Assignment 3

Impact of Colonialism on the World

SOC400

July 27, 2022

 Impact of Colonialism on the World

Introduction

According to Marx and Karl (1972) “Colonialism is the practice of one country
taking full or partial political control of another country and occupying it with settlers for
purposes of profiting from its resources and economy. Since both practices involve the
political and economic control of a dominant country over a vulnerable territory,
colonialism can be hard to distinguish from imperialism.” The colonialism has been
practiced by different stronger countries over the weaker countries many times in the
history of the world. There are some positive and negative impacts and outcomes of
these colonial actions on the world. This paper wills discussion some of these impacts
in detail. For a detail and easy analysis, this paper will focus on the two aspects of the
impact of colonialism on: Proselytization and Demographics.

Proselytization

It is one of the most important impacts of the colonialism on the world that the
religion conversion among the colonies was evident. Mostly the religion of the
colonizers had an impact on the people living in the colonies. For example in the British
rule on India, there is fast spread of Christianity among the Indians. European
colonizers (which started in 15th century) are known for their missionary activities in
India. In many places the collaborators and the subjects of European colonizers
accepted their religion. In many areas, the Christian missionaries came with the
European colonizers and started their missions and the European colonizers gave
religious freedom to the missionaries and protected their sects and churches. However
too close relation with the European colonizers could be a disadvantage because most
of the people in India don’t consider European colonizers good people. During the
British control in India, the Christian Churches “was often looked upon as an ally of an
alien imperialism” while after independence “has become free from the stigma that it
was an ally of the ‚foreign’ rulers“. However assessing the change in their life related to
the conversion into Christianity was a difficult task. According to Alfred and Taiaiake
(2005) after the converting to Christianity, life of Filipinos: “They learned to pray at
different times during the day ... people soon adjusted to a regular routine or time
schedule. Their working hours were divided into prayer, work, rest, and recreation; the
week was set off by Sunday Mass and other obligations; and the year by the celebration
of Easter, Christmas, and their patron saint’s day.”

According to Burke and Edmund (2000) the colonizers the conversion of the
religions was mostly evident as the conversion to the colonizers’ religions and taking
that religion as a superior. During the British rule in India almost 89% of the religions
conversion was to the Christianity which was the religion of the colonizers while a
colonizer accepting the local religion was only 2 percent of the total conversion. So this
tells the story that the colonizers’ religion was taken as superior and the conversion was
majorly to their religion. European missionaries while breaching in the educated areas
of the India, talked about the superior knowledge, education and technology. They also
get the people realize that the British people are ruling on them just because of their
religion gives them the power to do that.

Demographics

Colonialism had a mixed impact on the life expectancy and health situation of the
people under rule. On one side medical centers and facilities were started with the
purpose to decrease the infant mortality and also the vaccinations for different diseases
were started so that these diseases could be controlled. On other side of it, working in
mines, plantations and some of the big infrastructure platforms increased the chances
of spread of different diseases. While in Africa according to the Kohn and Margaret
(2010) “the establishment of plantation colonies, originated by the English and
afterwards imitated by the other imperialist countries, had a grossly disturbing effect on
the African nutritional economy”.

According to Alfred and Taiaiake, (2005 )“that it was the significant reduction of
mortality, not an increase of fertility, which led to a net population growth in colonial
period. On the other hand, urbanization and the work in mines, plantations and on the
big infrastructure construction sites favored the spread of diseases and increased
dramatically the number of work-related accidents.” In some of the areas, the
colonialism has caused a reduction in the population because of the diseases. Belgian
Congo observed an almost 50% decrease in the population. The main reason for this
reduction in the population was related to forced labor and the linked atrocities which
were because working in mines, plantations and some of the big infrastructure
platforms. According to Burke and Edmund, (2000) In India, the life expectancy has
decreased by 2 years during the British Rule and the average life the people in India
decreased by 2 years and the mean reasons for this was working in the mines,
plantations and some of the big infrastructure platforms.
 In conclusion, the colonialism has both the positive and the negative impacts and
outcomes of these colonial actions on the world. It has impact on the religion of the
ruled people adopting the religion of the colonizers and also it has a mixed impact on
the health and life expectancy of the people.
References

Alfred and Taiaiake, 2005. Wasáse: Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom,
Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Burke and Edmund, 2000. On Empire, Liberty and Reform: Speeches and Letters,
David Bromwich (ed.), New Haven: Yale University Press.

Kohn and Margaret, 2010. “Post-colonial Theory,” in Duncan Bell (ed.), Ethics and
World Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 200–218.

Marx and Karl, 1972. On Colonialism: Articles from the New York Tribune and other
writings, New York: International Publishers.