Reasons Why Europe Colonized Asia and Africa and not the Other Way Round - Essay Example

Reasons why Europe Colonized Asia and Africa and not the Other Way Round Student’s Name: Institutional affiliation: Colonization is the governing influence, control or acquiring partial or full political control past another country, occupying it with foreign settlers and manipulating it economically. It also is when a group or society of people migrates from one area to another but keep their original homeland language and culture. Colonialism is establishment and preservation for a lengthy period, of rule over foreign people that are independent from and subordinate to a power ruling. Colonialism takes a variety of forms. There are three basic variations namely; I. Internal colonialism II. External colonization by the neighboring states. III. External colonization This refers to the so called ‘salt and water’ colonization whereby ‘aliens colonized distant places (Keal, 2003). This characterizes Europe’s expansion to America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. The first wave of European colonization and exploitation started in America in the 15th century until early in the 19th century (Tmh, 2010). It primarily involved the colonization of the Americans by the Europeans. The second extensive phase of European exploratory ventures and colonization was primarily focused on Asia and Africa. It was also known as the era of new imperialism. History of Colonialism in Africa and Asia by the Europeans Between the historical times of 1450 and 1750, Europeans widely traded with Africa and very few colonies had been set up. By the year 1850, only countable colonies existed along the coastline of Africa. After the ban of slave trade, free states in Africa continued in the exchange of goods between them and Europe. In the mid-19th century, startling changes occurred when the Europeans began exploring Africa’s interior. By the year 1914, virtually the whole continent was already being colonized by Europeans. Deemed as “the Dark Continent” presumably because for very long it has remained a great mystery to the Europeans, Africa was the last continent in the world to be taken by the Europeans under their control. It was late in the 19th century when Africa was carved out and parceled up to the European powers during the Berlin Conference. But even after it had been divided, in real essence, majority of the continent still remained largely unexplored (Johnstone, 2011). The deeper parts were not exploited till later when disparate factors collided together enabling the Europeans to start an organized exploitation of Africa’s immense and vast resources. Europe was a major colonizer of Asia in particular Southeast Asia. For thousands of years, the kingdom of Southeast Asia was involved in international commercial relations with various traders from South Asia (India), East Asia (China) and the West Asia (Middle East). The sojourners of Asian descent brought customs, traditions, religions and court practices to this little known region. These opened ways for European travellers and soon they had economic relations. With increased trade, the Europeans soon dominated the indigenous people of Southeast Asia and they began imposing their political and cultural dominations. This led to colonizing of Southeast Asia by the Europeans (Hall, 1981). Why did Europe colonize Africa and Asia? The 19th century witnessed the scramble of Africa and Asia by the European powers. Britain, Italy, Germany, Belgium and France very much succeeded in controlling a large part of the African content. On the other hand, the British, French, Dutch and others successfully competed for resources and territory. The 19th century also marked the start of colonial period in Africa’s and Asia’s history. While the Africans, Asians and Europeans had established concrete relationships in different settings for centuries, the period during the 1880’s marked a major turning point of Europeans attitude towards Asia and Africa. For decades, many scholars have scoured through disparate historical documents in an attempt to find definite answer to the question ‘why did Europe colonize Asia and Africa? Though there is no one distinct definitive answer to the question above but rather, it can be presumed that a combination of various aspects prominently featured in the process of decision making of the Europeans responsible for colonization of Asian and African continents. At one point, Europe increasingly became involved in Africa and Asia. First and foremost, Europe experienced a revival of Christianity in the 19th century. Christian missionaries started focusing on the larger working class with the main objective of bringing salvation and spirituality to the laborers and their families. The bible was now openly made available to the laborers. Due to their great success, the missionaries started to look beyond the borders of Europe. Missions were then established all over Africa and the Pacific. Although missionaries did not serve directly as agents of European colonization and imperialism, but they drew and brought the European governments deeper into Asia and Africa (Verlinden, 1970). In their unlimited quest and efforts to preach the good news of Christianity, to deeply ingrain monogamy in the African societies, to bring the western style of education to Asia and Africa, the missionaries more that often times felt threatened by the state of warfare in Africa. Thence, forthwith, missionaries called out to the European governments for intervention and protection. In Malawi for instance, the missionaries there though a sequence of letters encouraged the government of Britain to put down and abolish the slave trade. In the 1880’s the British government intervened. Although the main motivation for the British government to send in its troops and eventually become involved in the matters of the region was in reality not the lingering trade of slaves in Malawi but Great Britain was particularly concerned and distressed with the existence of Portuguese in Mozambique. The letters from the missionaries were