Week 3 - Colonialism and the Persistence of Colonial Legacies

Question 1

What was the key to the emergence and growth of global capitalism?

Answer 1

colonialism

Question 2

What did colonisers attempt to do?

Answer 2

colonisers attempted to commodity, extract, and appropriate land and labour surplus from differently racialised groups

Question 3

What does Rodney say colonialism was about?

Answer 3

not just economic exploitation, focuses not he active “underdevelopment”

Question 4

What does Pailey say about colonialism?

Answer 4

beyond a system of economic exploitation but a cultural and ideological imposition that continues to shape development discourse today

Question 5

What did colonialism involve?

Answer 5

deep institutional transformation which continued into post-colonial period (e.g. governance structures, rule of law, property rights)

Question 6

What are the statistics on the wealth disparities colonialism created?

Answer 6

10% of the world’s people were allocated 85% of its wealth, 90% of all present and rural people had their lands expropriated

Question 7

What does Mkandawire say about the colonial state?

Answer 7

the colonial state was a surplus extraction regime and systems of taxation were a defining characteristic of various forms of colonisation even by the same imperial power

Question 8

What is path determination?

Answer 8

colonial activities determined post-colonial ones, or at least conditioned them, such that departure from the colonial pattern was, and perhaps remains, difficult and costly

Question 9

What is the difference between West Africa and East and South Africa’s colonial experience?

Answer 9

West African colonial governments more responsive to expand income and welfare, but did little to promote industrial expansion up value chain
East and South Africa colonies were worse on poverty alleviation, but did more for structural transformation (settler colonies)

Question 10

What does unequal exchange regarding colonisation refer to?

Answer 10

periphery countries drawn into sphere of industrial capitalism without themselves becoming industrial producers (just a persistent transfer of economic surplus from the periphery to the core, produces ‘distorted’ economies in the periphery)

Question 11

What was the cause of unequal exchange in the periphery countries?

Answer 11

export orientation
less manufacturing and expansion of services
tendency to use less productive technologies

Question 12

What is “primitive accumulation” regarding colonialism?

Answer 12

a process where European countries amassed capital by exploiting colonies

Question 13

What provided the necessary capital for Europe’s industrial revolution and economic expansion?

Answer 13

inflow of wealth from the colonies (by extracting vast wealth from their colonies, including raw materials, agricultural products, and human labour)

Question 14

How did colonialism open new markets for European goods?

Answer 14

colonised regions were often forced to buy European products, which helped European industries thrive and grow
global trade system established through colonialism gave European merchants and industrialists significant economic advantages

Question 15

How did colonialism shape labour systems?

Answer 15

forced labor, slavery, and indentured servitude in the colonies provided cheap labor that supported European industries (European capitalist systems were built on the exploitation of colonised peoples, allowing European)

Question 16

What does Blaut argue about the wealth disparity between Europe and its colonies?

Answer 16

(later, the Global North and South) was a direct result of the colonial system (unequal exchange of goods and labour benefited Europe at the expense of the colonised)

Question 17

What does Blaut argue that contemporary global capitalism continues to reflect?

Answer 17

the colonial exploitative relationships in a different form

Question 18

What traditional narrative does Blaut reject?

Answer 18

the traditional narrative that capitalism is the result of European cultural or intellectual superiority
insists that the economic growth of Europe cannot be separated from its colonial ventures

Question 19

What is the Indian legacy regarding colonialism and what does Kohli refer to India as?

Answer 19

restructured India’s economy for British benefit
systematic destruction of Indian industries
focus on extraction of raw materials, cash crops, forced labour
‘fragmented multiclass’ development states

Question 20

What are examples of how neocolonialism persist specifically?

Answer 20

loans, trade deals, global structures

Question 21

In what ways can you see colonial legacies today?

Answer 21

shape of post.colonial state borders
infrastructure and institutions
economic exploitation of commodity-rich countries (coffee, cocoa, copper, diamonds, etc.)
racism in Western societies
concealed power in language of development policy and practices
Western ‘white savour’ complex

Question 22

What are examples of phrases used that show the concealed power in language of development policy and practices? (colonialism)

Answer 22

“capacity building”
“good governance”

Question 23

What is the strongest form of colonial legacy?

Answer 23

“path determination”, implying that colonial choices determined post-colonial ones, or at least conditioned them, such that departure from the colonial patter was and remains difficult and costly

Question 24

What are settler-colonies?

Answer 24

large-scale land appropriation by European settlers was a key feature
Africans were often forced into labour on plantations or mines, creating a dual economy with significant income inequality, while settlers benefited from protective policies, coercive labour laws, and capital-intensive industries (e.g. South Africa, Southern Rhodesia)

Question 25

What did colonial economy's focus on?

