Colonization,_Development_or_Invasion

20/10/2010 Colonization: Positive or Negative' Victor Chen In the long history of human-being, there was a special time period which is argued and discussed by many people. It is a period that science, economy, culture and capitalism developed rapidly. However, on the other hand, the process also brought deep pain and huge disasters to the colonized countries. So in this essay, I will discuss the positive and negative effects caused by colonization. There will be four parts in my essay: the reasons of colonization, positive effects, negative effects and my opinion. First, let’s talk about the historical reasons of colonization. Basically, there are three main reasons that related tightly to the colonization: specific history situation, commodity-based economy and it is the need of the development of world history. In the past time especially before the eighteenth century, the colonists in the world invaded many places to accumulate the original capital (Rastafarian, 2010, p. 1). Since there were no any laws or rules at that time, they could plunder the wealth from anywhere or anyone if they can. Started from the fifteenth century, capitalism appeared in some parts of Europe (Mafdoff, H. 2003, p. 1). The new social system brought high speed development to every side of their society. Countries like Portugal and Spain are the two countries which initially benefited from the process. After them, Netherland, France and the Great Britain built up their own world hegemony (2010, p. 1). At that time, the capitalism is the most advanced social system and was only handled in a limited amount of countries. The other parts of the world were so straggly that they kept the old system. Consequently, when the new system wanted to replace the old one and Europeans wanted to develop their economy and finish the original accumulation of capital, they had no choice but only invaded other countries to get new resources, people and labour forces. Also, that was also because of many feudal countries did not want to do any change but keep the natural economy. At that time, savage plunder is a necessary and unavoidable step that it must be done to help the new social system make the first step in the later developing processes. In other words, the cruel and blood at that time is the throes and one of the basic characters in the early time of capitalism. If the colonial countries did not use some savage and bloody methods to conquer the straggly countries, there were no other ways to open the door to create chances and development since the most countries in the world at that time did not agree with the new capitalism and they wanted to defend the old system and keep their kings or emperors. So force became the only way to open the gates to new development. Then, savage plunder is a part of historical need and it is the definite result of the crash of two social systems and history’s advancement. As the history chose capitalism as the necessity, people had no other choices. What we can do is just to install the chosen one to ourselves. Otherwise, the ones who obstructed the history would be given up. The second reason is the commodity-based economy. This kind of economy is the foundation of colonization. The process of colonization is process of spread the commodity-based economy. It destroyed the natural economy which existed widely at the time. After the capitalism appeared, the sales and raw materials became a problem which needed to be considered frequently. Then market is the core of existence and development of commodity producing. So, capital accumulation and market opening up became the foundational issues of the developing capitalism. In addition, it was also a significant part of history’s development and human-beings’ progressing. So we can also say that commodity-based economy decided the colonial expansion. The third reason is that colonization is the historical need. As I mentioned in the first two reasons, colonization is a chosen process in the history development. Through colonization, new thoughts, producing methods, new technology and advanced civilization were spread to the whole world. It accelerated human-beings’ progressing massively. No matter which race wanted to enter the group of capitalism, it had to colony other races and plunder savagely. After the reasons, we can see the positive effects of the colonization. Basically, there are three positive aspects we can see through the colonization: the spread of human civilization, promotion to capitalism and the results of colonists. There were so many examples in history that told us a truth: a more advanced civilization would always replace the less one. By this means, since colonization represented the capitalism, so it is the spread of capitalism essentially. So we can even say that colonization is an unconscious tool of history. A strong race in history would invade and plunder other races. Though such an invasion might be bloody and cruel, we should know it is a necessary step in the process of propagating new thoughts and advanced systems. The plunder is a huge force of human development. As a historical phenomenon, colonization should be treated as a unique part of the colourful human history. Also, it is a part of modern history which showed the changing of relationship between developed and undeveloped countries. Secondly, colonization is the promotion to capitalism. Capitalism is one of the most important progresses ever made by the human beings. Consequently, as an important tool in the progress, colonization contributed much to the capitalism. It served the way of producing methods of capitalism: market developing, obstacles cleaning and resources searching. It made our civilization entered a new period. In addition, colonization introduced the most advanced social system to the whole world and built up the global market to help new development – not only economy but also culture, society and new thoughts. We can even imagine: if the colonists did not open the gate of feudal eastern countries, what the east would be like now' So in this case, colonization was breaking the old obstacles and rules to make a way to a new and advanced world. Of course, every coin has two sides. And as the coin is big, both sides would not be small. Colonization is a coin like this: it is big enough for us to deliberate and discuss for a long time. The negative influences of colonization were focused on two aspects: the disasters it brought to the colonies and the destruction it had to the original culture to the colonies. For the economic and other benefits of developing capitalism, colonists took resources and labour from the colonies. Moreover, colonists killed and slaved the people in the undeveloped countries and colonies. It showed no civilized spirits in such activities. In other words, it obeyed the spirits of capitalism and humanity. These activities had deep and long influences to the contemporary world. The weaknesses, un-development, social unbalance and unsteady of the former colonized countries were largely because of the pains and invasions they suffered in the past times. It is the obvious effects we can see and it is a change should be made. The next one is the destruction to the culture. In the process of spreading new thoughts and culture to the colonies, there must be conflict between two cultures. And the result of conflict was the strong one destroyed the weak one. That made some valuable and ancient culture was given up. For example, India and Egypt are two colonies which their traditional cultures were partly took away by the colonists. After talked about the reasons, positive effects and negative effects, I would like to give my opinions. Colonization is a necessary part of the human history. During the time it appeared, it served the capitalism and accelerated the development of human beings. Also, it is a chosen process of history which we should judge it objectively. Though it created serious influences to many people in the history, the positive part should be noticed more since the contemporary world is significantly relied on the foundation colonization given in the beginning of capitalism. So generally, colonization had more positive influences than negative. In conclusion, colonization is unique part in the long human history. Like many other parts, it had its advantages and disadvantages. It made some countries developing faster with some bad influences to the others. However, we should treat it critically and find out what we need from both sides of the significant big coin. References Magdoff, H. (2003). Capitalism as a world economy. Retrieved on October 20, 2010 from organization website: http://www.monthlyreview.org/0903gutman.htm Rastafarian. (2010). Slave records before 1838. Retrieved on October 20, 2010 from organization website: http://www.rastafarian.net/slave%20records_before_1838.htm Answer. (2010). British history. Retrieved on October 20, 2010 from website: http://www.answers.com/topic/british-empire