Nineteenth Century European Imperialism

[TTCUSM]

Vanakkam Everyone,

Chapter 27 of The Earth and Its Peoples has a very good summary of the causes and consequences of European imperialism during the nineteenth century.

[satay]

namaste,

Vanakkam Everyone,

Chapter 27 of The Earth and Its Peoples has a very good summary of the causes and consequences of European imperialism during the nineteenth century.

and? What do you want us to do about it?

[TTCUSM]

namaste,



and? What do you want us to do about it?

Nothing, really.
I just put it here so that we could refer to it in future discussions.

[Believer]

Nineteenth century Europeans were the smartest people. They realized that people in some other countries needed to be brought up to date to face the menace of 21st century China. So they embarked on this massive effort to educate the poor masses of other lands that they called their colonies and gave them all the infrastructure. This has really facilitated in insulating the colonialists from the threat of emerging economies.

Another thing the colonies provided was masses, where new medicines could be tested with impunity. It has really been a blessing that advances in medicine were made because the brave populations of the colonies volunteered to be the guinea pigs for the new drugs. Without that, we the privileged few would have been left defenseless against the spread of deadly diseases.

H. G. Wells, in his homage to the selfless peoples of the colonies proposed a monument built with funding from the world bank. A blue ribbon panel proposed that verses from the holy Gita be inscribed on the monument. This was opposed by the Abrahamic nations, as they believe more in prophets than the Lord Himself. To them path to God is through His prophets only. The whole issue has been mired in controversy and has been further delayed by the global recession gripping both hemispheres. It is believed that the US Federal Reserve pumping money to the tune of $600 billion might alleviate the situation and remove the monetary obstacle for erecting the monument. May this happen soon!

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkamm:

I think you might get and enjoy enjoy more discussion in a history forum. Here is a link to one forum and an article. A google search will get you a lot more. Best wishes.

http://www.historum.com/

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.p..._article/9943/

I may add some more.

Aum Namasivaya

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam: Curious about this topic, I did some browsing. It is amazing to see that many of the historical inaccuracies are being perpetuated, mostly by Indian sites themselves. However, I am no expert. If there is a feedback form, one could complain. I did to one site just mentioning that AIT has now been disproven, and I though they should take a better look at their site keeping in mind the incorrect Eurocentric view throughout. Right now I wish I was more of an expert. So TTCUSM, since it seems to be of concern to you, I suggest you do that. Certainly if you provide me with some accuracies and corrections to some of the misinformation, I'll email them as well. Perhaps we can do something.

Aum Namasivaya

[sanjaya]

Hmm, not sure what to make of this. The section on cultural motives for imperialism points out missionaries' desire to abolish slavery in places like Africa and Sati in India (I don't know to what extent Sati was even practiced in India). But they say almost nothing about the negative aspects of missionary work.

[TTCUSM]

Hmm, not sure what to make of this. The section on cultural motives for imperialism points out missionaries' desire to abolish slavery in places like Africa and Sati in India (I don't know to what extent Sati was even practiced in India). But they say almost nothing about the negative aspects of missionary work.

Page 16 of the chapter contains a quote by an African convert to Christianity that details the negative aspects of missionary work:

There is too much failure among all Europeans in Nyasaland. The three combined bodies—Missionaries, Government and Companies or gainers of money—do form the same rule to look upon the native with mockery eyes. . . . If we had enough power to communicate ourselves to Europe, we would advise them not to call themselves Christendom, but Europeandom. Therefore the life of the three combined bodies is altogether too cheaty, too thefty, too mockery. Instead of “Give,” they say “Take away from.” There is too much breakage of God’s pure law.

On the same page, it states that colonialism in Africa actually led to an expansion of Islam:

Christianity proved successful in converting followers of traditional religions but made no inroads among Muslims. Instead, Islam, long predominant in northern and eastern Africa, spread southward as Muslim teachers established Quranic schools in the villages and founded Muslim brotherhoods. European colonialism unwittingly helped the diffusion of Islam. By building cities and increasing trade, colonial rule permitted Muslims to settle in new areas. As Islam—a universal religion without the taint of colonialism—became increasingly relevant to Africans, the number of Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa probably doubled between 1869 and 1914.

[sanjaya]

Ah, I see I didn't read far enough. Thanks!

[Rationalist]

I think I remember that chapter as one of the chapters we had to take outline notes on and so forth (it was painful every time they were assigned. 3-4 hours of mind-numbing torture).

The whole point is, European colonialism was responsible for the raping of the world and the rise of Europe. The most of the world is the way it is today due to Colonization/Imperialism.

That book always commented positively on Islam, negatively about Western colonization, Christianity, and India/Hinduism. Don't be too shocked. It is the case with most Western History textbooks. It even made a pathetic attempt to deviate a little from the AIT, by saying there is increasing evidence that IVC was not conquered by Aryans but then saying the AIT occurred in later times. LOL! As for the Sati, before Muslim filth entered India, it was very very very uncommon and very very very localized depending on the particular village/rural area in question. Even then, much of it was voluntary. Once the puSs-lims invaded, it actually (oddly enough) increased (probably to protect them from rape by Muslims). It is one of those practices that arise when religious oppression calls for orthodoxy and preservation of traditions; in just happens that in this case, the results weren't too good. Despite all this, it was still, fortunately, very uncommon and sparsely done.