Which is not to suggest all the failings can be attributed to colonialism. But it would be disingenuous to suggest that it plays no role in the continuing poverty of these countries. It takes generations of nation building to emerge from subjugation and loot that was inflicted by colonialism.
Nations, such a Haiti, which were colonized by European aristocracies were not nations prior to being colonized. Haitians who are descendants of former slaves are of African descent because their African ancestors were kidnapped and sold into slavery by European colonizers.
These countries weren’t “easy targets” prior to being colonized. They were largely unpopulated, or populated with native people who didn’t adhere to any European political zeitgeist. In fact, they had never heard of Europe at all.
India was a British colony with borders drawn in London and with assets defended by the Royal Navy. The region had a rich human and cultural history prior to English colonization.
Germany and Japan are completely different as well. Both are former colonial powers themselves, for example.
I always wondered why Haiti had such grinding poverty. Was it from hurricanes? Political corruption? I had no idea that French, American and Corporate Colonialism had such a pernicious effect. Getting the story out is the first step. Of many....
@Patriot-#1776Constitution3mos3MO
British & American colonisation spread civilisation and rule of law to barbarous peoples and lifted many from poverty
@Patriot-#1776Constitution3mos3MO
Haiti is unsuccessful not because it was once owned by France but because it was created by utterly uneducated slaves who didn't understand free government and how to operate a prosperous society – and that ignorance still has not been lifted from that unhappy island.
@Patriot-#1776Constitution3mos3MO
Hate to burst your bubble, but European colonisation in general, and British colonisation in particular, were positive goods in the world. Take for example, Africa – a dark continent populated by barbarian tribes who constantly enslaved one another, enslaved on million white people, were always warring with one another, and mass-murdered other tribes by burning them alive and then eating their roasted corpses. Britain came to this hellish continent and what did it go? In 1807, it abolished the slave trade throughout the Empire – the first Nation in history to do so – and wen… Read more
@FearlessKoalaSocialist3mos3MO
It’s not a coincidence but not for the reason you’re implying. The nations which were colonized never made progress before and were easy targets.
If was about the destruction of colonialism, Indian wouldn’t be a world leader. And, nations like Germany and Japan, which were decimated following war(s) would not be some of the wealthiest nations.
@D1rectAbaloneDemocrat3mos3MO
No mere coincidence…many former colonies are offshoots of enterprises developed to exploit people and nature, to the benefit of European elites - kings, merchants, adventurers. They were not born as nation building, but as profit making projects.
In fact, the few colonies that did succeed, at least economically - take the USA as an example - were born out of a project by people who were escaping oppression and looking for a new land to build a new society.
the difference between the two models is that in the former established governance institutions were more extractive in nature, whe… Read more
