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Michael Parenti, a political scientist from Yale University, defines imperialism as “the process whereby the dominant politico-economic interests of one nation expropriate for their own enrichment the land, labor, raw materials, and markets of another people”. On the other hand, for Vladimir Illich Lenin, author of the influential pamphlet Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism in 1916, “imperialism is distinct because it represents--and is the product of--a new stage in the development of capitalism”.
"If it was necessary to give the briefest possible definition of imperialism, we should have to say that imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism," Lenin wrote.
Meanwhile, according to O.P.
Austin, Africa, Latin America and Asia are green tropics that are the subjects of control of modern progressive nations located at the temperate zones in the world. These modern progressive nations “develop” the identified continents for their own benefits such as a place where they can manufacture their own needs for a lesser effort and cost.
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In the end, it is the modern progressive nations that are getting more advantages over the less progressive nations.
Imperialism is more often defined as the state where a stronger country dominates a weaker one. And in the process, abusing the weaker country.
Scholars determine superpower nations when it comes to economic, social and political matters as imperialist countries such as the United States or Japan.
But for over four or five years, one significant event did not escape the pages of history— the European Imperialism.
Because of the undeniable and unstoppable rise in economy and technology of the Western part of the world during the 19th century, there was a very apparent rise as well on their military dominance over the world.
“And in the later part of 19th century, European markets were becoming saturated, and union workers were beginning to secure guarantees of better wages and shorter hours.
Industrialists began looking abroad for new markets and laborers. In doing so, they fulfilled predictions made in the 1840s by Karl Marx and other socialists, that the capitalist nations of Europe would inevitably become imperialist, since the forces of competition compelled capitalist powers to be always attempting to expand the areas under their economic control”
According to Parenti, the earliest victims of European imperialism were the other European countries themselves. And wherever they land their feet on, it was inevitable for them to change that land’s political, social and religious structures.
But besides its dominance over Asian and other European countries, one of the continents that were greatly affected by its supremacy, was Africa.
Up until the end of the 19th century, European colonizers were not giving any attention to Africa.
But when the Prince of Portugal, Henry the Navigator, showed the first prolonged significance in Africa, there was no stopping Europe from discovering the continent and then proceeding with ethnographic studies about it.
Explorers like Dr. Stanley Livingston, started a common Western fascination about Africa in addition with other stories of adventures in this continent. It was also greatly affected by the widespread of century missionaries because during the 19th century, the influence of Catholic and Protestant missionary was on a bloom in terms of worldwide scope.
“Missionaries (especially female missionaries) were often used as an excuse to send in the troops — they were isolated in the African backcountry, and during periods of turmoil the European governments (especially the British) felt the needed to go in to "protect" them”.
After 1434, several expeditions were sent out to extend European knowledge of the African coastline southward. These expeditions were fueled by the European’s passion for knowledge, to proliferate Christianity, “search for potential allies against Muslim threats, and the hope of finding new and lucrative trade routes to the east, and sources of wealth”.
And later in history, this fascination was later transformed into economic and then sooner to political European domination over Africa.
The first wave of European domination of Africa was economic like what happened in India. It involved domination by private individual and corporate groups and not by country. Also, it was only when the economic interests of their citizens became threatened that the military forces became involved in the domination.
The domination happened so efficiently because Africans are known to be very hospitable. Hence, traders, missionaries, and scientists were able to move freely inside the continent.
African control over other the countries in the continent were persistent until the last two decades of the 19th century.
But after almost two decades, the all of the continent was generally under the dominion of the European imperialist. The only countries that retained its sovereignty were Ethiopia and Liberia.
From 1885-1945, the period of the so-called High Imperialism and the most autocratic phase of European supremacy, Africans had few political and civil rights.
Aside from this, there were several abuses done on the Africans such as a racist system and forcibly enforced form of political, economic, and cultural domination through technologically superior foreign minority on an indigenous majority. Also, a White supremacy was promulgated through “scientific” assumptions all over the continent. This in return resulted to the idea that there is an innate moral inferiority among Africans and on a wider view, furthered political repression and economic exploitation.
There was also an apparent master-slave relationship among Whites and Blacks where the Whites owned vast areas of lands best suited for farming. In terms of education, only 5% of Africans was able to enter missionary schools and they received a Western type of education. But this education was not given to help them in promoting the Africans’ wellness but rather gave them the training in order to become subordinates of the White officials or professionals in the future.
