The nineteenth century marked the high point of imperialism, when tsarist Russia expanded to the Pacific and the sun was said never to set on the British Empire. Imperialism remains a perennial issue in international relations today, and nowhere is this more evident than in the intensifying competition for global resources. Leo J. Blanken explains imperialism through an analysis of the institutions of both the expanding state and its targets of conquest. While democratic states favoring free trade generally resort to imperialism only to preempt aggressive rivals—or when they have reason to believe another state’s political institutions will not hold up when making bargains—authoritarian states tend toward imperialism because they don’t stand to benefit from free trade. The result is three distinct strategies toward imperialism: actors fighting over territory, actors peaceably dividing territory among themselves, and actors refraining from seizing territory altogether. Blanken examines these dynamics through three case studies: the scramble for Africa, the unequal treaties imposed on Qing Dynasty China, and the evolution of Britain’s imperial policy in India. By separating out the different types of imperialism, Blanken provides insight into its sources, as well as the potential implications of increased competition in the current international arena.
This book is the culmination of 15 years of research and travels that have taken the author completely around the world twice, as well as on other travels in the Mediterranean, the Baltic, and around the Pacific rim. Its purpose has been to try to understand the role of cultural differences within nations and between nations, today and over centuries of history, in shaping the economic and social fates of peoples and of whole civilizations. Focusing on four major cultural areas(that of the British, the Africans (including the African diaspora), the Slavs of Eastern Europe, and the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere -- Conquests and Cultures reveals patterns that encompass not only these peoples but others and help explain the role of cultural evolution in economic, social, and political development.
Industrial Policy and the Transformation of the Colonial Economy in Africa offers an in-depth analysis of the role industrial policy can play in the transformation of African economies. Using examples from Zambia’s industrial development experience, this book illustrates that core features of the colonial economy have not just survived six decades of independence in most African countries, but they have continued to shape the nature, scope and pace of economic activities on the continent. The book argues that since the colonial economy in Africa was not intended to serve the interests of Africans, it is imperative that the structures and the underlying rationale of the colonial economy are radically reoriented if economic activities in Africa are to benefit the majority of Africans. Drawing from the Zambian experience, the book shows that the transformation of the colonial economy in Africa is urgently needed. Whilst this has proved to be difficult over the past six decades, it can be done. The book outlines a specific type of industrial policy, Frontier Industrial Policy, as a key instrument for transforming the structure of African economies. At a time when economic growth across Africa is under considerable pressure due to COVID-19, the insights in this book will be of interest to researchers across Economics, Development, Postcolonial Studies, and African Studies.
This edited volume addresses the root causes of Africa's persistent poverty through an investigation of its longue durée history. It interrogates the African past through disease and demography, institutions and governance, African economies and the impact of the export slave trade, colonialism, Africa in the world economy, and culture's influence on accumulation and investment. Several of the chapters take a comparative perspective, placing Africa's developments aside other global patterns. The readership for this book spans from the informed lay reader with an interest in Africa, academics and undergraduate and graduate students, policy makers, and those in the development world.
Post-colonial South Asia and Africa invite comparison: along with their political boundaries, they inherited from colonial regimes administrative languages, a cluster of sovereign state institutions and modern economic nuclei. When they became independent, South Asian and African states were - for all their diversity - thrust into a common position in the international system, and embarked on a common history as 'emergent', 'non-aligned', 'developing nations'. This is the first book to offer a single-volume comparative history of postcolonial South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa in the first generation since independence. South Asia and Africa After Independence draws together the political and economic history of these two regions, assessing the colonial impact, establishing breaks and continuities, and highlighting their diversity and interplay. Waites sets out a framework for analysing the first generation of post-colonial history, offering an interpretation of 'post-colonialism' as a historical phenomenon, and provocatively challenging us to re-think this term in relation to South Asian and African history. This book is an important reference for the study of global, world, African and South Asian history.
The late twentieth century has witnessed a dramatic upsurge in foreign direct investment in the Third World. Based upon thorough statistical analysis, the book presents exhaustive case-studies of foreign investment policy in 'metropolitan' countries and of the experiences of 'host' countries throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America. With a wide geographical and historical focus, it also makes an important contribution to current debates on dependency theory.
Since many countries in the world at present were European colonies in the not so distant past, the relationship between colonial institutions and development outcomes is a key topic of study across many disciplines. This edited volume, from a leading international group of scholars, discusses the comparative legacy of colonial rule in the Netherlands Indies and Belgian Congo during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Whereas the Indonesian economy progressed rapidly during the last three decades of the twentieth century and became a self-reliant and assertive world power, the Congo regressed into a state of political chaos and endemic violence. To which extent do the different legacies of Dutch and Belgian rule explain these different development outcomes, if they do at all? By discussing the comparative features and development of Dutch and Belgian rule, the book aims to 1) to contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of colonial institutional legacies in long run patterns of economic divergence in the modern era; 2) to fill in a huge gap in the comparative colonial historical literature, which focuses largely on the comparative evolution of the British, French, Spanish and Portuguese Empires; 3) to add a focused and well-motivated comparative case-study to the increasing strand of literature analyzing the marked differences in economic and political development in Asia and Africa during the postcolonial era. Covering such issues as agriculture, manufacturing and foreign investment, human capital, fiscal policy, labour coercion and mineral resource management, this book offers a highly original and scholarly contribution to the literature on colonial history and development economics.
This is a study of the evolving relationship between the British colonial state and the copper mining industry in Northern Rhodesia, from the early stages of development to decolonization, encompassing depression, wartime mobilization and fundamental changes in the nature and context of colonial rule.
Combining ethnographic and historical perspectives, Tom Forrest examines the strategies and patterns of development employed by business people from the colonial period to the present. Through a series of highly readable case studies, he provides a broad picture of the various forms of capital accumulation and sectoral advances in trade, transport, manufacture, agriculture, finance and other services. These are set within the context of changing economic opportunities, shifts in power and policy, relations with foreign capital, and attitudes towards private business and the state.