Evaluate how the process of decolonisation changed the structure of world politicsThe purpose ofthis is assignment to evaluate how the process of decolonisationchanged the structure of world politics. According to Duara, (2004) decolonisationrefers to the process whereby colonial powers transferred institutional andlegal control over their territories and dependencies to indigenously based,formally sovereign, nation-states. According to various authors decolonisationstarted after the World War II, this is supported by Duara, (2004) who statesthat the political search for independence often began during the inter-waryears and fructified within fifteen years of the end of World War II in 1945. Birmingham(1995) also backs this information and states that the decolonization startedafter the World War II as colonized people agitated for independence andcolonial powers withdrew their administrators from Africa. Post-war era saw thecolonised nations begin the process of decolonisation, this process enabled thenations to regain their freedom from their European colonisers. Fraser, (1994)supports this as she states that Decolonization marked a phase in theglobalization of politics that ended the intellectual and political legitimacyof colonial rule and eroded the hierarchies of race that underpinned the centuries-oldcolonial order.However not all colonised nations gained their independencefrom Europe, many like Africa went through the imperialism which transitionedinto colonisation of the African continent for most of the nineteenth centurythrough military influence and economic dominance. Imperialism isthe creation and or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, andterritorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of anempire, based on domination and subordination (Johnston, 2000). In itssimplest form Farah et al, (2001) describes imperialism as one countrysdomination of the political, economic and social life of another country. Duringthis period, many European countries travelled to African to claim theirAfrican territory during the new imperialism period was between 1880s to thestart of the world war, this was known as the scramble of Africa (Newworldencyclopedia.org).The colonisation of Africa would benefit European as they were being able toexploit the African people for their own commercial interests by controllingthe means of production. Roughly around 1870 to 1914, imperialist gain controlover much of the world. Although the colonisation process of Africa and Asia beganat the end of the eighteenth century. By 1853, Europeans had marked theirterritory on most of north-western Africa. These Europeans included theBritish, French and Spanish. Late 1870sthe Europeans had Algeria which was held by France, the Cape Colony and Natalknown as South Africa was held by Britain and Angola by Portugal. I willevaluate the decolonisation of the continent of Africa and how this changed thestructure of what politics was when the continent was controlled and the present-dayeffects the Europeans still have on Africa. Historically we can see that during this period, the slavetrade had been abolished in 1807, however during the period of slavery the Europeanstook more than 11 million people from West Africa to America and Europe(reference). Nonetheless, less than 65 years later the Europeans found reasonto return to Africa to claim territory on what they had begun prior during thelate 18th century however due to the failure of previous attempts itwas particularly important that this attempt would be successful and lucky forthe Europeans technology had advanced in terms of weaponry. Esler et al (2009) reportsthat also superior technology including riverboats and telegraph, as well asimproved medical knowledge also played a part.As a result of colonialism and imperialism, Africa suffered long theterm effects, such as the loss of important natural resources like gold andrubber, economic devastation, cultural confusion, geopolitical division, andpolitical subjugation(Mentan,2010). Europeans wanted more power and even took theland from the people. The scramble for Africa divided thecontinent into nation states ruled by European colonial powers. Economist suchas Michalopoulos (2015) have released papers showing how the decisions ofborders have affected war and civil unrest in Africa especially amongst ethnicgroups examples of these divides include the Anyi of Ghana and the Ivory Coast.George Peter Murdock studied the African conflict of the post-independenceperiod finding that often civil conflicts are higher in the historical homelandof partitioned ethnicities suggesting that when the Europeans begun theirscramble for Africa they only paid attention to the size and resources likewater of the nation as opposed to the cultural aspects or social elements thatdefine nation states. On the other hand, other, contributingissues that have impacted decolonisation include socio-cultural factors likelanguage. African countries colonised by the British Empire were influencedwith the English language and educational system of the British as manycolonisers had intended to settle in the many of the countries they hadcolonised, an example of this would be for Southern Africa. Colonial powers used education as a tool for both political and economicreasons. Moreover, for colonizers education was a means to win converts totheir religion (Windel, 2009).The British were keen onmaintaining and establishing the duty to civilise Africa, this theory ofcivilising Africa was held by Britons like David Livingstone. These viewed werealso supported by many Europeans and discussed during the Berlin Conference of1884-85 (Appiah, A. and Gates, H. 2010), an idea that as European and the superior race Africaneeded the support of the Europeans to become civilised civilians, arguablythis view may have been far from the truth, the Europeans went into thecontinent of Africa and created separation and divisions in the scramble ofAfrica which resulted in many border wars, they also create disarray betweenthe nation people as they exploited the resources they needed. Amongstall of this the British Empire for example installed many aspects of their ownculture language being the main aspect much of Africa and Asia still use theEnglish language as a staple language in their countries but duringcolonisation it removed the barrier between the people and the colonisers whichcan be viewed to be ignorant as they had invaded a nation and demanded that thepeople would learn their language. Still even after decolonisation for many ofthese countries English remains the main language which shows the presentinfluence colonial power continues to have. WithinAfrica, to date Nigeria and South Africa are the richest countries with GDPsof $594.257 for Nigeria and $341.261 for South Africa (www.worldstopmost.com). TheGDPs of both the countries make up almost a half of the GDP for sub-Saharancountries. Both of these countries are rich in natural resources that helpmaintain their stability and economy. Nigeria producing crude oil which makesup for around 10% of the countrys GDP they also have been able to flourishwith their aircraft parts exports, tobacco and vinegar exports. TheInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated