Consumerism And Colonialism Research Paper

Colonialism is the reason the world is how it’s today geographically, culturally, socially and in many other aspects. The economic systems such as capitalism was derived from the earliest period of colonialism, with the Spanish imposing taxes on the Indians and the cheap labor the Indians provided. However, the beginning of colonization in the Americas confine with a deadly period of slavery and the termination of Indian populations. For example, the introduction of diseases such as smallpox which cause the death of millions of Native Americans. It was the largest smallpox epidemic, it spread across most of the continent of North America. Thus, with colonization, regardless from which nation or empires was coming from, diseases were introduced to populations with

Advertisements are an extremely prominent part of American society. Very few places exist that an individual can go without being exposed to some form of ad. From product placement to billboards, advertisements exist in nearly every facet of life. Marion Nestle discusses what she considers to be one of the more heinous forms of advertisement in her essay, “The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate.” Nestle uses several persuasive techniques to convince her audience of the evils of supermarkets. Her use of emotionally charged phrases paired with her more logical assertions help to drive her point home while her clear bias and lack of supportive source detract from her overall argument

The rise in advertisement played a key role in the rise of consumption. Thanks to well-developed advertisement campaigns, America redefined what a necessity is. Advertisers encouraged Americans to actively work towards maintaining a high social standing. “Advertisers made no secret of their intention to promote novelty for its own sake, in the hope that consumers would exchange perfectly serviceable goods for goods that conformed to the latest fashions” (Lasch, 2000). Consumers devoured this advertisement scheme and began to rapidly increase their spending. Many advertisements for common, household products made claim that they could make the normal appear comparable to the high end. For example, Lux, a soap company, ran an ad in 1920 that depicted two women talking - one of the women complemented on the other on the quantity of sweaters she owned, only to find out that it is not a new sweater, but rather her old sweater that Lux soap made it look brand new (Lux)! Men and women alike began to believe

It is impossible to turn on a radio station and not hear an advertisement, whether it be for a business or a political campaign happening at the time. Advertising surrounds us completely in our daily lives just as it began to do then. Another interesting similarity between the two would be how the advertising creates needs for things people do not particularly need. For example, women in society originally did not shave anywhere and it was seen as peculiar when they did. When shaving companies began using advertising in this time, they realized they could gain more profits by marketing the products to women too. As a result, they made it seem strange for women to NOT shave and therefore, increased their profits and created a new hygiene standard for women still existing in current times. In modern times advertising companies create the need by convincing you your social, relationship, and political status will change upon purchasing their

America had been a generally conservative nation with a population that avoided personal debt. However, this would all change during the decade known as “The Roaring Twenties.” This prosperous period embodied huge changes in the general lifestyle and culture of the American people as they embraced consumerism. However, during the 1920s the economy also faced numerous unfortunate events and unstable practices that would lead to one of the world’s worst economic crashes. There were many reasons for the economic downfall, including mass production and consumerism, excess credit and ‘playing’ the stock market, which led to the stock market crash in 1929.

When I was a kid in school, I was told that there were the basic things that you needed like clothes and food and there were the things that you maybe want but don’t really need. Advertisements do not have any effects on what we need. We don’t watch and add about how we need to eat food to stay alive; we have hunger for that. However, Advertisements greatly affect what we want.

Wilks 1 Stephanie Wilks His 1050 Sec 201 April 10, 2010 Roland Marchand and Kelly Schrum: Critical Analysis of Consumerism Post WW II American was a place full of optimism and fear. The American people had survived 20 years of depression and war to find new prosperity and an increase in mass production of goods and services that improved quality of life. This meant better times for Americans, but fears over the Cold War, threat of an evermore intrusive American government and loss of individualism existed as well. These high expectations and anxieties played a great deal into how people consumed. Eventually these factors combined with aggressive advertising marketing, with the help of media (mainly TV), led to the emergence of a whole new

Changes in American attitude after the war pushed the foundation for consumerism in the 1920’s. The shift to a consumer climate that indulged the individual was a relief after experiencing a survival point of view that is associated with a war time economy. Indulgence and maybe even reward are what individual attitude changed to in the majority of the urban centers. For the first time the technology of the age, shifting attitude of the populace and the economy of the nation aligned for an exciting roar of the 1920’s.

