Impact Of Nationalist Movements Against Western Colonialism And Decolonization
...Africa and India
Rocky Webb
Contemporary History FALA07, Section G
Professor John Radzilowski
December 15, 2007
Impact of Nationalist Movements Against Western Colonialism
in Sub-Saharan Africa and India
Colonialism is the exploitation by a stronger country over a weaker one; the use of the weaker country's resources to strengthen and enrich the stronger country. (Colonialism, no date, p.1) Besides the economic point of view, the process of colonialism can not be defined without the cultural concepts such as imposing a religion, traditions or a language of a nation upon a weaker nation. With these two main perspectives, Europe always executed the policy of exploiting the underdeveloped regions of the world. In contrast to European desires, the imperialistic policies were refused by the nationalist movements of the public of the exploited regions. The imperialistic policies of the West to gain economic benefits and cultural expansion resulted with nationalistic counter policies created by the elite were supported by the public of exploited regions in terms of liberation struggles and rebellions.
Western European countries favored colonialism as a foreign policy to reach the raw materials of underdeveloped regions and increase their market. By the industrial revolution, the production in Europe had accelerated immensely resulting with increasing importance and necessity of raw materials. Due to limited sources in Europe, contrary to the variety in India and Sub-Saharan Africa, European countries favored colonialism. Moreover, not only the necessity of sources, but also the need of market because of the increased production led them to perform colonialism. In this sense, India is a good example to emphasize the causes of colonialism. In the mid 18th century, Great Britain relied heavily on India as...
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