In what ways do colonialist ideas continue to influence contemporary Essay

In what ways do colonialist ideas continue to influence contemporary culture Describe with reference to fashion, literature, fi - Essay Example Africa is the country which has suffered most from colonization and this could be due to its vast natural resources and cheap labor. White men have colonized many parts of the world and have lived there more than a century. Colonization means losing sovereignty from the indigenous people to the foreigners. They dominate the cultural, social, spiritual, economic, political and psychological ways of indigenous people. Violence and enforcement has always been a part of colonization. These colonized people lived in different countries like India, African continent, America, Spain, Philippines and Portugal. This gives chance for lot of amalgamation of culture. Since the colonized Europeans live in these regions for a longer period the indigenous people are highly influenced by the lifestyle of the colonized. According to Sanders(2009,pg.1-51)â€Å"Of the great colonial powers of Western Europe – Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain – only Britain le ft this legacy to its colonies†. The culture, politics, government, education and language changes largely due to colonization. We can see that Europeans left large legacies behind in almost all the countries they have colonized. The colonialist ideas have made many countries what I see today and we can see it in many aspects of our lifestyle like fashion, literature or education system. The Colonization and English Colonization has been influencing people in different countries on different level. Mostly English men have ruled many African countries and South Asian countries. The British men have lived for more than a century in many African regions and they have influenced the people in many ways. However, if we contemplate our contemporary world is influenced by colonialist ideas in many spheres of our life. Actually we are living in symbolic skeletal remains of colonial infrastructure until now. What we see in newspapers, television and magazines are a face lift life from previous era. We have had a social reformation but still we have traces of colonialism in our everyday life. The traces of colonialism are evident in cultural economy and popular culture. We can see the biggest influence of colonization is the language the whole world is speaking. We can see that as the British ruled many parts of the world for centuries they established their Mother tongue as a universal language. If we look at our contemporary world, we can see that English is the communication medium for all people around the world .All the countries teaches English language in schools. In most countries, English is the primary language and then comes their mother tongue. The English language now cannot be considers as the language of British but it is language spoken by all people in the world. This can be first and most evident colonist influence on contemporary world. The Colonist and Fashion Image 2 – A colonial costume We can see that before colonial period, the cloth ing of people in different countries varied to a great extent. If one look at African culture, we can see that men and women wore less of clothing as they had humid weather. They wore cotton fabrics which are heavy with dark color motifs. In the same manner, South Asian people wore less of upper clothing and mostly had a cotton or linen clothing for their lower body. Most of the colonized

From the period of the Spanish American War through the end of World Essay

From the period of the Spanish American War through the end of World War two, why does the United States move from relative isol - Essay Example The initial consequence of this increased global involvement resulted in a psychological and cultural impact on the American society that established a sense of supremacy in the minds of the general population about their country’s standing in the world. Another consequence of America’s increased global involvement was the economic development that was observed as a result of its emergence and ultimate dominance on the international stage during the period between the Spanish American War and World War II. The reason why the United States went to war against Spain in 1898 was because from its early days, policymakers in the country believed that Cuba’s geographic location was of monumental significance to the United States. Moreover, Spain’s loss of the majority of its lands in Central and South America led some of the politicians to suppose that France or Great Britain may take sweeping action to take control of Cuba and cause a great measure of problems for the United States. As Cuba became an important producer of tobacco and sugar cane, North American investment in the island saw a tremendous increase; the great degree of these economic relations by 1895 between the two countries was becoming more and more significant, as the U.S became an importer of 90% of Cuba’s sugar produce1. 30 years before the Spanish American war broke out, the Cubans had begun fighting for independence2, and this quest for freedom reached its climax in the year of 1895 when General Maximo Gomez, with his inadequate militia rose against a powerful Spanish army. The persistence of the Cuban insurgents came as a surprise to the Spanish opponents, who vowed to answer with a much ruthless response, killing about one fourth of the island’s population by 1898. As the Spanish government carried out its bloody campaign to repress the Cuban uprising, secretary of state, Richard Olney faced rising public demands to intervene in the matter to which the U.S made it clear to Spain that with the onset of war between the two nations, the United States considered its interests in Cuba being in danger. The event which ultimately triggered the Spanish American War occurred on February 15th 1898 when USS Maine, a US navy battleship blew up Havana harbor, killing 266 people. The US media heavily speculated that this act had been performed on the part of the Spain and even though diplomatic intermediaries from both sides intervened to resolve the issue, Congress went on to declare Cuba independent upon President McKinley’s request, demanding Spain’s withdrawal from the island and empowering the US president to engage in a war with Spain if it refused to recognize Cuba’s independence. When Cuban nationalists had first cried for independence, their determination to seek their goal had been evident but the lack of personnel and resources on their part could never have compensated for the