Built on Exploitation
The narrative sold throughout primary and secondary school surrounding colonialism and imperialism sidelines the truth and neglects to mention the other side of the story: the side of those who have been exploited of their goods, land, culture, and identity. Colonization in it’s own definition as the combination of economic, social, political, cultural, and other policies by which an external power dominates and exploits the people, ideas, and resources of an area proves itself as an act fueled by negativity. Looking at an honest truth about colonization—devoid of misconceptions and myths—shows the detrimental effects and implications on marginalized groups, including a jaded sense of identity.
Colonization often begins with power and the race to assert power. Acts of sovereignty, or exercises of power, assert dominance in the international field, which only incites and sustains colonization and imperialism, disrupting nations—groups of individuals who feel connected through a single body, whether it be a shared religion, value system, culture, or language—for the benefit of a state, a land with a sovereign government.
Imperialism saw different rises within different states. From Spain’s reign in the sixteenth through the eighteenth century to Europe’s reign in the eighteenth through the twentieth century to the United State’s reign from the nineteenth century onward, modern colonization sought primarily after one thing: power. Whether it be economic power as seen through exploitation colonies used solely for depriving resources or a sort of influential, developing power as seen through settler colonies used to develop regions, psychological and economic damages crippled social structures within the nations experiencing colonization.
Before European domination, the people of Africa remained divided into hundreds of ethnic groups and spoke a combined total of one thousand languages. Because Europeans only visited the coast of the continent, the resources of inland Africa were widely unknown and unfamiliar to the Europeans. However, due to the rise of capitalism through the industrial revolution, colonialism turned into a game of resources to fuel the revolutions, proving capitalism’s roots as one built on exploitation. Prior to 1492 and western exploration of Europe, empires would increase land through its borders—but colonization was different, expanding power and influence regardless of border. Colonization and the rise of imperialism devastated ethnic groups and various cultures, as they deprived them of their resources, disrupting and altering entire cultures.
The absence of the British East India Company and Spain’s conversion conquest does not mean colonization vanished and exploitation stopped. Though in modern day formal colonial rule ended and imperialism was disgraced following World War II in 1945, nations affected by colonization still suffer today, shown through the cultures and identities lost behind capitalism, deprivation, and manipulation.
Cover Photo by James Gillray, courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.