Influenced By Marxism And Imperialism

In the second half of the twentieth-century, African countries were able to gain their independence and strive to create unified countries. However, many countries were plagued with civil wars and the issues left behind the colonial era. The adversities faced by these new African nations are at the hands of their old colonial powers and the neo-colonialism that has taken place. These new independent countries were left to unify their people of different backgrounds, create a strong government and economy, and leave the post-colonial legacy behind.

In the late nineteenth century the European powers of the world began imperializing Africa. This annexation, occupation, and division of African territory has since led to much strife within the continent and has caused many struggles politically. This period known as the “Scramble for Africa” has led to the many problems that Africa faces today and has been the root of several wars in Africa to assume control. After World War II many European imperialists began to give African nations autonomy. This seemed like a step forward for African nations, but without any plan to transition into self governance many African nations have faced bloody civil wars and corruption. Along with political struggles, numerous African nations face rising debt and other economic problems. Many of these political and economic issues stem from the “Scramble for Africa”. Once the European countries left Africa had very little to support itself. To explain the issues left by imperialism the three African nations of Rwanda, South Africa, and Sierra Leone will be put under the scope.

In the current international economic system, the behaviors and interactions of emerging states indicate that the previous norms of an open, global, and liberal international economy are being replaced with their own interests, which Stewart Patrick as well as Andrew Nathan and Andrew Scobell examine in their articles.

Many poor countries carry sufficient amounts of debts due to loans from wealthier countries or from international bank loan companies. With the large build-up of loan, the country can go bankrupt. Ultimately, this leads to the entire country working to pay the debt without having any realization of their economy. Debts create significant obstacles for these developing countries, since they divert their funds away from improving different sectors, including healthcare or education. This contributes to lower life expectancy and more illiterates in the country. For instance, Liberia has a total debt of $3.7 billion US dollars; the problem is they can only allocate US $7

Direct criticism to the modernization theory created the idea of the dependency theory. Scholars from Latin America theorized about what was the cause of their dependency and underdevelopment. The theory stated “the present underdevelopment of Latin America is the result of its centuries-long participation in the process of world capitalist development” (Frank 7). In ordinary terms, the drive to compete in the global economy deepened the hole of underdevelopment. The capitalistic pull of resources from underdevelopment countries to the development country perpetuated the conditions of

Being familiar, but never well read, on the foreign influences of European and American nations on 16th through 20th century Africa, I never put much thought into the vast economic history and consequences that have come upon those actions. In reading Part 5 – Foreign Influences in John Reader’s book Africa, Reader highlights two thought camps on the effect of foreign influences on the Africa continent and its society as a whole. Transformationalists argue, Africa’s current economic state has been indubitably affected by the foreign slave trade of African indigenous populations that has occurred until recent times. Non-Transformationalists oppose this view. They believe that Africa’s current economy, “would have been about as well off, […] in the same socioeconomic environment, if there has been no trading contact [with Europe].” (David Eltis) Reading chapters 34-40 in John Reader’s Africa, I agree with the Transformationalist view, that Africa was indeed affected by foreign influences.

Ever since the oldest human remains were discovered in Africa, the ‘Cradle of Mankind’, it was establish that Africa was the birthplace of human species. Despite the source of human existence Africa has been plagued with conflicts and problems that was often rooted in European colonization. Due to the sheer mass of Africa many of its countries are categorized as underdeveloped, insubstantial governance, and poor human progression which negatively affects continental growth and poverty reduction. These issues that Africa face cripples growth, political prosperity and economic independence. AFRICOM represents a fresh start for African nations to trade globally and provides military protection for these nations. In conclusion, Africa is a crippled nation unable to live independently and ineffective with foreign aid.

If imperialism is about outsiders asserting their power and influence, what are some ways that people can be influenced by imperialism that don’t have to do with land?

Beginning in 1880, there was a growing desire for European countries to expand and control their rule. The only continent at that time that was left uncontrolled and, in the European's eyes uncivilized, was Africa. This was the start of Western Imperialism. All European countries wanted their piece of Africa and to get it, they would let nothing stand in their way. They would change the entire government, religion, market, and behavior of most of the African nation and affect almost every person living there. An account of the impact of Imperialism is given in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. This book shows the changes that occurred in Africa during Imperialism and its affect on the community and the people

Neoliberalists consider the state as the most important actor in world politics and they admit that anarchy has an effect on state’s decision making but international organization makes each state to be cooperating. Also, as increasing common interests in the state, the international organization becomes necessary. Therefore, the WTO is created by “states to serve their self-interest” (Dunne, Kurki, and Smith 98) and the necessity of “increasing interdependence in a variety of global issue” (Dunne, Kurki, and Smith 91). In addition, for neoliberalists, the WTO provides the solution to overcome barriers for international cooperation.

     The way countries, nations or states act and base their policies on many times reflect what their past was like. This is very true in the case of Africa. The only problem is that Africa is said to have no history. This just means that Africa’s many cultures did not affect the way imperialists and other influences acted towards the huge continent. Everything was based on their interests and consequently this meant that the way of dealing with Africa in every way was based on Western traditionalists. To this we must answer the question how has the Western World affected Africa’s present stage and what must be done

Third World Debt In 1957, Ghana, a promising and growing African country, had a higher

In terms of world impact, no ideology has irreparably shaped the course of history like neoliberalism. Its core tenets of free markets would inform the policies imposed on developing nations. The assumption among particularly Western nations would be that developing nations would need to advance to become modern capitalistic societies just like them. However, the efforts to reach that ideal would lead to more harm than good. Neoliberalism has resulted in heavy debt for developing nations, unequitable free trade, and strong economic inequality in the global South. In light of these problems, one can utilize the solutions of debt alleviation, fair trade policies, and Keynesian policies to address these issues in a substantial way to mitigate

Modern African states have several problems ranging from corruption, to armed conflict, to stunted structural development. The effects of colonialism have been offered as a starting point for much of the analysis on African states, but the question of why African states are particularly dysfunctional needs to be examined, given the extent to which they have lagged behind other former European colonies in many aspects. In the first section, I will consider the problems with African states from the level of the state. That is, the nature of the states' inceptions and the underlying flaws may explain some of the issues that have been associated with African states today. Next I examine the development of, or lack of, civil

Starting with 1970, theorists referred to the dependency theory by arguing that trade with wealthy countries does not benefit underdeveloped ones, and consequently enforces upon them a status of structural dependence. Upon registering this consideration, elites of developing countries reacted by openly acknowledging it, because it placed the focus on global capitalism, and thus exempted or, more likely, minimized the part that poverty played in the mechanism of internal issues or the local-based corruption (Inglehart and Welzel, 2009, p. 35). Hence, the consensus was established in Third World nations that they would withdraw from global markets and instate some import policies instead, for the purpose of making global exploitation obsolete.