Answer 25

extracting resources for the beneift of the colonising countries

Question 26

What did development under colonialism look like? (infrastructure)

Answer 26

colonial governments built infrastructure like railways and ports to facilitate the export of raw materials, which helped expand African economies but were primarily aimed at benefiting European settlers and companies

Question 27

What did development under colonialism look like? (eduction)

Answer 27

colonial governments generally neglected education and industrial development, so African countries were left with low levels of human capital and a limited industrial base

Question 28

What did development under colonialism look like? (population)

Answer 28

there was a significant increase in the population of sub-Saharan Africa from around 1900 to 1960 (public health measures introduced by colonial governments helped reduce mortality rates)

Question 29

What were the post-colonial economic challenges? (economy)

Answer 29

African countries struggled to diversify their economies, beyond raw material exports and many remained dependent on a narrow range of export commodities, making them vulnerable to global market fluctuations

Question 30

What were the post-colonial economic challenges? (industry)

Answer 30

lack of industrial capacity, compounded by economic policies favouring capital-intensive projects, meant that many African countries were slow to industrialise (while some countries like South Africa developed significant manufacturing sectors, most African nations remained primarily agricultural)

Question 31

What were the post-colonial economic challenges? (public goods)

Answer 31

inadequate investments in education, electricity and other public goods limited the stage for potential labour-intensive industrialisation due to population growth

Question 32

What were the post-colonial economic challenges? (SAP)

Answer 32

structural adjustment programs in the 1980, implemented by the IMF and World Bank, aimed to transition African economies from state-led to market-oriented models and often led to economic stagnation or contraction in the short term

Question 33

What is the difference between legacies for settler and peasant economies?

Answer 33

settler economies left behind deep inequalities and rigid class structure, while peasant economies allowed for greater economic mobility and opportunities for Africa farmers and traders

Question 34

What are the characteristics of neocolonialism?

Answer 34

political and geopolitical economic socio-cultural

Question 35

What does the political and geopolitical characteristic of neocolonialism refer to?

Answer 35

former colonial powers still meddle in former colonies by endorsing leaders with similar interests or having military presence

Question 36

What does taxation capacity of a country depend on? (colonialism)

Answer 36

in African countries, with differences in tax reliance on trade versus direct taxes based on the colonial economic categorisation reach of state depends on how formalised the economy is

Question 37

What does taxation capacity of a country depend on? (colonialism, specifically inequality)

Answer 37

Greater inequality in Africa leads to higher tax share While tax structure was redistributive among whites, helping explain intra-race inequality less pronounced, it wasn’t redistributive in aggregate Labour reserve economies tended produce more nationalist movements, having popularity removing racist order, and led to greater state powers for taxation and redistribution

Question 38

What does Pailey argue the colour blind approach avoids?

Answer 38

approach avoids addressing the power, privilege, and inequality that continue to favour whiteness (many development interventions, in fact, can be seen as reinforcing these structures of white domination)

Question 39

What is the White Gaze of development?

Answer 39

viewing the Western, white, or Eurocentric ideas as the golden standard or norm with which all socio-economics processes are compared (communities are always viewed as the object of study and are considered incapable of returning the gaze)

Question 40

Why and how has the White Gaze endured?

Answer 40

The Racial Contract (there exists a social contract through racism that imposes a power structure that benefits whiteness and all white people are benefactors to this, even if not signatories) White fragility (there exists a discomfort and defensiveness among white counterparts to discuss their race and privileges)

Question 41

How did healthcare look under settler colonies?

Answer 41

at beginning of colonial period, hospitals and other medical facilities were available for only settlers and expatriates during mid periods of colonial rule in Africa, colonial governments recognised that African workers needed basic health to carry on their labour, thus introduced healthcare services for African workers (healthcare services were a two-tier system where settlers and Indigenous Africans received different services with different qualities) healthcare services that existed for the African people was only meant for those Africans who worked for the colonial economy (other Africans were excluded)

Question 42

How did healthcare look under settler colonies? (Portugal)

Answer 42

after five hundred years of colonising Angola, the Portuguese have produced on one doctor in Angola

Question 43

How did infrastructure look under colonialism?

Answer 43

all infrastructure services introduced by the colonial government were not for the African peoples to connect, but to facilitate the economy (Rodney) no road or railway that connected the colonies, but all roads and railways led to the sea regions that did not offer anything to the colonial economy were ignored and had no type of transportation

Question 44

How did education look under colonialism?

