GAC0015 Assessment Event 4: Academic Final Essay

Colonialism: Compare and

Contrast

Student,s Name: Regina Barba Delgado

Student ID#: CET48043

Teacher: Adriana Soltero González

Due Date: October 25, 2020

Word Count: 1048 words

GAC0015AE#4 Regina Barba Delgado CET48043

Colonialism is the relationship of political, social and economic domination that exists between a

foreign power (the metropolis) and other countries considered peripheral, which are exploited by the

power and are called "colonies". Colonialism brings a very new style to the colonies.The conquest of

lands and forceful beingness of peoples totally different of various backgrounds (as a result of the

conquest) with different beliefs and ideologies have caused several changes, positive and negative.

In recent years there have been changes in the population since the 19th century, these changes have

had its benefits but also its disadvantages. The next reading is going to be about the benefits and

disadvantages of colonialism since the 19th century.

In the 19th century, colonialism in Europe was important because of emigration. Many people started

immigrating. Many people began to migrate because of lack of work, hunger or the political situation.

They generally left to seek a better living situation since they were candidates to be exploited when

many settlers lived comfortably.

In Europe they appropriated the territories in Africa, Asia and Oceania, and turned them into colonies

and imposed their authorities, dictated economic, political, cultural measures and sent people to root

those territories.

Colonialism had great advantages, one can believe that it was bad thanks to slavery and wealth

extraction but it also had several positive aspects, one of these positive aspects was the development

of tropical medicine, this was achieved thanks to Europe, particularly England and France in their stay

in Africa and America, also the development of democracy, as rules were introduced by each

government to their colonies.It also created the internationalization of languages, as an example is that

English was only spoken in the British Isles and today is spoken in 106 countries, like Spanish is now

spoken in 31 nations, French in 53 and Arabic in 58. Modern art was followed by Picasso, Matisse

and other great architects of Art Deco. Modern tourism was developed and crops and their derivatives

were internalized.

In the 20th century of colonialism the economic measures of a state arise, associated to raw materials,

now these can be obtained through the trade, the excess of production this refers to the beginning of

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the industrial revolution, that is to say, the moment that is begun to replace the handcrafted production

by machinery or production in mass, and the cheapest manual labor.

Another positive aspect that the colonization had was the modernization, because the regions were

developing technologically, they began the construction of railroads to improve trade, medical

advances, and education or schools, all these helped to have better opportunities in the future. There

were also some negative changes as for example in education was limited to certain social classes

either by their skin color or ethnicity. There are also depleted resources, I mean that the availability of

natural resources in colonized countries was reduced, which opened the way to a time of famine,

poverty and need. Some countries had a good development in agriculture and tried to trade with that

while the locals did not receive much.

While mocking the past, the world has embraced the various demands of "human rights" and

democracy for"free" communication through the protection and strength of modern technology. On

the government side, not everyone is as free as many. Not everything is as prominent as it used to be.It

seems that in the 21st century there are still traces of the past and of systems of oppression that make

inequality a premise of our times.

After World War II, talk began of decolonization of the world. The newly born United Nations (UN)

voted in 1960 the resolution 1514 which embodied the Declaration of Guarantees of Independence for

Colonies and Peoples, most countries favored this resolution while the powers abstained.

But as happens with most of the truly important UN resolutions, no one really has guarantees of

anything and the General Assembly is a global fictional room for making people believe in

democracy, when in reality decisions are made in the Security Council by the powers that enjoy the

power of veto.

Today, in the run-up to 2020, there are still approximately two million people and seventeen countries

that are in a colonial condition, subject to a metropolis.

These 17 countries are divided between four powers and one developing country, with the United

Kingdom having the largest number of overseas territories.

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This list is of the non-self-governing territories recognized by the UN, but in reality the world still has

several corners that are subjected to the metropolis by interests such as the case of Puerto Rico and

Palestine, a territory colonized by Anglo-American Zionists for 70 years, or perhaps the recent case of

Catalonia that despite having voted its independence was subjected by force of the civil guard and its

leaders imprisoned by the Spanish crown only in 2017.

The conditions on maintaining colonies at the time are still in dispute, Argentina has taken different

proposals to the UN to have the Malvinas Islands returned to it, Tokelau voted a referendum in 2007

and the great problem of Western Sahara violently submitted by Morocco. These are only examples of

different situations but of the same condition created by the powers and their expansionism to the

detriment of the populations and the world.

Colonialism in the 21st century is the living face of the system that has prevailed in the world for

centuries and that seeks to suffocate freedom through false ideas about a human capitalist system in

the hand of a free market ideology that subjugates the non-industrialized countries and the small

islands that must depend on a central metropolis.

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In conclusion colonialism created several important changes in all countries, obviously as everything

there is always the good and bad side of each history and how each colony was created, until this

moment we are still in a process of colonization and will be marked in history as everything.

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https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/topics/reference/colonialism/ [Accessed 29
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Características del colonialismo europeo en el siglo XIX. B@UNAM [online]. Available from:
http://uapas2.bunam.unam.mx/sociales/colonialismo_europeo/ [Accessed 23 Octrober 2020].

Celestino, Portela. (2019) “The New Colonialism of the 21st century” SPEAK FREELY [online].
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https://www.speakfreely.today/2019/05/11/new-colonisation-21st-century/ [Accessed 29
september 2020].

D. Gilmart, (2010), El colonialismo, Historico Digital. Available from:

https://historicodigital.com/la-colonizacion.html [Accessed 23 October 2020].

Mattew, Fortuna (2017), ¿Que es la perspectiva del conflicto? eHow. Available from:
https://www.ehowenespanol.com/perspectiva-del-conflicto-sobre_102601/ [Accessed 24
October 2020].

Vazquez, Lucia. 5 Curiosidades sobre el descubrimiento de América. VIX. Available from:

https://www.vix.com/es/btg/curiosidades/4849/5-curiosidades-sobre-el-descubrimiento-de-am
erica?utm_source=next_article [Accessed 23 October 2020].

Wahed, Mohammad. “The impact of Colonialism on 19th and Early 20th Century China” [online].
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[Accessed 29 September 2020].

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