Nigeria to become the biggest economyin Africa as of 2016 and as of 2017 they have over taken second places SouthAfrica to become the richest economy in Africa and holds the 21stposition globally, in this case it shows that a country once a colony of theBritish Empire have been able to sustain their economy and rebuild afterdecolonisation to become an influential country economically but additionallysocially much of Nigeria economy is also made up of entertainment industry withNollywood being the second largest film industry before Bollywood and after Hollywood (www.worldstopmost.com)and South Africa having gold and diamonds, the World Bank and IMF haveconsidered South Africa as an upper middle income economy with its economythriving off exports such as gold, diamonds, minerals and machinery as well asthe added tourism that came along with South Africa hosting the World Cup whichincreased the revenue for the country and also introduced foreign investmentsfrom the Chinese and other countries. Once again, like Nigeria as a countryonce ruled under the colonial powers of the British Empire South Africa havebeen through a series horrendous events and great division as a nation withApartheid, the Dutch and British colonising the country they have managed tomaintain a growing economy which unfortunately for many African countries theyhave not been able to recover from separation of their colonisers which haveresulted in many civil wars and povertySince the 1960s sub-Saharan African countries have not been able to fully develop successfully this is because from 1974 to mid 1990s Africa had a negative GDP growth rate which was contributed by corruption, famine, drought, poverty, aids, civil wars that hindered the growth of African economies (www.nber.org). It is unfortunate because unlike most European countries most sub-Saharan countries have beneficial natural resources, however these resources become an internal conflict for the countries due to corruption and continuance interference from the West. For sub-Saharan Africa corruption has proven to be one of the main problem that have slowed down the growth of the African economy and the influence it has on the global political stage. A quote from economist Hanson (2009) says corruption in Africa ranges from high level political graft on the scale of millions of dollars to low level bribes This high level of corruption allows powerful elites within the government to control the resource of the state as it benefits them, an example of a African leader such as Idi Amin who brought their countries economy to a decline due to an increase in military expenditure used to remove all Indian and Pakistani citizens in 1927, the economic decline would last decades. Afterthe United Nations was established in 1945 nearly a third of the worldspopulation lived in territorial ruled countries that were dependent on colonialpower. Chapter XI, articles 73 and 74 of the Charter of the United Nationsestablished the principles that now continue to guide the United Nation on itseffects on decolonisation(Un.org). After the defeat of the League of Nation andthe formation of the United Nations more than 80 former colonies have gainedtheir independence and with only 17 non-self-governing territories remaining.However, for a large governing body like the United Nations with a great numberof newly independent states it may have been difficult for the superpowers towork alongside and understand the cultural difference but with great diversityalso comes along a unique direction in which todays global politics had taken.It is understandable that superpowers like Britain and France would haveinitially found it difficult to understand and cooperate with countries theyonce ruled and felt superior to but this did not decrease the influence manyAsian and African countries obtained on the global political stage, especiallythe influence culturally these countries began to have on the world. This wouldalso result to a breakdown of the old super powers. During the inter-war period an emerged anti-colonialism tookof high influence among countries that had been once under Europeancolonisation, this influenced an independence movement around Africa and Asiawhich would ultimately result to the collapse of the colonial powers. For mostof the anti-colonial movements throughout Africa and Asia they were attached toa form of socialism and the revolutionary Marxist view which suggested thatimperial powers were weakened by WW2 and the ideas that newly independentstates had found new markets to exploit. In February 1960 Harold Macmillan madea famous speech to the South African parliament stating, The wind of change isblowing through this continent and, whether we like it or not, this growth ofnational consciousness is a political fact (academic.oup.com). This can beargued to be an official statement that supported the rapid decolonization ofthe British Empire in Africa. References Birmingham, David (1995). The Decolonization of Africa. Routledge. ISBN 1857285409.Duara, P. (2004). Introduction: The decolonization of Asia and Africa in the twentieth century. In P. Duara, Decolonization: Perspectives from now and then (pp. 1-18). London: Routledge.Esler, A and Ellis, E (2009) World History. USA: Prentice HallFarah, A and Karls, A.B (2001) World history: the human experience. USA: McGraw HillFraser., C, (1994) Understanding American Policy towards the Decolonization of European Empires, 19451964, Diplomacy & Statecraft (March 1992): 10525; and Wm. Roger Louis and Ronald Robinson, The Imperialism of Decolonization, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 22: 462511.Johnston, Ronald John (2000). The Dictionary of Human Geography (4th ed.). USA: Wiley-BlackwellNber.org. (2017). The Economic Decline in Africa. [online] Available at: http://www.nber.org/digest/jan04/w9865.html Internationalreportingproject.org. (2017). Stories Corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa International Reporting Project. [online] Available at: https://internationalreportingproject.org/stories/view/corruption-in-sub-saharan-africa Mentan, Tatah, (2010) The State in Africa: An Analysis of Impacts of Historical Trajectories of Global Capitalist Expansion and Domination in the Continent. African Books Collective, Political Science 417 pagesMost, W. (2017). Top 10 Richest African Countries. [online] Worlds Top Most. Available at: http://www.worldstopmost.com/2017-2018-2019-2020/news/richest-african-countries-2016-top-10-listAnon, (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2016-02-29/inside-nigerias-prolific-film-industryMichalopoulous, Stelios and and Papaioannou, Elias (2015) The Long-Run Effects of the Scramble for Africa Newworldencyclopedia.org. (2017). Scramble for Africa New World Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Scramble_for_Africa Appiah, A. and Gates, H. (2010). Encyclopedia of Africa. New York: Oxford University Press.Un.org. (2017). The United Nations and Decolonization History. [online] Available at: http://www.un.org/en/decolonization/history.shtmlGet Help With Your AssignmentIf you need assistance with writing your assignment, our professional assignment writing service is here to help!Find out more