And economically speaking, Europeans generally used the system wherein they extracted raw materials from the continent and only returned the already manufactured products.
As history evolved, actual independence of African colonies was not experienced until 1957 when Ghana was “freed” from its British colonizers. There were a number of African resistances which were oftentimes fierce and violent. Africans continued finding ways on how to be freed and even used labor unions, strikes and boycotts.
Generally, the bequest of European imperialism in Africa can still be seen today. Ever since its colonialization, the continent has not seized from experiencing instability in terms of its political and social structures.
Poverty continues to haunt the countries within this continent as it was never able to stand up from the economic set-up where there is a persisting exportation of raw materials and importation of manufactured goods.
And up to now, Africa’s governments are monopolized by specific groups of people and gained by a few. That is why people just vote yet don’t know who and why to vote. Hence, Africa still has an instable political structure.
They do not even know how to justify the taxes they pay. As one famous definition of taxation in Africa goes, “[it] is a pecuniary value that is taken by an authoritative way, without immediate obligation in view of taking care of public expenses”. This only implies that the citizens are required to pay their taxes but the authorities do not feel any responsibility to think of in what or how they should use these taxes.
In Mali for example, “import duties for over 5000 goods including essential machinery and equipment that range from 40% to 56%, industrial development has never been heard of , basic minimum wage is about $20 per month tied to a sack of rice and a kilo of beef meat, there is no free trade and investment, regulations abound, public revenue is derived from assorted taxes and duties that their usefulness to the payer are unknown, corruption is rife, former government functionaries who have never done private business before spend millions of US Dollars to finance their own campaigns.
Their government is also not open and participatory, but it is as you see it and are told. They still service debts and heavily saddled with foreign debts whom no one can justify the purpose of their procurement. The West taps them on the back and calls Mali “a good student of the Bretton Woods. And the ministries may be created to satisfy allies and pacify the opposition. And lastly, public revenue are allocated from the national level to state to local level”.
Today, the social structure in Africa basically exhibits a state wherein its citizens find it difficult to have peaceful association. Tribal wars are still very evident and the fight over certain issues still arises. With this, there is a very narrow process of communication and progress.
An equality of rights is ignored and hardly recognized. There is still a misunderstanding about their religious, regional and ethnic variations.
According to Walter Rodney, “neocolonialism prevails today in Africa because of the continuation after "independence" of the economic, political and social practices established by colonialism”.
He even added that “colonialism laid the roots of neocolonialism in Africa by creating Africa's economic dependency on the international capitalist system. The introduction of capitalist relations of production and distribution, -- for instance, the International Trade Commodity (ITC) exchange systems and values -- created such dependency”. Rodney (1981: 244) asserts that "previous African development was blunted, halved and turned back" by colonialism without offering anything of compensatory value.
And in terms of education, Rodney stressed that European imperialism in Africa brought about a colonial type of education in this continent. And that this colonial education produces Africans that will only serve Western countries and subscribe to their standards of well-being and that it will link education to material gain only.
He said that this colonial education corrupted the minds of Africans and made them lose their sensibilities and that everything about the life of an African is irrelevant.
Rodney also analyzed the interrelationship of Christianity, colonial education and administrative systems. He said that when an African is converted to Christianity, he neglects his traditions and beliefs and thus subscribe to colonial sensibilities. Colonialism also denied Africa their right to self expression and the development of their cultural differences. And this he said is linked to the fact that colonialism denied the people of Africa their own historical importance.
The emergence of European imperialist resulted to the emergence of social classes and thus, class contradictions. And up to now, forms of class contradictions are very visible in Africa. There still exists a specific social class who is violated, oppressed and dominated as what happened during European domination over Africa.
The quest for dignity and self determination is still very afar for there are several rights and privileges that are only accessible to the bourgeoisie. And the lower class still suffers what the slaves experienced during European imperialism.
These are some of the effects of European imperialism on the current political and social structure of Africa today. And as we can see, the history of Africa being dominated by Western politics, economics and social thoughts brought about the status of these two important aspects of African civilization.
And as many historians and philosophers believe, this cannot be reversed unless the whole African citizens act as one to achieve the wellness of their whole race.
As Lenin puts it, “The imperialist war is ushering in the era of social revolution. All the objective conditions of recent times have put the proletariat’s revolutionary mass struggle on the order of the day".
European Imperialism in the Early 20th Century. (2017, Apr 13). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/european-imperialism-in-the-early-20th-century-essay
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