Going Solo Roald Dahl Analysis

Many people have their ideas and opinions on the topic of imperialism of the different continents like Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Imperialism had different effects that came from the and different reasons for which it was done. There have been poems, essays, and short stories about the good and bad of imperialism. Those who read some of these works interpret them in different ways that can change the message the author originally had planned. Imperialism shed light upon that not everything is how it seems.

The Scramble for Africa can easily be defined as the forced invasion and division of African countries among European superpowers. Those powers included Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, and Belgium. Each superpower wanted control over a certain area on the continent and would do anything to ensure that their area remained in their best interest. To bring the conflicts to the forefront, the countries participated in the Berlin Africa Conference in 1884-1885. In this conference, the issues of Anglo-German relations and everybody’s control in Africa were discussed. As a result of the conference, European control began to overtake the African continent and imperialism became a giant part of the European mark. In his book, “Worlds of Color” W.E.B DuBois discusses the idea of whole colonial enterprise stating that the problem the world faces is the color line. This can easily be interpreted as Dr. DuBois giving the idea that if World, more specifically European superpowers stop viewing the color line and Africa’s color line as something less than them a lot of the world’s issues could be detected and fixed. But more importantly, Dr. DuBois is stating that without the Worlds of Color, European industrialization would not exist.

The British ideals slowly began to drift away from the American colonist’s ideals after the French and Indian War. The British had only one focus at the time and that was making money. All that King George III wanted from the colonies was pure profit to Britain. The colonies wanted all the freedoms and rights as they had in Britain and it was

The book aims to show the beginning to the end of a colony and increase public awareness of the atrocities committed in most colonies during the 1800s and into the 1900s. Hochschild does this using King Leopold II of Belgium, who was able to grab the Congo in the scramble for land in Africa. Leopold had always seen Belgium as a neutral weakling in the sense that there was no land to explore. By the time Leopold came into power, all of the land of the known world had been colonized. All that was left on the map was the large blank spot of Africa. Leopold saw the chance of creating Belgium’s first colony, and he took it.

African colonization obviously offered new wealth sources, such as markets and resources, to the European nations; however, many people doubted the ethicality of the act. In his speech in 1888, Joseph Chamberlain, British industrialist, politician and reformer, clearly argues that colonization is incredibly necessary to the British nation. He believes that the British Isles could not last for a single day without the natural markets for trade provided by the African colonies (Document 4). However, since he is an industrialist, Chamberlains goal is to increase his own wealth along with his countries, therefore, this argument could be distorted. Cecil Rhodes, British imperialist, easily revealed his thoughts on Imperialism when he said “Philanthropy is good, but philanthropy at 5 percent is even better” in a speech at the chartering of the British South Africa Company in 1889 (Document 5). William Clark disagreed with imperialist in a Progressive Review in 1879. His opinion was that the financers who hope to gain profit use Jameson, a “British military officer who led an

Even in song, the Britons were as prideful as they were aggressive in colonization. Take, for example, an excerpt of their National Anthem: “When Britain first at Heaven’s command / Arose from out the azure main; / This was the charter of the land / And guardian angels sang this strain; / Rule Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves: / Britons never will be slaves” (James Thomson and Thomas Arne). The above speaks of arrogance and superiority, by associating themselves with a higher power; they insinuate that Britain is the Promised Land, and by the logic that there is only one Promised Land, they underlay that everyone else is inferior.

The British did not treat colonist fairly they treated them very poorly. They shot at innocent people for no reason according to the text. That was the start of the Boston Massacre that started in 1770. The British government also collected taxes and charged taxes over the colonies. The colonies did not want these laws and taxes and because of that they were treated very poorly. They did not want England to have control over

England wanted to control its Colonies the way they should have originally, but due to their early Salutary Neglect the Colonists became accustomed to certain freedoms and rights that they weren’t suppose to have and the colonists believed in them strongly. The British’s debt turned political decisions into economical decisions, such as after the war when the colonists wanted to move westward to the land that they fought for and felt were entitled to, but were denied passage (Document A). This was not to limit the colonies, but to maintain peace between the colonies and the Indians, which was the cheapest

The German and British people believed that they were better than everyone else. In Document F Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem calling the Africans uncivilized and a burden. The poem displays ethnocentrism, the belief that your culture is better than everyone else. This document provides a new viewpoint of the cause of imperialism; cultural superiority. When Kipling says “ Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child” he is referring to the colonized people. Document B John Ruskin and Freidrich Fabri talk about how the Germans and British are better than everyone, clearly displaying ethnocentrism. Fabri believed that Germany should strive after colonies because they needed to complete with the British to maintain a new position of industrial

The British Colonists traveled over into the New World for society to work out in their own favor. However, this was not the case for these colonists; they carelessly came into the New World with the intent of having their own freedom of religion, being culturally intertwined with the natives already, and for their own overall independence economically . The British did not make a smooth transformation into this New World when they first arrived over seas, they brought chaos not only to the Natives but also the development of their colonies and themselves.

From: Cecil Rhodes, British imperialist in Africa, Confessions of Faith, 1877 I contend that we [Britons] are the finest race in the world, and the more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race…It is our duty to seize every opportunity of acquiring more territory and we should keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territory simply means more Anglo-Saxon race, more of the best, the most human, most honourable race the world possesses.

Roald Dahl is well known as a children's author that wrote whimsical stories and created amazing fictional worlds. Some people may never think about the fact that before writing many of his great pieces, Roald Dahl actually wrote many short stories that were influenced by his traumatic and intriguing childhood; most of these stories were not as child-friendly as one might imagine. One of the most prominent examples would be in his story “Beware of the Dog”. In this story, there is a man that is in the air force who is fighting in World War 2 and lost a leg in a plane crash, due to being shot down. In the short story, “He throttled back, pulled off his helmet, undid his straps, and pushed the stick hard over to the left. The Spitfire

Trading goods and building markets becomes important also within the communities these countries operate in because it gives the natives a way to make money on their in turn the importing and exporting distributers only see opportunities in this. With countries fighting for territory, and resources the driving force of imperialism in Africa soon loses its motivation of that and starts to become more about national pride amongst the European countries foreshadowing what will happen in the years to come.

Dahl meets David Coke during his travels. He describes David Coke as kind and concerned for Dahl. David Coke was kind in a way because, He introduced himself with a smile.(The First Encounter Paragraph 41).David Coke is also concerned for Dahl because in the book, He was giving Dahl some tips so he can probably survive,(First Encounter with a Bandit Paragraph 65).

Certainly, there was no question of the strategic and commercial importance of Africa, Asia and the Middle Eastern territories to the Allied Powers prior to, and during, the Second World War. “acquiring a colony which further lead to an empire was significant factor in proving the status and importance of a country” (Chamberlain, 1985: p. 3). Whilst huge merit pertains in this argument, there is no doubt the policy of imperialism in Africa, Asia and the Middle East is different from one nation to