Effect of Colonization in Kenya

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

Furthermore, this essay discusses the standard development model or development policies it refers to the group of four policies: mass-education, creating a national market, erecting an external tariff and creating a banking system as discussed in (Allen, 2011, pp. 41-43). This essay argues that colonisation was economically beneficial to the colonialist powers through improving the metropolitan state’s international trade and giving them access to cheap resources. Furthermore, this essay argues that colonisation was economically detrimental to colonies due to both the short-term impacts of deindustrialisation and longer-term impacts of limiting development by limiting the use of the standard development model and creating economies characterised by inequality. However, this essay acknowledges that some colonies did benefit but they were largely the exception due to their high European population i.e. the US.

There was a great question asked by numerous individuals in the eighteenth century with what happens to people’s lives when their country is a colony of another country. This was very important to Americans when they were being ruled by Great Britain, and even to this day it remains important when countries find themselves controlled by more powerful outsiders. But what is colonialism? Colonialism occurs when one nation takes control of another. Kenya’s experience as a colony of Great Britain gives us more of an idea of what being colonized meant both to the people being controlled and to those who control them. Although it seems hard to believe, Kenya was created by the Europeans and generally this had a positive on effect on Kenyans because it began development.

During the time period 1850-1914, even though Britain imperializing, Kenya was, in turn, very beneficial for the inhabitants of Kenya. However, the direct rule of Britain put Kenya through a massive transition from being independent to being colonial dominant, in which the natives of Kenya had lesser rights than did before and were treated inhumanely. Before being imperialized, Kenya was already divided into forty-two tribes. The two main kinfolks to be known are the Masai and the Kikuyu. These tribes helped in making the country's diversity, rich culture and heritage. Nonetheless, Kenya didn’t have much global contact; however, they did trade with the Arab merchants but kept it limited because they wanted to preserve their traditional

Kenya was affected by colonialism in multiple ways. Although some of them were bad like taking away their land and changing their religious beliefs. Others were good like establishing schools and raising their average earnings.

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

The Scramble for Africa, was the occupation, division and colonization of the continent of Africa by European powers. This desire to take claim as much territory as possible stemmed from the need for resources and raw materials in order to keep up production after the industrial revolution, as well as the competitiveness of European countries that dates back for centuries. This rapid extraction of recourses would lead, as well as the previously stated completive nature of European countries would transform Africa into the continent we know today; filled with war, starvation, disease, and a lack of clean drinking water. All these modern day issues date back to the mass expansion by European nations nearly 150 years ago.

Most of the world’s civilized societies today were established through colonialism. It was brought about through greed, necessity for expansion, and discovery. It has left its mark in various ways by the languages we speak, cultural influence, not to mention the lines on the map. Although it has shaped much of history, colonialism is an unequal exploitation of settlements or countries that has left a lot of problems in its wake.

The British colonization of Kenya destroyed the culture and economy of the native people, but it established a democratic government and left Kenya a more modernized country.[1] During the 1880’s through 1914, the start of WWI, was an age of imperialism. One place that felt victim to this imperialism was Africa. At this time Africa was a wholly unmodernized continent. The reason the Europeans went after Africa was the introduction of the idea of social Darwinism and the “white man’s burden”. Social Darwinism is the belief that only the strongest and the most cunning can make it to the top of the social ladder, and it was the White Man’s Burden to step in for these undeveloped countries

Britain, as a global superpower, was able to relatively easily contain the Mau Mau uprising once it got wind of the violence inflicted upon its people. The incident in Kenya helps prove the notion that violence will almost always be met with violence. For policymakers, an assessment of the two instances of resistance allows an insight into the effects of colonial rule on colonized countries, both during colonization and after

The British exercised indirect colonial rule, meaning they entrusted the government and administration to traditional rulers while having something like advisors for them. Despite this, the British instituted colonial policies in Kenya like Land alienation for European settlers, African taxation, and forced African and migrant labor. With these policies came the rise of settler dominated

Colonialism changed both the lives of African Kenyans and the Europeans who took control over

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.

In trying to analyze the link between colonial rule and nationalist rule, one cannot discount the influence of the past on the present. Analyzing nationalist actions and decisions without taking into account how society got to that point, and the situation of society when power was transferred would be asinine. The effects of colonization on various African countries through border setting and defining ethnic groups, the morphing of ethnic group disputes into class-based struggles, and the stunting of economies through failure to diversify national economies is intrinsically linked to the paths followed by leadership after attaining independence.

Jomo Kenyatta’s ethnography, Facing Mt. Kenya was written in the 1930’s about Kikuyu society during 1890-1910, the early years of British colonialism in Kenya. Since the coming of the early colonization the Kikuyu people have tried to develop a religious attitude that would define it’s own culture while adapting forcefully to the European conforms of religion.