merely convenient excuses for Europe to enter Africa and establish interest. Another interesting point is the technological advances and medicinal discoveries by Europeans clearly paved way for them to easily penetrate the African and Asian continents much more deeply and adequately. The discovery of quinine from the cinchona tree as a prophylactic, drastically and exceptionally reduced the number of European explorers and missionaries succumbing to the effects of malaria in Africa. For many centuries, malaria and yellow fever had for a long time thwarted the attempts of Europeans to explore Africa and establish a firmer foothold. With quinine drug as a distinct part of each of the Europeans travel kit, debate of life and death caused by the disease no longer deterred the intention of Europeans for Africa. We cannot overlook the relationship between the expeditions of exploration and mercantilism or capitalism. For centuries, the European explorers and expeditors travelled throughout the Asian and African continents in an attempt to discover and unearth new things in the continents. Explorers of note include Mango Park, David Livingstone, Henry Morgan Stanley, Richard Francis Burton and John Henning Speke. From the 18th century through to the 19th century on explosion of exploration tours took place. The Royal Geographic Society of Great Britain sponsored many exploration expeditions. Soon it become a center piece for discussing the spectacular findings of the returned explorers through lectures, publications and discourse. Upon the return of the explorers to Europe they clearly described to the European audience about what they experienced, saw the most importantly, exaggeratingly talked about the great riches of Africa and Asia. The explorers had immeasurable freedom in relating their accounts of travel and adventure (Etemad, 2007). Through their accounts of travel they consequently tended to exaggerate and stretch the truth, nonetheless, their great stories stimulated Europe’s interest in Africa and Asia as they majorly implied great opportunities for trade. The colonization of Asia and Africa by Europeans was due to a vast range of factors. It was not only for political and economic gains but also for religious, humanitarian, social and technological reasons which were disparate from one country to another. Africa’s strategic, material and diplomatic potentials led the European powers to hold and seize the presented opportunity to exploit a ripe, undiscovered and new continent. During the periods between 1870 and early 1900’s, the African continent was completely annexed by the dominant European powers: France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Britain leaving only two countries with independence: Liberia and Ethiopia. Europe colonized Africa and Asia for its own political and personal aggrandizement. It was interested in enlarging and expanding its territories for its own personal advantage. Europe was interested in preserving and maintaining its status as the world’s economic giants and world super powers (Robinson, Gallagher, Denny, 1972). This meant that if they wanted to maintain that position, then they would be forced to expand their territories to other areas. Expanding to other territories increased their national pride and soon intra-European rivalry and competition emerged within the various states. Most European countries were mostly concerned with prestige. They wanted to be recognized as big players and big wigs on the global scene. Soon enough, the British, Spaniards, Portuguese and the French were scrambling for a piece of Africa. There is reason enough to suggest that colonization of Africa and Asia was entirely and purely for economic needs. The years leading to 1870 witnessed the dawning of the ‘great depression’. This is as seen by downturn in the trade and economy. Industrial countries were at the time overproducing while at the same time there was an increase in competition between the industrial powers for the already existing markets. Moreover, it was increasingly becoming difficult to trade within the European counties as some of them like Italy reintroduced protection. This reason lead Europe into looking for other markets overseas to trade with them in order to reduce the surplus goods and also provide a fender for the mother country so as to protect it from the economic extremes of bust and boom. So it is evident that colonization of Africa and Asia was as a result of the countries in Europe competing for likely rich markets in pursuit to restore their dwindling economies (Lenin, 1997). Another economic explanation is that Asia and Africa had the probable potential of providing Europe with cheap labor and raw materials to back the industrial revolution and rebuild their economies. Europeans also believed in social Darwinism. This is the belief and conviction that only the mighty and strong shall survive. Europeans saw themselves as strong and superior to Africans and the Asians thus colonized their mother lands. They had a mighty military in position which made it easier to conquer Africa and Asia. They had state of art weaponry which was far much advanced than what the Asians and Africans used. At that time, Asia and Africa were and at the age of discovery but the Europeans saw this as the age and chance of colonialism. There was also need for Europeans to strengthen their economy and this could only be done by increasing their wealth. Europe had already diminished and depleted their sources of raw materials and to them the discovery of Africa and Asia was heavenly sent. Parts of Asian especially India were already trading spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, cloves and ginger and these we like treasures to the Europeans as they were very expensive. Because this trade of spices could make the Europeans rich, they were greatly motivated to seek and find cheaper and faster sea roots to transport these precious commodities back to their country for trading purposes. Politics in Europe also played a big role in colonization of Africa and Asia. Nationalism in Europe led to the formation