Legacies Of Colonialism

The history of Colonial Empires is both a complex and an enduring one. During the nineteenth century, several reasons ranging from political, ideological, to economic interests paved the way for colonial expansion. However, it was the industrial Revolution which led to the successful rise and growth of the British and European Empires. The industrial revolution has had a major impact on colonial expansion, the rapid development of technology and the emergence of new machinery with new and improved engines and modes of production led to the British and European colonization. “Industrial production, like all modes of production, requires human resources, capital resources, and natural resources.” (“Exploring Africa”). Neither human nor capital …show more content…
One of the most challenging legacies of the colonial empires is its boundaries. “Over a hundred new nations were born during the process of decolonization. Most of these new nations, had not existed at all as nations before colonialism, or they had not existed within the post-colonial border.”(Katz,29)(Marker, Effects of Colonization) According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a border (first used in the 14th century, “bourder”) can be defined as “a line separating one country from another”, or an artificial or natural “boundary line between places” and or spaces. Borders exist either naturally as geographic boundaries, or are man-made as political national boundaries. One of the most debatable issues of today’s modern states is its former colonial boundaries. Its controversy lies in its importance as a key element in the forming, shaping, and fashioning the occupied spaces according to foreign agenda and colonial dogma . One of the aims this thesis focuses on is how Colonial Empires as a dominating “cultural power” (Anderson, 76) plays a pivotal role in the “ordering and bordering of a place” (Anderson,