What Are The Negative Effects Of Imperialism
Once, European powers such as Britain and France were great empires, with Britain occupying twenty-five percent of the world. For some, these were the glory days of Europe, but on the other side of the story, we see the tragic legacies left behind by historical globalization. Tunde Obadina, said that it is difficult to view colonialism objectively and that its effects are not in black and white. There were however, some facts that he was certain of, that colonialism was “an imposition of foreign rule”, and “a dictatorial regime that denied people’s rights”. While this may sound quite negative, there are beneficial legacies left behind by imperial powers. For instance, after India gained independence, Indians had gained English as a language
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Once again, this is an example of the “power vacuum” that occurs after colonial rulers leave a country, and the political tension that follows. After much civil conflict, the Hutus formed a majority government and the Tutsis fled the country. When the party became unpopular due to economic circumstances, the Tutsis Rwandan Patriotic Front (the RPF) invaded from the refugee camps in Uganda. The shooting down of president Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane was the last straw, and it sparked a genocide of around 800,000 Tutsis and civilians. The media urged Hutus to take up arms and kill the Tutsis “cockroaches”, expressing the hatred many Hutus felt toward the Tutsis after being oppressed in a lower social class for so long. The West, specifically the United Nations, turned their backs on Rwanda, using the excuse that they wanted to stay impartial in the “internal affair”. The Rwandan genocide was a large-scale tragedy that resulted from the legacy of unequal wealth and power distribution from the colonial past. If blame were to be laid, it would fall on Europe for first creating the problem, and then ignoring the desperate pleas for help. Because of the nature of Africa’s tribal politics, it is the responsibility of colonial powers to leave colonies with a working government system to determine who can be the next leader, because that is the only way to avoid the “power vacuum” and the violence that comes along with
Once again, this is an example of the “power vacuum” that occurs after colonial rulers leave a country, and the political tension that follows. After much civil conflict, the Hutus formed a majority government and the Tutsis fled the country. When the party became unpopular due to economic circumstances, the Tutsis Rwandan Patriotic Front (the RPF) invaded from the refugee camps in Uganda. The shooting down of president Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane was the last straw, and it sparked a genocide of around 800,000 Tutsis and civilians. The media urged Hutus to take up arms and kill the Tutsis “cockroaches”, expressing the hatred many Hutus felt toward the Tutsis after being oppressed in a lower social class for so long. The West, specifically the United Nations, turned their backs on Rwanda, using the excuse that they wanted to stay impartial in the “internal affair”. The Rwandan genocide was a large-scale tragedy that resulted from the legacy of unequal wealth and power distribution from the colonial past. If blame were to be laid, it would fall on Europe for first creating the problem, and then ignoring the desperate pleas for help. Because of the nature of Africa’s tribal politics, it is the responsibility of colonial powers to leave colonies with a working government system to determine who can be the next leader, because that is the only way to avoid the “power vacuum” and the violence that comes along with