How did colonialism after 1830 differ from earlier stages of European interaction with the outside world?

This reading compares the activities of colonial powers and the countries they colonized by giving chosen details to outline the strengths and weaknesses of colonial governments. This reading does not focus on the creation of the empires. This book, therefore, focuses on the subject of former colonialism and the most recent colonialist (Mulready-Stone 34). In a more extensive case, this book explores the European colonialism since the beginning of the fifteenth century forward and explores the wars that have been experienced in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past decade. For instance, today the United States has become a global super power. In this reading, Richard figures the United States as a distinct empire from the European colonial masters.

According to Richard, the word colonialism simply implies that some people have control over other people. On the other hand, Richard states that economic exploitation, ideological exploitation, and political exploitations are the cornerstones of colonialism. This results in a development gap between colonialist and one who is being colonized. According to Richard, divergence in development is essential in differentiating between the actual colonialism from cases of one people having control over a group (Mulready-Stone 40). Imperialism according to Richard could refer to the efforts taken by a group to develop colonialism. In some cases, colonialism may be subjected to horrific activities such as those undertaken by King Leopard II in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

European colonialism across the world was based on economic development whereby, they claimed to provide economic prosperity and save people from the enslavement of backwardness. In the establishment of colonial powers, the Europeans first established white settlements that would govern and control the regimes in colonies. In Africa, expansion of colonies was triggered by the capitalist industrialism as well as nationalism that helped the Europeans to bring the African land under their control in the 19th century. British Empire comprised a big number of people and global land mass and by the year 1914 European colonial masters had taken more than 80 percent of the land across the world. The struggle and partition of Africa clearly show the change of former colonialism and introduction of imperialism. This roughly stated in Africa in 1880s and went through to the 20th century (Mulready-Stone56).

Africa occupation by Europeans and colonization began from one end of the continent to the other with the British spreading through to the southern of Egypt in 1875. They then moved to the northern side to the Cape in the southern part of Africa. There was the establishment of slave trade commonly referred to as the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Then the slave trade was abolished, and the colonialists chose to replace the products with some other products other than human beings. Europeans, therefore, sourced raw materials for their industries. For instance, coal, timber, palm, ivory, and minerals. Despite abolishment of the slave trade, slavery was an essential part in transportation and sourcing of these products for the European colonists (Mulready-Stone 67). Therefore, this era was referred to as the era of informal empire, and it tends to show that European colonial masters were paving the way for the establishment of economic connections in the late 19th century.

There were numerous variations in established colonial systems regarding the strategy they used between the different European colonial powers in their colonies across the world. For instance; British, German, French, Belgian and Portuguese applied different strategies of the rule in their colonies. However, despite this variance, imperialism dominated all European colonies as the primary goal was to source for materials for their industries and establish settlements in their colonies for economic development (Mulready-Stone 78). The British used the indirect rule in their colonies as a form of rule whereby, a district officer would draw his/her support from the local chiefs. On the other hand, French used the direct rule in their colonies and French citizens were in charge of the colonies. This was done under the French policy of assimilation. According to this policy, people in the colony were allowed to be French citizens if they accepted to adopt the French ways of life such as culture, dressing, and language. Adoption of the two policies impacted differently the people who were colonized and the colonial powers (Mulready-Stone 94).

Regardless of the system used by colonialists, the rule that colonialists applied was aimed at exploiting and focused on exploiting resources of the people for the advantage of the European cities. The benefits achieved from the enforced economic connections were all taken by the Europeans while those under the oppression of colonialists were supposed to consume the products that Europeans manufactured. Embracement of imperialism by European colonialists in different parts of the globe was subjected to invasion of lives for people subjected to colonization, colonial regulations that were imposed on colonized people by force, colonized people were supposed to work and live in certain regions, they were denied the rights to move freely and had no rights to practice their cultural beliefs and traditional religious practices (Mulready-Stone 106).

Establishment of new imperialism was therefore characterized by taking political controls through the creation of colonial regimes in the regions European colonized as well as the evolution of economic dependency. Therefore, colonized people would entirely rely on European colonial power. The growth of new imperialism among European colonialists corresponded with developing nationalism as well as merging. Before, the fragmented political groups were unified under one monarchy. Unification, therefore, permitted the establishment of European empires since people were united by a monarchy which affirmed the right to govern them. For instance, unification of Italian and Germany (Mulready-Stone 116). As the end of the 19th century approached, imperialism became a colonial strategy for expansion of European colonies in different parts of the world, and this was practiced by different European nations.

Work Cited

Mulready-Stone, Kristin. “Wolfgang Reinhard. A Short History of Colonialism. Translated by Kate Sturge. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2011. 308 pp., 24 maps. ISBN: 9780719083280 (pbk.). $38.95.” Itinerario 36.02 (2012): 171-172.
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Posted on May 13, 2016Author TutorCategories Question, Questions