of Europe’s nation states and competition within the nations. No dominant nation wanted to be left out or without colonies. This kind of competition was particularly forceful and strong between France, Germany and Britain, the strongest and firmest European nation states during the late 19th century. In addition, dogmas of racial hierarchy were very prevalent in Europe during the 19th century. Europeans viewed themselves as one of the most civilized and advanced beings in the world. Some of them saw it as their calling and mission to civilize and enlighten the rest of people in the world. This over the edge feeling of racial responsibility and superiority was clearly captured in the poem ‘The White Man’s Burden’ written in 1899 by a British poet known as Rudyard Kipling. Many racialized and inaccurate stereotypes of African and Asian peoples, which existed at that particular time, were used to uphold or justify colonialism in Asia and Africa (Robinson, Gallagher, Denny, 1972). During the 19th century, not a year passed without some Europeans expediting into Africa. The booming interest in exploration of Africa was greatly triggered by the African Association. This was created by wealthy Englishmen who wanted a character or someone to locate the course of river Niger and the infamous fabled city of Timbuktu. With time the goals, ambitions and objectives of the European explorers completely changed and rather than them recording details of goods, resources and markets for the wealthy and rich philanthropists who went to great lengths to finance the trips. What factors contributed to Africa and Asia not colonizing Europe At the start of the 19th century going towards the end, Europe was far much ahead of Africa and Asia in terms of military innovation. Although traders had already supplied the local chiefs and leaders with stock piles of gun ammunitions and gunpowder, still two distinct innovations gave Europe an upper hand and massive advantage over the Asians and Africans. First, in the 1860’s, there was incorporation of percussion caps into cartridges. What formerly came as a disjointed bullet, wadding and gun powder now came as a single entity, relatively weather proof and could be transported more easily (Diamond, 1997). The second unique innovation was a breach loading riffle. Previously what was available and mostly held by Africans were older model muskets which were slow to use (could do a maximum of only three rounds of bullets per minute), were front loaders and could only be loaded when one was in a standing position. The new breach loading guns when compared had between three to four times the amount and rate of fire. They also could be loaded while in any position. The Europeans with an eye and greed to colonize and conquer Africa and Asia restricted and in some cases completely banned the sale of the new breach loading guns so as to maintain military superiority. Europeans were much more organized and believed in capitalism and nationalism. Asians and Africans were still accustomed to indigenous practices of kinship. Europe had a powerful civilization. Powerful civilization in normal circumstances, quickly erase the weaker civilization. The civilization of Europeans emerged out very powerful, more than that of Asians and Africans. There was a technological gap between Africans, Southeast Asians and Europeans. This was already present since the start of the 16th century, and it began to widen and enlarge at a very fast pace. Gun powder was successfully used for the first time by the ottoman forces. Its use spread through Europe more successfully than in Africa. This made the Europeans technologically superior. The Europeans adapted this new technology and continually evolved it till firearms were conveniently small enough to be carried by a soldier on foot or be mounted on a ship. They also had improved the economy and speed of production of firearms making them more plentiful. The Africans had no technological know –how and this made them the weaker species. One other thing that could not have allowed either Asia or Africa to colonize Europe was their organization. Europeans were more organized and believed in capitalism and nationalism. On the other hand, many African and Asian societies were still using kinship mode of governance. They also were politically stable. African leaders were most times used to fight each other. Leaders of one tribe would sell out the members of a neighboring tribe. The Europeans used this tactic to weaken and decentralize the African governance. This made them easily gain control of many communities without much resistance. Most Africans and Asians were illiterate and neither knew how to write nor read as compared to their European counterparts who were well educated. This was one of the weaknesses that made them not be superior to the Europeans and colonize them. Education was later introduced when it was a little bit too late. They were also not exposed beyond their territories or continents. The Europeans were well exposed for they had travelled far and beyond the corners of the earth. Works cited Diamond, J. M. (1997). Guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Etemad, B. (2007). Possessing the world: Taking the measurements of colonisation from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. New York: Berghahn Books. Keal, P. (2003). European conquest and the rights of indigenous peoples: The moral backwardness of international society. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Robinson, R., Gallagher, J., & Denny, A. (1972). Africa and the Victorians: The official mind of imperialism. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd. Lenin, V. I. (1997). Imperialism: The highest stage of capitalism. Foreign Languages Press. Hall, D. G. E. (1981). A history of South-East Asia. New York: St. Martin's Pr. Verlinden, C. (1970). The beginnings of modern colonization: 11 essays with an introduction. Ithaca [u.a.: Cornell Univ. Pr. Johnstone, H.H. (2011). A history of the colonization of Africa by alien races. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Read More