Colonialism In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

In the novel “Things Fall Apart”, colonialism is greatly expressed towards the end of part two and all throughout part three. The way the novel goes about it is through Christian missionaries, who then, later in the book, try to completely take control and dominate their culture. I personally believe in Christians missionaries, but in “Things Fall Apart”, the way they went about it was wrong. Christians can discuss people’s relationship with god without completely bashing other religions. I agree more with how we do it today, by going out, helping other countries, be it building a well in Africa, cooking for kids in the Dominican, all while sharing Christ. The way the missionaries in the novel handled it was way off base with how it should have been done. Economically, while the colonists did help increase trade and introduced mercantilism, the Igbo already had a system of doing things. In the long run, the increased trade would increase money, but how would that be to the Igbo’s gain if they are under European rule? The colonists would be in control of said money. If they are in control of the money and economy, all that does is just open lots more doors to abuse and corruption. I believe that the colonists should have just left the Igbo in control of their
own economy. Colonialism caused tensions in Umuofia to develop. Although some people might argue that because there was no real war between the Igbo and the colonist, there wasn’t any fighting. This, however, was not the case. The Igbo greatly disliked the influence that the colonists were having on their people. If you look in part three, even Okonkwo says that if they will not fight, then he will fight alone. The colonists killed all the people in Abame, greatly furthering the growing tensions at that time. If they had just left things alone, all the fighting and bloodshed might have been spared. They really could have done a better job of things. In conclusion, I believe that the effects of colonialism were more negative than positive.
The missionaries bashed the Igbo culture. The colonists basically set up Umuofia to be harvested for its money and workforce. The workforce would most likely, in the future, end up working in the fields, and the colonists would end up with all the benefits of it because they were the ruling power. The colonists also caused fighting and bloodshed to rise. The Igbo disagreed with what they were doing so they burnt down the churches and it might have even escalated further if something was not done. For these reasons, I believe that the method that the colonists of that day did more harm than good for the Igbo
peoples.