In the literary work “Colonialism” by the author, Frederick Cooper, discusses different types of economic projects colonizers had attempted to impose on their colonies. The author continues discussing how Great Britain and France had plans to make exploitation of colonial resources more systematic, therefore overwhelming their colonies with the effort of having more control over them

During the 1920’s consumerism started to develop when people wanted to have the latest items on the market when they had the money to purchase such items. The marketplace took full advantage of this by doing radio and paper advertisements. “Sears, Roebuck & Co., a company founded in 1893, regularly issued a mail-order catalog. By the 1920s, the catalog, nicknamed the consumer's bible, had become enormously popular. It completely revolutionized how people purchased items.” (“American Economy in the 1920s: Consumerism, Stock Market & Economic Shift,” 2003) When we buy something today we call it having a payment every month, back then they called this installment buying and buying on credit. This is the era where this stated to become more popular

With the new technological advancements of the 1900s, the concept of advertising prospered into a new industry based on the desires of the people. Historically, magazines, newspaper, radio and television have all greatly improved advertising, making it one of the largest forces that works to help or hinder society. “Before 1910, advertisers mostly sought to inform customers about products; after 1910, the main goal was to create a desire to purchase products” (Blackford 3). Thus, business strategy was created that convinced people that they needed a product. This opened up a new world for people to be manipulated into spending their money on what they thought would improve their lives. Advertising improved the

During the pivotal moments in British late 19th century colonial imperialism, along with competitive capitalism and the emergence of the urban middle class, marketing strategies developed aiming to increase retail for different consumer products. At this time, soap went from a “humdrum item and a washing cursory” to a “Victorian fetishism” in British society as Victorians were consuming 260,000 tons of soap a year (McClintock, 129) Hence, soap held more symbolic economic and social importance than it previously maintained because of consumer capitalism helping establish its value through advertisement. For example, in viewing soap through Marx’s commodification theory, soap undertook significant values as it was no longer a humdrum object but rather a conjugated symbol for racial supremacy and domesticity in Pear’s advertisement (McClintock, 1995). This symbolism was very

In his essay, Williams summarizes that advertisements shared a beginning with capitalism (422). According to Williams advertising started out as a simple way for merchants to offer their products for business (421). An observation of capitalism is that there must be buyers willing to obtain a product from a consumer. Advertising makes it possible for consumers to be aware of these goods that are being sold (Williams 421). It can therefore be concluded

Colonialism has been viewed and interpreted from multiple perspectives. Both the coloniser and the colonised are said to have benefitted therefrom. While on the one hand it is considered abject exploitation by the coloniser to fill his coffers, on the other, the routine by-products of colonisation were of absolute benefit to the colonised. The four century long period of colonisation that gripped the world is one of the most oft debated and scrutinized periods of human history. In the period beginning sixteenth century AD, trade and commerce through the sea route became a means of expanding markets in many countries. Great Britain, France, Belgium and Portugal were amongst the pioneers in taking their wares to countries far away, like Africa and Asia. One early form of colonialism that was thrust upon the colonised country was economic exploitation.

Colonialism, which was a major cause of the north-south gap that occurred in the period following the Second World War, is the takeover by a nation of foreign territories; making them part of it to aid its own economical, social and political structures. The mother countries succeed in doing that by using the colony’s natural resources, money savings, and their lands, which leads the colony to rely on the mother country and therefore, leaving the country underdeveloped. Hence, the world wide scramble for colonies, particularly in the late 19th – early 20th century, had a tremendous negative effect on the economic, social, and political structures of indigenous, non-industrialized peoples.