The Effects of Colonialism on Asian Countries
Name: Anna Wu
Date: Dec 8, 2014
Period: 2
Unit 2 Essay
Imperialism hurt the lives of the colonized people in Asia because the unsustainable economic development pursued by colonizing powers impaired the cultures of colonized nations and increased their political dependency, all of which undermined colonies’ future growth in political, economic, and cultural aspects.
Imperialism increased the political dependence of colonies by prohibiting its citizens from participating in the leadership and administration of their home government as a result of direct control, which prevented a colony’s native citizens from gaining experiences necessary to govern an expanding nation. Through absolute rule by colonizers of the colony with the goal to assimilate the local people, colonizers govern every aspect of a country's development with no interference from locals so as to minimize the possibilities of internal rebellions. A consequence of this, however, is that the paternalistic rule of official foreign leaders fail to grant those native to the colony to obtain relevant governmental backgrounds in leading a nation, thus setting the colony up for economic, social, and political failure once colonizers leave the colony. This trend was particularly representative of British Imperial rule in India in the 1800s; Dadabhai Naraoji, an Indian, pointed out that "Europeans
[the British] occupy almost all of the higher places in every department of government...natives, no matter how fit, are deliberately kept out of the social institutions started by Europeans." (Doc 2, India
Packet) As a consequence to the continuation of European political systems even after their departure, Indians are denied gaining an adequate background to taking care of its special individual needs as a nation, thus increasing its dependency on British leadership as its local leaders are largely
1
incompetent. After the the British government's adoption of direct control over India in 1858, native
Date: Dec 8, 2014
Period: 2
Unit 2 Essay
Imperialism hurt the lives of the colonized people in Asia because the unsustainable economic development pursued by colonizing powers impaired the cultures of colonized nations and increased their political dependency, all of which undermined colonies’ future growth in political, economic, and cultural aspects.
Imperialism increased the political dependence of colonies by prohibiting its citizens from participating in the leadership and administration of their home government as a result of direct control, which prevented a colony’s native citizens from gaining experiences necessary to govern an expanding nation. Through absolute rule by colonizers of the colony with the goal to assimilate the local people, colonizers govern every aspect of a country's development with no interference from locals so as to minimize the possibilities of internal rebellions. A consequence of this, however, is that the paternalistic rule of official foreign leaders fail to grant those native to the colony to obtain relevant governmental backgrounds in leading a nation, thus setting the colony up for economic, social, and political failure once colonizers leave the colony. This trend was particularly representative of British Imperial rule in India in the 1800s; Dadabhai Naraoji, an Indian, pointed out that "Europeans
[the British] occupy almost all of the higher places in every department of government...natives, no matter how fit, are deliberately kept out of the social institutions started by Europeans." (Doc 2, India
Packet) As a consequence to the continuation of European political systems even after their departure, Indians are denied gaining an adequate background to taking care of its special individual needs as a nation, thus increasing its dependency on British leadership as its local leaders are largely
1
incompetent. After the the British government's adoption of direct control over India in 1858, native