Neo - Colonialism

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Neo - Colonialism

• New Forms of Old Control

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What is it?

• "As long as imperialism exists it will, by
  definition, exert its domination over other
  countries. Today that domination is called
  neo-colonialism."
• Che Guevara, Marxist revolutionary, 1965

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Origins

• The idea corresponds with the growth of
  globalisation.
• After World War Two, the major European countries
  could no longer go back to the way it was.
• They were weakened politically, economically, and
  militarily
• In this relaxed state, many colonies developed
  nationalist / independence movements

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• Starts in the
• Mid 1950s.
• Accelerates in
• the 1960s

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How Economic Imperialism Works

• Powerful economic states maintain a continuing
  presence in the economies of former colonies,
  especially where it concerns raw materials.
• Stronger nations are charged with interfering in
  the governance and economics of weaker nations to
  maintain the flow of such material, at prices and
  under conditions which unfairly benefit
  developed nations and trans-national
  corporations.
• Most multinational companies will sell their
  expertese in developing the resource, and in
  return keep a of the profit.

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But what was there Before???

• Before the Second World War, the world was much
  smaller in the sense that there were m any fewer
  nations then today.
• Europeans, and to a lesser extent the Americans,
  dominated the world through direct and indirect
  control of Asia, Africa, and Central and South
  America.
• This system of control was good old fashioned
  Imperialism.

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Imperialism

• Getting What You Need

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Colonialism Kickin it Old School

• When Europeans first travelled the globe they saw
  the need to exploit the territories they claimed.
• The territories were controlled and colonised.
  Europeans sought to replicate their culture and
  society around the world.
• American Colonies.
• From 1600 to 1850, this was the preferred style
  of development.
• In this period the major colonisers were
  British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch.
• During the 1700s, wars fought in Europe were
  transposed into these colonies. Namely, the
  British waged war on their enemies colonies to
  economically cripple them. It was immensely
  successful!
• By the first quarter of the nineteenth century,
  Britain was the dominate colonial power.

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What Changed in a Century
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An Uneasy Feeling

• The success of the British in creating a huge
  colonial system also coincided with more powerful
  forced Victorianism Morality and Liberalism.
• They did not always work together, but instead
  helped created a distorted sense of right and
  wrong and sense of equity.
• They did not want to take over the territory, but
  would stay for a little while.
• Imperialism The economic, political control of a
  nation / region through indirect control.

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The Break

• The shift away from colonialism to imperialism
  was not a gradual process. For the British, it
  was the Indian Mutiny of 1857.
• The British had defeated the rival French and
  Dutch colonies in India by 1757 (War of Austrian
  Succession) and consolidated power through the
  East India Company.
• The Company, like the Hudsons Bay Company,
  existed on a Royal Charter to trade in the name
  of the British Monarchy. They were not subject to
  local, or even most British laws.
• The Company set up its own administration, its
  own offices, recruited people to immigrate and
  built its own army.
• In 1857, units from the Indian Army led a violent
  and bloody rebellion against the British

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Outcome

• The British brutally suppressed the rebels and
  re-imposed order.
• Queen Victoria blamed the older system of
  colonialism and advocated a direct transfer of
  power over to the British Government.
• The British did not take direct control, or try
  to impose British culture on the Indians.
• They looked for local rulers and western trained
  administrators to run the show while they held
  power through the head of the government
  (Governor) and the military. The local people
  were free as long as the British Government let
  them.
• Nigeria pop 20 mil, 400 white administrators
• Sudan pop 9 mil, 140 white administrators
• Looking at this shift the French also adopted the
  same approach. They did not need to send people
  to settle, they only had to control the
  mechanisms of power.

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The Scramble for Africa

• The shift marks a renewed interest in Africa.
• Before 1850, it was mainly colonised along the
  coast, not the interior.
• The British needed to maintain a chain of coaling
  stations from Europe to India
• Starting in the 1870s, the European powers had
  internalised the idea that a great nation
  needed foreign territory.
• The reason was namely trade.
• The industrialisation of Europe meant that there
  was an increased need for raw resources to be
  sent back to Europe and a market to dump all
  their finished goods.

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Legacy

• In their effort to create an empire the Europeans
  redrew the map of Europe.
• When the Scramble for Africa was over, 10,000
  identifiable ethnic, religious and cultural
  groups had been pushed into 40 states or
  protectorates.
• Rwanda, Congo, Sudan, South Africa
• As part of their power struggle, pieces of Africa
  were traded around by the Europeans
• National boundaries were straight lines drawn on
  a map, disregarding terrain or ethnicity.
• Long time enemies are together Uganda, Chad,
  Sudan, Nigeria
• Groups divided arbitrarily Congo, Somaliland

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India

• Was controlled by Great Britain - the jewel in
  the Crown from 1750s 1940s
• To rule the local population, the British
  developed a political elite administration.
• By the early 1900s these people coalesced into
  the Indian National Congress
• The INC increasingly played a key role in
  decolonization and the end of empire.
• The actual drive to independence was led by
  Mohandas K. Gandhi
• He became a leader of the movement after World
  War One with a focus on passive resistance (civil
  disobedience)
• By the end of the Second World War the political
  leader of the INC, Jawaharlal Nehru, led the
  actual negotiations for independence
• Clement Attlee and the Labour Party wished to
  phase its presence out, but other crisis and
  Indian pressure caused them to pull the union
  flag down in India in 1947
• Before they left the British tried to solve a
  major dilemma.
• They divided India into two nations India
  (Hindu) and Pakistan (Muslim)

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Ghandi
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China

• Europeans sought to develop trade relations with
  China as far back as the 1500s
• The Chinese kept them in check, restricted trade
  and access.
• In the Anglo - Chinese Wars (1839 to 1842 and
  1856 to 1860)
• British force China to trade with them and allow
  them to set up their own unrestricted trade
  centres (Hong Kong)

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• In the early 1900s the Empress tried to use the
  Boxers to attack and drive out the Europeans, and
  by now the Americans.
• It backfired and led to increased pressure to
  modernise.
• In 1911, nationalist forces push the emperor off
  his throne and declare a republic under Sun Yat
  Sen

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• Starting the late 1920s the Communist forces led
  by Mao Zedong put pressure on the Nationalist
  forces led by Chang kai-shek
• Mao took over China in 1949
• He immediately severed any external influences

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Arab Nationalism

• Arab nationalism was originally a loosely united
  group opposed to colonialism and subsequently to
  migration of Jews to Palestine
• As part of the Versailles Treaty, the British
  agreed to uphold the Balfour Declaration in 1917
• The British hoped to weaken the Ottomans by
  pledging support for the creation of Jewish
  national home in Palestine
• After the Second World War, the British could no
  longer contain the influx of European Jews.
• Great Britain announced its withdrawal from
  Palestine in 1948.
• This angered and emboldened regional groups to
  attack the colonists. The Soviet Union was
  especially willing to help.
• Egypt in the 1950s

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New Ties to Bind

• With direct control lost
• Critics of Globilisation argue that the IMF and
  World Bank are promoting a new version of
  control.
• Often referred to as Economic Imperialism
• Instead of direct military-political control,
  neocolonialist powers employ financial, and trade
  policies to dominate less powerful countries.
  This amounts to a de facto control over less
  powerful nations