the popular
resentment can turn to violence.
An example of this is the Sikhs in
India. The Sikhs created the powerful state
of Punjab in 1800, which became a
threat to British-controlled India and after
two years of war Britain annexed
the Punjab in 1849. The Sikhs were loyal to the
British. In return for
that loyalty, during the Sepoy Mutiny the British gave
them preferential land
grants. Throughout British rule, the Sikhs gained wealth
and a great
reputation as soldiers and policemen. After independence, they lost
all of
their special privileges and found their state divided between India
and
Pakistan. This followed with a bitter war against the Muslims in
1965, which
forced the Sikhs to migrate from their homeland of Punjab to
India. This
followed a year of extreme agitation between the Muslims and the
Sikhs that led
Indian government to create Punjab as a single
Punjabi-speaking state in 1966.
It remains to this day the home of most
of India's 16 million Sikhs. Another
example can be seen the Tutsi race. The
Tutsi were used to locally rule their
lands of Rwanda and Burundi. Throughout
their native lands they were assured the
best jobs and favored treatment,
which included education. After Rwanda gained
independence, a majority rule
emerged and the Tutsi lost their power. Uprising
and revolts among the
majority (the Hutu) usually singled out the Tutsi for
revenge. With this came
a huge massacre of the Tutsi. The Tutsi are even now
having to flee from
their homeland of Rwanda because of the anger and uprising
directed toward
them. In South Africa, the first Europeans to colonize were the
Boers,
which means farmer in Afrikaans. They were Dutch speaking livestock
farmers
who came over with the Dutch East India Company in 1652. From the
Boers
emerged the Afrikaners who also included political and religious
refugees from
Western Europe. British Imperial rule was established over
Afrikaners and
Africans alike by the beginning of the twentieth century.
Then, through
compromise, the Boer and Briton together gained independence
from imperial rule
and control of a new nation-state, the Union of South
Africa, in 1910. From 1910
until 1948, there was a division of power between
white political parties
aligned essentially with the British and Afrikaner
cultural traditions. The
Afrikaner-dominated National Party won the 1948
election and immediately began
to implement the policy known as apartheid.
Through this policy, all of the
population groups in South Africa classified
by the government as non-European
would now be governed separately and
subordinated at every level to white South
Africans. The vast majority of
Africans were restricted to rural reservations
that were called homelands. As
repression accelerated, petition filled protest
gave way to unarmed
resistance and then to armed resistance. One of the primary
dissident groups
was the African National Congress, the oldest surviving African
political
organization in sub-Saharan Africa. The goal of the African
National
Congress was to establish a nonracial alliance to end apartheid
and create a
nonracial democracy. Over the next fifty years, the African
National Congress
and other organizations would fight for this cause, until
the early 1990s when
Nelson Mandela was released form prison to lead the
multi-party negotiations.
These negotiations were what finally brought an
end to apartheid in South
Africa. During the Imperialism of South Africa
the Europeans brought the British
and the Boers. The difference between South
Africa and other imperialized
countries is that after South Africa gained
independence the Europeans didn't
leave because they did not see themselves
as Europeans. The Boers and British in
South Africa saw themselves as
South Africans and that caused much of the
conflict. The whites in South
Africa were a frightened minority that feared the
black majority. This fear
caused much of the turmoil and repression, which tore
apart South Africa. The
British became active in Malaysia in the eighteenth
century. They sought
after trade and wanted to check the French power in the
Indian Ocean.
Over the years and through different deals made with the Dutch
East India
Company, Singapore, Pinang, and Malacca (which collectively became
the
Straits Settlements of 1826) were administered to Britain. In the 1850s,
tin
mining expanded in the Malaya Peninsula and Malaya rulers the immigrant
Chinese
that the English employed became involved in territorial disputes.
Fearful that
disputes would disrupt trade, Britain took control of Malaya
Peninsula and
Peninsula states. By using diplomacy and taking advantage
of dynastic quarrels,
Great Britain persuaded the rulers to accept
British "advisors" to
help dictate policies. Between 1941 and 1942, after
World War Two, ethnic
rivalries complicated the movement for independence
that emerged after the war.
Great Britain had encouraged Chinese and
Indian immigration to supply the labor
needed for the tin, rubber, and other
industries. During the 1940s, the
population was fifty percent Malay,
thirty-seven percent Chinese, and twelve
percent Indian. A deep division
separated these groups coinciding with
substantial religious and linguistic
differences. These huge differences caused
fears for the Malay's that the
immigrants would acquire powers in the new
government. Another event, which
caused agitation and turmoil with in Malaysia,
was an ongoing Communist
rebellion led by the Malayan Emergency since 1948.
These rebels were poor
ethnic Chinese who opposed British rule. They continued
to fight for
Communist rule even after 1957, when the Federation of Malaya
became
independent. The conflict finally subsided in 1960 after 11,000 people
died,
but the Communists did not formally agree to lay down arms until
1989.
Since independence, ethnic disputes have dominated Malaysian
politics. In the
1960s, disputes centered on the preeminence of Malays in
politics and the
supremacy of Chinese and Indians in economic positions.
Ethnicity still
dominated the political scene, and two major opposition
parties opposed the
National Front: the Pan-Malayan Islamic Party and the
Democratic Action Party.
In Malaysia, the English brought in the Chinese
and Indians to work at their
industrial plants. This addition of another race
caused the racial turmoil and
division that can even be seen today. After
encouraging the immigration of
foreigners, Britain took advantage of quarrels
and turmoil that was caused to
take over Malaysia. These actions caused
problems for that country and many
deaths to be lost through the breakdown of
their earlier way of life. They were
forced to deal with a new culture that
caused suspicions and this in turn took
away from some of their own cultures
and morals. There are many other examples
of imperialism and the effects that
it has on the subordinate countries. In many
of the situations, over the
course of the twentieth century, changes have been
made after independence
that have caused a change for the better in the
post-colonial countries.
After years of revolts and turmoil in countries such as
South Africa and
India, they are finally beginning to modernize and reach the
levels of their
old imperial nations. European imperialism caused a stalemate in
many of the
different countrys' developments, through their proceedings such as
"divide
and conquer." Those countries will still advance to the level
of nation-state
and higher, because along with the exploitation of their culture
and people,
the Europeans also brought the means to advance to an industrial
society.
With those abilities they can still flourish in the
future.
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