Answer 44

introduced schooling to African colonies, but intention was not to teach Africans science and mathematics, but intention was to produce an African who viewed his tradition and background as inferior to the colonialists was also only intended to produce African workers who knew basic literacy and numeracy so that they could work in industry, thus educating them was an economic investment focused on religion, where the colonial governments wanted to change the local religion with Christianity (Rodney argues was part of a plan to change how the African view the colonialists)

Question 45

What does neocolonialism describe?

Answer 45

the nature of relations after independence between European powers and their former colonies of the non-European world (despite formal independence, struggled with continued economic, political, and military influence from former colonial powers)

Question 46

What is the difference between how Western and Global South scholars view neocolonialism?

Answer 46

Western scholars rejected the concept, while leaders from the Global South, e.g. Ghana's Nkrumah, viewed neocolonialism as the most dangerous stage of imperialism, where control is exercised economically and politically, without direct presence of colonial rulers Global South scholars argued that neocolonialism allows former colonial powers to wield control without responsibility, leading to exploitation without redress

Question 47

What does the word “tribe” serve according to Uzoigwe and what does the word tribalism mean? (colonialism)

Answer 47

only to preserve the West’s self-­image as a civilised, superior race whose pride in their own exceptionalism is not in doubt used to explain the ‘colonial’ character of a post-­colonial independent regimes (“would be truer to say that tribalism is a product of colonialism and that what colonialism produces, neocolonialism reproduces”)

Question 48

Why did many post-independence leaders struggled to govern effectively? (colonialism)

Answer 48

due to inherited colonial structures and ethnic divisions exacerbated by colonial rule (political and geopolitical neocolonialism)

Question 49

What organisations played significant roles in maintaining economic neoliberalism?

Answer 49

the World Bank, IMF, and other Western financial institutions played significant roles in maintaining this dependency by enforcing policies like structural adjustments (economic neoliberalism marked by continued dependency on foreign capital, often through exploitative trade agreements and loans)

Question 50

What aspect of colonialism left many Global South economies underdeveloped and reliant on foreign powers?

Answer 50

focus on raw material extraction by multinational corporations (economic dependency fostered ongoing inequality, with African countries suffering from the “development paradox” of resource wealth alongside poverty) (economic neoliberalism)

Question 51

What did economic neocolonialism in general lead to the development of?

Answer 51

in general also led to some economic progress and especially to infrastructural development in Global South (e.g. roads, railroads, economic growth, and other amenities, especially in countries with less corrupt leaders, have been financed by loans and economic aid from rich nations)

Question 52

What does economic neocolonialism have the potential for and what impedes it?

Answer 52

although neocolonialism (like capitalism) is by nature exploitative, if it is properly managed it has potential to lead to economic growth and development indigenous corruption (which cannot thrive without foreign support), ethnic issues, and nepotism often impede the realisation of these goals

Question 53

Through what can you see sociocultural neocolonialism?

Answer 53

former colonial powers maintain influence through education, media, and religion (this cultural domination fosters sense of inferiority among post-colonial nations, which are encouraged to adopt Western values and limits capacity for indigenous knowledge production)

Question 54

What were significant tools of both colonialism and neocolonialism?

Answer 54

racism and cultural superiority (indigenous elites often complicit in sustaining these attitudes )

Question 55

What has helped neocolonialism to survive in India?

Answer 55

British economic and political investments in the country over the centuries were safeguarded by working through the trusted elite groups

Question 56

Why is neocolonialism inevitable according to Uzoigwe?

Answer 56

given the structure of colonial institutions that were intended to foster dependency, a reality that undermines the sovereignty of the states concerned ab initio is resilient due to its ability to change its tactics to achieve its ends cannot operate effectively without the cooperation of the indigenous leaders its proponents and opponents alike tend to adopt extreme positions

Question 57

What is neocolonialism as why is it persistent?

Answer 57

"the nature of relations after independence between European powers and their former colonies of the non-European world" "is inevitable, given the structure of colonial institutions that were intended to foster dependency" persists through economic dependency and global inequalities

Question 58

Why was Africa crucial to the growth of industrial capitalism in the West?

Answer 58

slave trade provided England with capital for its industrialisation

Question 59

How did colonialism help to lead to capitalism?

Answer 59

colonialism created a single global economy

Question 60

What is the Indonesian legacy regarding colonialism?

Answer 60

farm surplus was siphoned off to subsidise plantations post-colonial elites now control the sugar and palm plantation system put in place by the Dutch colonialists and still contracted to foreign corporate interests stagnant 'traditional' farming sector