Colonialism

The Oxford Dictionary defines Colonialism as: The policy or practice of acquiring full or partial
political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically. The
nature of colonialism varied due to the motives of the empire, furthermore the political economies
and cultures of the 'metropolitan power' and 'colonised territory'. Using Britain as the 'metropolitan
power' one of its 'colonised territories' would be Australia - and in terms of development, the
colonial path would be different to that in perhaps 'Uganda' where the culture and political economy
would be different to that seen in Australia. This meant that a consistent pattern of colonial motives
and nature was very rarely seen, even within a colony itself.

The scramble for African is seen as the main aspect of colonialism - with the metropolitan powers
having their pick over Africa with only their rules to abide by. The European powers met in Berlin
about the division of Africa in 1884. They met to 'draw up rules to regulate the partionining of
Africa'. In 1885 it was concerned colonially with 'the development of trade and civilisation in Africa,
the free navigation of rivers Congo & Nile, the supression of slave trade by sea and land, and the
occupation of territories on Africa's coast' (Potter et al 2008 p.61)

In development terms, colonialism can be viewed in two major phases:

The first phases of development was dominated by commerce and trade which collectively made
'mercantile colonialism'. 'Trading companies were heavily involved in both production and trade
during this phase' (Potter et al 2008 p.77), and the slave trade and plantation system were also
heavily involved. Potter continues to state that 'the second phase of colonialism - industrial
colonialism- involved the expansion of overseas markets for European manufactured goods and the
overseas production of raw materials and food for European countries' (Potter et al 2008 p.77). This
suggests that the colonies were becoming increasingly controlled by the state rather than the
origional trading companies of the first wave of colonialism. This suggest the exertion of the
metropolitan power over the state and therefore the colonies them selves. This expliotion of the
countries, the labour and rescources is where the dependency theories have derived from.

World wars - the end for colonialism?

First World War - 1914-1918

Second World War - 1936-1945

The world wars braught depression to the metropolitan powers and their colonies, disrupting
'investment from Europe' and increasing 'European migration to the colonies' as there was a 'shift in
the balance of administrative power from the metropolitan centres to the colonies' (Potter et al
2008 p.77). It can be seen that the world wars were the catalyst that saw a move towards
decolonialism and independance of colonial states as their metropolitan powers had to turn to the
growing super power USA to economic help, as well as help in terms of energy and food. (Killick
1997)