The Consequences of Colonialism

The Impact on Land and Land Use

Ethnic Composition

• Large parts of Africa were wrecked and depopulated by slavery. The Slaves moved to the Caribbean and South America. (Corn moved to Africa to feed them.)

• There were other large movements of people: European Settlers, Indentured labor (Indians in East Africa, in the Fiji Islands), Depopulation (Caribbean and Latin America).

The Commoditization of Agriculture

• Because of taxes, or the law, people had to grow new crops that were entirely for export.

• At the same time, they had to grow their own food too, so they were between two worlds.

• Very little of the value of this extra labor went to the grower. In some places, farmers became laborers.

Indoctrination of New Values

• The old ideas were discredited as “tradition,” folklore, primitive etc.

• The local people associated the new ideas with a stronger, superior culture, and so they lost their traditions, their religions and their identity.

Neglect of Food Crops

• Unless the local food crops had some commercial value, which was not often, then all the attention of the Europeans went into commercial crops.

• These were mainly luxuries with almost no food value, such as tea, coffee, vanilla, cotton, peanuts, cocoa, rubber and tropical oils.

• This neglect of subsistence crops, particularly in Africa, was going to create huge problems later.

The Nature of Trade

• Tropical exports mostly unprocessed natural products.

• Imports mostly high-value manufactured goods and services, as well as entertainment and fuel.

• “Terms of Trade” have worked against the Tropics in general. Much of “Development” has a large import component.

The Low Profile of Agriculture

• Agricultural exports were the cash cow of poor-country governments

• The benefits of this trade flowed back mostly into the elites and the cities, leaving agriculture under-capitalized, without incentives, and neglected.

• This encouraged a flood of people from the land into the cities, where there was no work

The Divided World

• The process of the Colonial economy, over such a long period of time, built up huge advantages for the European countries. This created the “Rich” and “Poor” world.

• These advantages tend to perpetuate themselves structurally and institutionally.