Critical Reflective Writing Paper

Discuss the impacts of colonialism in the Pacific

region in terms of socio-cultural, economic,
religious and political influences. What benefits
and difficulties did these influences have on
Pacific island communities?

Name: Pravinayal Pranit Ram

Student ID: S11186082
Campus: Laucala Campus
The term colonialism refers to the time in history when powerful countries such as Great Britain,
Japan, Germany, and France took control and ruled over indigenous peoples in small countries
such as Fiji, Samoa, and other Pacific Island nations. As the Pacific countries became colonized,
they experienced both benefits as well as hardships that influenced people's lifestyles,
particularly their culture, dressing style, values, and so forth. Such impacts in our ancestors' time
have led to significant changes in the current generation or lives that we live in now. Thus, this
reflective paper will critically evaluate the impacts of colonialism in the Pacific region with
regards to socio-cultural, economic, religious and political influences that brought benefits and
difficulties to the Pacific Island communities.

Moreover, an influence to which colonialism had impacted the Pacific region is the socio-
cultural influence. Socio-cultural is referred to the two factors of social and cultural that are
involved together. The social and cultural factors which has influences on the people and the
society are towards their values, behavior and language. Fiji and the other Pacific Island
communities has had benefits from the socio-cultural influence as people had to learn a second
language apart from their indigenous language in order to ease the communication with the other
Pacific Island communities (Macnaught, 1982). The two common languages that was introduced
in the Pacific region in the past centuries were English and French. Upon learning the second
language that was brought in by the foreigners, people had become more modernized and other
beneficiary together with non-beneficiary changes were brought in to the people like
different/modern clothes, variety of foods were introduced and how buying methods were put
into effect from barter system which had impacted people’s behaviors and attitudes. On the other
hand, a difficulty that arose when people had started to leave behind or lose track of their
indigenous language and other traditional and cultural lifestyle as people became more keen into
learning the second language and modernizing (Thomas, 1990). For instance, people of Fiji
opted out from wearing traditional clothing’s like sari and sulu into wearing jeans, skirt, crop
tops. I can personally relate to this reflective writing, I was born and raised in the developing
side of Fiji, known as Suva city, where my family and the people of my community did not
practice much of the traditional methods but were focused on current modern methods to living
life which has impacted me and other youngsters of my community while growing up into not
know much past historic methods of living and events that our ancestors went through. But the
academic system and my grandparents (they lived in rural area so I used to pay them visits
usually) had enlightened about the whereabouts of the historical events and our forefathers.

Furthermore, a second influence to which colonialism had impacted the Pacific region is the
economic influence. Economic has a massive influence over the Pacific Island communities and
the entire globe itself. Economic or the use of money was introduced to Fiji and other Pacific
Island communities during colonization period (Sacerdote, 2009). After Britain, France, Japan,
USA and Germany colonized the Pacific Island region they enslaved the locals to work for them
as laborers of agricultural farming such s cotton farming and sugarcane farming. Fiji and the
other Pacific Island communities has had benefits from the economic influence as people use the
dollars for regional and global trade. Amongst the Pacific Islands, people now sell or trade goods
over to other island countries to build revenue for their country as now the world runs on
economic/money. Before economic was introduced to Fiji and the Pacific region, people used to
follow barter system which signifies the exchanging of either goods or services from one
participant to another in exchange of another goods or services (Knapman, 1985). On another
note, economic has brought a difficulty that had risen when people started to follow the tracks of
money/revenue therefore they started to neglect the barter system and looked forward to making
money. Over the years economic has become a great influence to the Pacific Island communities
as well as to the people all around the world. From my personal experience, I would consider the
economic as one of the biggest influences that was introduced by the foreigners (Great Britain)
which led people into exploring the powers of money yet on the other hand it leads to
disappearance of barter system which had goods exchange for goods, money could be earned and
could be used in exchange of either goods or services if one has enough buying power. As a
millennial of the 21st century, I know the power that money holds and the effects of it on a
countries economy as I have seen my neighbors suffer from a crisis.

In addition, a third influence to which colonialism had impacted the Pacific region is the
religious influence. Before the British, Germans, Americans and French came over to rule the
Pacific region, our forefathers and islanders had a belief of their own god and goddesses and
thereafter the foreigners then introduced Christianity (Jolly, 2007). Fiji and the other Pacific
Island communities has had benefits from the religious influence as the missionaries back in time
influenced our ancestors to follow Christianity which brought a positive impact of breaking the
cannibalism chain from indigenous locals. I have heard stories about how people were forced to
learn English and about Christianity from my I-Taukei neighbors while growing up with their
grandsons. A difficulty that was brought in by the influence of religious was that the catholic
missionaries put people in a set up classroom to educated people into converting to Christianity
which therefore led to people not to practice their own traditional customs and beliefs because it
was then referred to “demonic” under Christianity. I was also enlightened on the struggle, how
they were mistreated and suffering from the violent practices that was there for our forefathers
which they went through just to go by what those foreigners (British and Germans) told them to
do.

Moving on, the fourth and last influence to which colonialism had impacted the Pacific region is
the political influence. The political issues before colonization used to be addressed by the
chiefs. Fiji and the other Pacific Island communities has had benefits from the political influence
as the ongoing government system was introduced by colonialism (Foster, 2021). The British
and Americans had brought their system on how to run a country into the Pacific Island
Communities and practiced it and since then the Pacific region countries has been practicing it
over the centuries. As small children my grandmother always used to tell me and my brother
about how governments were formed and system Fiji nation became independent. The
government system was brought in through colonialism which my grandmother also stated that
the system was quite identical to their foreign system. A difficulty that the political influence
brought over to the pacific island community was that the chiefs of each area/district took care of
the political situations with the chiefly ruling system that usually occurred but as the British,
Germans and the French took over, the political situations was in their hands by force, likewise
for other Pacific Island communities.

Conclusively, colonialism has had an impact on the Pacific Island communities where people
were forced to abide by some rules which were implemented by the Germans, British, French,
Americans and the Japanese’s. The struggle, tears and sacrifices that our forefathers made will be
remarkable known in the future. Colonialization has brought about some bad and also good
impacts on the influenced countries. The effects of colonialism back then have impacted life’s
over centuries till this date and would also impact life’s in future as it holds a strong bond with
past history of the Pacific Island Communities. Therefore, this reflective paper has critically
evaluated the impacts of colonialism in the Pacific region in regards to the socio-cultural,
economic, religious and political influences that had brought benefits and difficulties to the
Pacific Island Communities.

(1347 Words)

References

 Foster, S., 2021. Colonial rule: Foreign intervention and control. [Online]
Available at: https://www.britannica.com/place/Pacific-Islands/Colonial-rule
[Accessed 09 May 2022].

 Jolly, M., 2007. Imagining Oceania: Indigenous and Foreign Representations of a Sea of
Islands. The Contemporary Pacific, 19(2), pp. 508-545.

 Knapman, B., 1985. Capitalism's economic impact in colonial Fiji. 1874-1939:

Development or underdevelopment?. The Journal of Pacific History, 20(2), pp. 66-83.

 Macnaught, T. J., 1982. The Fijian colonial experience : a study of the neotraditional
order under British colonial rule prior to World War II. 1st ed. Sydney: ANU eView.

 Sacerdote, J. F. a. B., 2009. COLONIALISM AND MODERN INCOME: ISLANDS AS NATURAL

EXPERIMENTS. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 91(2), pp. 245-262.

 Thomas, N., 1990. Representation, Colonialism and Agency in Pacific History. The
Journal of Pacific History, 25(2), pp. 139-158.