Posted on 12/18/2013 7:30:18 AM PST by Paladins Prayer
DADburnit! Beat me to it!
"Other than that, what have the Imperialists ever done for us?"
I am reminded of a scene in THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING who asks a tribal elder if they have enemies.
The man bursts out crying and tells how a tribe just up river goes out and pees in the river when his people are trying to bathe.
What a fascinating chart! Where did you get it? (My middle-aged eyes can’t make out the source in gray at the bottom.)
That’s funny raht dere, don’t care who ya are.
I think British colonialism was beneficent, and French colonialism somewhat less so, but you are choosing a poor example with the Congo and Belgian colonialism. Granted it is a cesspool today, but the record of King Leopold’s administration was murderous exploitation at its worst. It was basically a license to private companies to enslave Africans at the point of a gun for mining and rubber extraction. There was no effort to bring civilization except for fortress white enclaves.
CIA World Factbook
Admittedly, Leopold’s reign was a horrorshow example of colonial exploitation. But the independence movement didn’t start under Leopold. It began years later after European “colonizers” had brought schools, hospitals, roads, and electricity to the country. It was only then that the Congolese decided they needed to shake off the yoke of imperialism and take charge of their own destiny.
They did, and the result is the cesspool the Republic is today.
But I will not defend Leopold and his depravities.
If only the white man would colonize Detroit.
don’t forget pizza delivery!
What ever happened to the concept of “civilization?”
Yes, everybody needs:
Roads and Railroads
Hospitals
Schools
HYGIENE
Churches
Orphanages
Literacy
Harbors/Ports
Books
Electricity
Technology
And the greatest of these is Literacy. Otherwise, how do you pass on civilization to the next generation?
1) To women: There are plenty of decent guys out there. Just go to any singles bar. 2) To blacks: There is no racism out there. Just ask any bigot.
To America: Are blacks better off being brought here as slaves? I think that they have too much control of their destiny just like the newly independent states. Now we can see the result.
Conclusion: there is no solution.
I’ve heard this a number of times, including Iraqi’s, Pakistani’s, Indian’s...
The British brought:
- Railway’s and organized transportation
- Built bridges, etc.
- Institutions
- Health
- Education
- Etc.
- Changed government system, influenced democratic process.
These things were absent until they came...at least that’s what I’ve been told.
Very interesting chart. Would be interesting to see the same information plotted out as actual GDP, versus percentage of total.
IOW, did India and China actually go backwards to the extent shown, or did they just stagnate while western powers surged ahead?
Have seen other evidence that for at least 2000 years China was consistently the most technologically innovative society in the world. Till middle Ming dynasty, somewhere around 1500, which was several centuries before the West had any real impact on China. Then innovation stopped, not just in relation to the surging West, but on an absolute basis.
Never have seen a logical reason why.
Being a Brit colony was good for the regular people, not good for the native ruling elites, which is why they wanted the Brits out.
Where online did you find the figure (not the data on which it was based) though? I am wondering if you got it from a website where there is some discussion of out. The source code only has an imgur address for the figure.
Oops, discussion of “it,” not “out.”
I once had a old woman in a Ugandan village ask me, “Please, when are the British coming back?”
A decade later an man in a village in Mali asked me, “Do you know what this country needs?”
No, I replied.
“Re-colonization!”
See post 10.
I have seen several studies showing British exploitation of India and its horrific affects on the economy. Problem is that the studies show all kinds of internal evidence of a predisposition to denounce imperialist exploitation. Would very much like to read a reasonably unbiased study of the pros and cons of imperialism for India.
Fairly obviously Brit colonization was disastrous for most of the rulers and nobility. But some groups surged ahead, and the peasantry benefited in many ways. So what was the net effect?
It should be remembered that colonization of India was an entirely different issue from that of Africa, Australia or (most of) the Americas. When Europeans first contacted India directly, it was enormously more wealthy, and was arguably considerably more civilized.
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