Colonialism Essay Examples

Spanish and English colonisation attempts were really different with the English’s methods being more successful and profitable. Spanish colonisation of the Americas began in 1492 when Christopher Columbus found the Americas and misidentify them for India. Spanish Conquistadors came with the ends of “God. Gold. and Glory” and came seeking gold and wealths. The Spanish […]

Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad, is a powerful critique of colonialism and its impact on both the indigenous people and the colonizers themselves. Conrad’s personal experiences of growing up in Poland during Russian occupation and later commanding a river steamer in the Dutch Congo inform his perspective on colonialism. His protagonist, Marlow, a […]

In his article titled ‘Eco- or Ethno- nationalism?’, Walker Connor discusses the underlying motivation behind ethnic conflicts. Connor argues that ethnic conflicts are primarily driven by factors such as race, language, religion, etc, which form an individual’s ethnic identity, only if there is observable disparity in these attributes among the groups involved. Additionally, Connor highlights […]

Politics is defined as the interaction between the state and the society, public and private institutions in such a way as to ensure development. However, politics is not autonomous of the society, nor the society simply made up of organized interest groups. Instead, informal institutions, unregulated behavior and differences in culture are some of the […]

During the 1800s and early 1900s, a wave of imperialism swept over Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The Western nations, pursuing new raw materials, established control, and became very powerful. The non-Western world obtained many benefits, such as industrialization and public education. While imperialism proved beneficial, it also resulted in warfare, racism, economic discrimination, […]

The Caribbean presents an unrealistic facade to outsiders; this region is the vacation hot spot with many beautiful tropical islands, perpetual sun, and clear waters – a place to rid yourself of all worries, and unwind. But there are many underlying issues in this region that most people are unaware of. In The Oxford Book […]

Colonialism is the policy of domination pursued by the European powers starting in the fifteenth century and extending to the mid twentieth century. During this period European countries began to exert their control over large parts of the world. The Spanish and Portuguese founded colonies in what was to become known as Latin America. Britain […]

A scholar, a journalist and a political activist, Basil Davidson has made exceptional contribution to the development of modern African history. His books have been widely recognized due to their scientific reliability and forceful presentation related to the most problematic aspects of African history, notable the relationship of the past to the present. His book, […]

The novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is not a critique of European colonialism and imperialism in the post-colonial term. Certainly when the novel was published the colonialism was an accepted matter all over the world. Nobody questioned the audacity of colonialism. As a novelist Conrad himself is much criticized by post-colonial thinker like […]

The pre-colonial Philippine society has been regarded as primitive and backward from the Western point of view. Most history books, starting from elementary level, depict and portray how primeval and prehistoric early Filipino lives were. And sadly, a lot of Filipinos render this idea as true, concise, and accurate where in fact, it’s the other […]

What is exile? For some, exile may be equivalent to eviction. For some, it may be equivalent to shunning. The dictionary definitions of exile are “absence from own country,” “somebody living outside own country,” and “banishment. ” These definitions are examples of a physical exile, or in other words, a physical removal or dislocation of […]

Between the years of 1878 and 1914, the demand for overseas empires in Africa greatly increased. European powers acted upon this, as many influential government officials thought colonization was an important step to gaining global influence. Some believed the African colonization was an excuse, fabricated by greedy capitalists, to gain raw materials and search for […]

The Criticism to the idea of “progress” in “An outpost of progress” by Joseph Conrad Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski is the author of the short story we work with; he was born in Berdyczow, Ukraine on 3 December 1857. “His father Apollo Korzeniowski was an aristocrat without lands, a poet and translator of Shakespeare and […]

Frantz Fanon’s Reciprocal of National culture and Fight for Freedom is all about how Fanon describes the relationship between the struggle for independence and people’s culture. It speaks about how the vital culture is in the mold of the history. Culture plays an important role in shaping the people in how they are to behave […]

Postcolonialism literature is a literary genre that deals with literature evident in countries that were once under the colonial rule of other countries, specifically Britain, France and Spain as foremost. The phenomenon of Postcolonialism, with all its subtexts and nuances, is evident not just in literature but also the philosophy, media, history and even human […]

Before we look at Post-colonialism, one must have a closer look at the word Colonialism, the word by its dictionary definition the “Alleged policy of exploitation of backward or weak peoples. ” For most however when we broach the delicate topic of Colonialism, we envisage a more romanticised view such as: Adventure, Pioneering, Exoticism, Romance, […]

The Dutch played a crucial role in shaping the colonial structure of the New World. By seeking help from the West India Company in 1609, only two years after Jamestown, Virginia was founded, they aimed to locate the North West Passage. To accomplish this task, Captain Hudson was chosen and embarked on a journey across […]

To understand the concept of ‘the gaze’, it is necessary to first provide a definition. The gaze can be seen as having both colonizing and decolonizing aspects. The works of Edward Brathwaite and Mahasweta Devi illustrate this duality. Despite one’s efforts to decolonize oneself, colonization still persists due to its pervasive influence. This colonization extends […]

The poem “Africa” by Rabindranath Tagore emphasizes the negative impact of Western imperialism on Africa’s traditional cultures. It highlights how the destruction of these cultures and their values is evident through the poem’s three stanzas. The contrast between the pre-European period, the colonization era, and the post-colonial time portrays the hypocrisy and horror of Western […]

David Malouf’s novel Remembering Babylon serves as a reflection of the author’s ideological concerns. David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon is a post-colonial novel that presents the unnamed Queensland settlement in the 1840’s. The novel delves into conflicts arising when Gemmy, an English castaway rescued by Aborigines, unexpectedly encounters the settlement. These conflicts reflect Malouf’s ideological concerns […]

Indirect rule was a system of ruling Africans that sought not to displace African authority, but instead to rule through it. It was first used by the British and later adopted by other European powers after they witnessed its success. Indirect rule is largely considered a more humane alternative to its counterpart, direct rule, which […]

According to the definition in the America Past and Present history book, mercantilism is an economic theory that influenced imperial policy throughout the colonial period. It was founded on the belief that the world’s wealth was limited. To enhance its wealth, a country had to export more goods than it imported. To achieve this balance, […]