What impact did colonialism have on development in

the developing world?

Introduction:

Colonialism is the policy of one nation using its powers over other territories, buy
extending and occupying the other territories through colonization, which is the process of
controlling and occupying other territories. In the 18th and 19th centuries, during the industrial
revolution, European countries became stronger and richer through industrialization as the other
countries outside of Europe became weaker since they failed to industrialize. Increasingly, the
European countries began eyeing the counties outside of Europe as sources of raw materials and
markets for their goods.

Colonialism affects cultural, political, religious, economical and social aspects in the
colony (i.e. the territory that has been colonized). It has positive aspects in which it may lead to
better education, improvement in social aspects, and it may also lead to the modernization and
development of the colony. But it also has negative impacts, for example loss of culture, loss of
land, unfamiliar system of government, lack of respect for traditions…etc. Therefore sometimes
the colonialism may lead to imperialism, which is the policy of one country or empire extending
the rule of authority over other territories or states. It often involves the exploiting of the
resources of colonized country or territory. Colonialism also leads to capitalism (i.e. the policy of
ownership of the means of production) during the European colonization, the capitalism policy
developed, usually the rate of capitalism increased in the colonies after colonization. It can be
argued that colonialism has positive and negative impacts on the development of the colonized
territory.

Main body:
Colonialism is defined as the policy of countries extending their powers over other territories. In
the 18th and 19th centuries, during the industrial revolution due to industrialization European
nations became stronger, therefore they started eyeing the other countries that are rich with
natural resources, and the countries that would be good markets for their goods and started
occupying them by the process called colonization. They started occupying those countries that
have failed to industrialize during the industrial revolution. This process had positive and
negative impacts on the development of the colonized territory, it had positive impacts since it
often led to modernization of the colony, provided better education, since they opened and
established universities, institutions, schools and faculties with European systems of education,
and started learning and using foreign languages, also led to the modernization and development
of the society due to the interactions between the people from the two different countries and
cultures. Clearly the process was not entirely negative. The Europeans brought their laws,
education systems and views about civilization in to the colony and helped modernizing their
societies; for the most part the Europeans were able to suppress opposition within the countries
they ruled. They increased trade, used raw material to feed industries back home, and improved
infrastructure by building roads, railways and electricity plants and improving irrigation projects.
Distances that once took weeks to cover were covered in days. Schools were built that offered a
European-style education. Some were built by the colonizers. But these improvements were
spotty and generally didn’t have much effect on the majority of the population.

On the other hand colonialism had negative impacts as well, since the powerful countries were
using and exploiting the colonized country’s natural resources and they were using them as their
markets, the colonized countries found their local economies destroyed or at least dramatically
transformed as their populations were forced and used to produce and consumer goods for the
country that had colonized them rather for themselves. The population of the colonized country
became second class citizens as the people in the other country began to think of themselves as
superior and feel it was their duty to civilize and educate the people in the colony. Therefore
colonialism in some cases could lead to imperialism (which is defined as the policy of one nation
to exercise and use their power over another nation to exploit their resources and use their people
as their labor and consumer goods and use their land as their goods market and benefit from
every aspect and era of that country). And this often led to the decrease in the development rate
of the colony especially economically. Hence imperialism is often considered as “geographical
violence.” for example, when Britain occupied India, India had to grow and provide cotton for
Britain, then they were shipped to Manchester, England where it was made into finished goods
which were sold back to India for a tidy profit.

The colonizers also exerted pressure by controlling trade, defining the terms of the trade and
forcing the colonies to become indebted to them so they could demand concessions. And most
importantly the rise of capitalism, the colonizers owned the production means such as factories
farms and work areas and the people from the colonized country were only the workers. There
were also cultural traditional and social changes, and more than that, they began using European
languages instead of their native language and attended European universities. Therefore it could
be argued that it is difficult to state whether the colonization was all a positive or all a negative

process in the history of development in the developing countries, since it had both positive and
negative impact on the development on the colonized developing countries.

Conclusion:
Colonialism is the policy of occupying and controlling a country or a territory by a
stronger and more powerful country. Through colonialism powerful countries and nations were
able to use another country’s resources and use them as markets for their goods. There is no
doubt that when a country is colonized by other country social, cultural, economical, political
and other changes in other aspects and eras will occur in the occupied territory. These changes
may lead to the development of the colony. But it may also lead to the loss of cultural values,
respect for traditions, social values and boundaries. Therefore the colonization process had
positive and negative impacts on the colonized country, especially on their development.
References:

• Henry Bernstein, colonialism, capitalism and development, copy from the library.

• Richard, P. & Elaine, H. (2009), Theories of development, 2nd edition, The Guilford
press, New York.