COLONIALISM AND IMPERIALISM

By Usman Khan

Many people use the two terms Imperialism and Colonialism interchangeably, but there some
difference between the two.
Colonialism is something practical, as the use of power and military intervention to grab other
people’s lands and resources; while Imperialism is the idea, the theory behind Colonialism.
Colonialism is to conquer and rule overseas countries and to exploit their resources for one’s
own country, and the movement of people to that colonized country is the practice of
colonialism.
Imperialism is the creation and expense of empire, exercising of power through sovereignty or
indirect rule, political and economic control over other countries.

Imperialism/colonialism started from the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885 in Germany. In this

conference headed by the German ruler all the great European powers like UK, France, Spain,
Portugal, Germany, Italy, Belgium were invited to divide the Dark Continent of Africa.

Reasons

The main reasons of Colonialism/imperialism were economic, political and culture control over
other nations, we will further explain this main reasons. The main force behind colonialism and
imperialism was nationalism, nationalism on the cost of other lives. The main excuse for
colonialism and imperialism was Darwinism. As according to Darwin’s survival of the fittest,
that only has the right to survive, the European nations took it for granted that, as they are the
most educated people and it was their duty to educate and civilize the uncivilized people of the
third world countries of Asia and Africa. They gave it the name, White Man;s burden.

The question arises, why colonialism started in the end of the 19th century? The answer of the
question is that, as the Industrial Revolution started in 1750/1760, so Europe was in need of
resources and the consumption of its good in a large a number. Due to the Industrialization
marketing business erupted in the western world. There was a competition in the production and
its consumption of the commodities among the powerful European nations but as production was
in abundance while the consumption was less. So, the European nations started its approach to
the undeveloped countries for outside marketing. In this way they started controlling the lands
and politics of the African and Asian nations. As we know that without good communication
system, no country is able to make profit from others. So, for this reason the built roads, railway
lines, telephone, telegraphs etc. in the undeveloped countries. In 1875, only some parts of the
African continent were dominated by the European nations, but till 1880 and 1910 the whole
African continent was dominated by the European nations except Liberia and Ethopia, ethopia
was later on conquered by Italy in 1935.

Capitalism has its share part with Colonialism/imperialism. As I mentioned above, with the
emergence of Industrialization there was an abundance of production and it ignited capitalism
(free trade), and the suppression of the poor. So, all the European power were in competition to
produce more but there were less opportunities for its consumption, along with this they also
need resources and this was the reason, why imperialism.

Many writers relates Colonialism/imperialism with Capitalism but the important one is Lenin,
who wrote in his book THE HIGHEST STAGE OF CAPITALISM in 1917, that the highest
stage of capitalism led the capitalist to destroy others in the blind competition of wealth, power
and resources. And he says that, that the First World War was the highest stage of Capitalism. in
the lust of power and wealth the capitalist started grabbing other’s lands and resources and the
result was the devastating war. So, the features of Colonialism were overproduction, intensive
accumulation (it became imperative to create monopolies in various ways) and for the sake of
outside marketing they divided the world. The most interesting thing in Colonialism was the
slave trading. Slaves were caught and would sell in the European nations. Nearly 15 million
slaves of Africa were sold out which were later on after some decades this business was banned.

In short, Colonialism/Imperialism is the second name of naked greed of power and wealth under
the coat of civilization and it is best depicted in literature by Rudyard Kippling, Joseph Conred
and many others like them.