What Is The West's Desire To Exploit The East?

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, European and Western imperialism (British especially) gained foothold in China. The famous political comic entitled “En Chine -- Le gâteau des Rois et... des Empereurs” can be translated as "China -- the cake of kings and... of emperors." The title is a French pun on king cake and how the kings and emperors (and queen and other national figures) are splitting and hope to "consume" China. This 1898 cartoon shows a frantic Qing official watching Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, William II of Russia, the French Marianne, and a samurai of Japan dividing up a pie that reads “Chine” (China is French). This political cartoon is meant to be satirical as it presents primarily unattractive caricatures for the nations involved in the subject of the this famous image -- and that is the major historical event and process of Western imperialism in China in this time period.

Language can be a powerful tool which can build individuals up but it can also tear them down. When reading Literature through a post-colonial lens it can give us the needed tools to provide or grasp the information in order to reveal the bigger picture in the story. “Post-colonialism examines the manner in which emerging societies grapple with the challenges of self- determination.” (Aladren, 2013) In one way we can see that approach of colonist being conveyed through the native tongue which tends to be taught to its subjects. Such examples can be seen in Shakespeare’s The Tempest (Act1 & 2) and the The Epic of Gilgamesh which illustrates how a “savage” can be domesticated simply by learning the imperialist language. As the subjects Caliban and Enkidu encounter these dominating issues due to the situation they face once they are introduce to oppressors culture.

Exploration during the postcolonial era was very popular in footings for people to try and reach out to find ways to set up ground for themselves. In Gilgamesh, the Tempest, and Heart of Darkness, it seems oppression and race played an important factor as to how one coexisted from events that took place to express all that existed during this period. From both good to bad, one feeling strong to weak, or even included or excluded, oppression and race were amongst the many postcolonial lenses that could be viewed from these three pieces of literature. These three stories reveal how racial difference is used to justify oppression during the time of the colonial period.

Mernissi starts off her essay with story about a saleswoman telling her that she is too big for anything the store sold and that the “norm” is a size 4 or a size 6. All the magazines in America show skinny women who barely weigh a pound and look so young, which shows that the Western man wants “... to freeze female beauty within an idealized childhood, and forces women to perceive aging,” (255). Mernissi compares the weapon used against women in the West as declaring youth as beauty and to criticize maturity, and in the East as limiting access to public space. The serious approach Mernissi uses shows how personal her examples are and creates a big effect on the “weapons” used on

The United States at the dawn of the 20th Century was beginning its ascent into worldwide prominence. This was unprecedented for what had once been termed as an “experiment in democracy” and came with unexplored opportunities for the nation. The West had all but been conquered, and the industrialization of the nation was in full swing, but what the country needed was a market for its surplus goods. With the prominence that had caused America to gain worldwide attention, the nation likewise followed suit with other worldly nations of the time and engaged in the pursuit of imperialist expansion. Regardless of whether it is in fact imperialism, or if it was the “American exceptionalism” that our country likened it to, the fact is that

Many assumptions have been made about what the ‘West’ was really like, mostly suggesting that it was some amazing time period when guys might save a damsel in distress. “Don’t you think we spend too much time mythologizing the west? I mean look at how it was. Dirty, violent, & illiterate. It wasn’t an age for heroes, that’s for sure.” (Alexie 224) This quote explains exactly how people who were alive then might have described that time period. It refers to the stereotyping of the west, and how some people glorified it as a land of heroes, but it was not. Sherman Alexie highlighted all the stereotypes, made it clear who brought them about, and discussed how the Natives were represented in the eyes of the white man. The whites believed that the

The West prior to and after the Civil War was largely unpopulated by the white man, the Indians, as a result, dominated the landscape mostly undisturbed. However, this separation came to a halt as legion of white pioneers invaded the great plains, displacing the Indians and “civilizing” the West. With tensions rising, the government attempted to make treaties that gave the Indians designated areas to live. What the government failed to realize was that there wasn’t a primary Indian hierarchy and that the people in charge of upholding these treaters were corrupt. Inability to control the nomadic people and growing anger amongst the Indian ranks lead to many bloody skirmishes between the Indians and the U.S. Army. The Indian’s had a short lived victory at the Battle of Little Big Horn, “Custer’s Last Stand.” Eventually, the U.S. Army forced the Indians to surrender and corralled them into reservations where they silently suffered for generations as the government attempted to assimilate them.

The expansion to the west was considered to be a dead topic in the world of history. However one historian published a novel bringing forward new thoughts and opinions on the subject. Since Turners thesis, published in 1893 not many historians tried to reevaluate the topic of the frontier until Gregory H. Noble. Noble currently a history professor at Georgia Tech University is a very accomplished historian in early American and environmental history. In his novel, American Frontiers: Cultural Encounters and Continental Conquest he embarks on evaluating the expansion of the west in a completely revolutionized approach. Noble was able to revitalize the subject of westward expansion through a non-Turnerian approach, which was looking at the frontier as a variety of multicultural encounters. This was entirely different compared to Turner who viewed the west as a merger between savagery and civilization. Noble appreciates and takes into consideration the encounters with women, children, Hispanics, and Native Americans. However, Noble realizes that the settlement of the west “must be understood as a story of often savage and duplicitous conquest rather than benign settlement.” This benign settlement was settled in a savage way but yet the United States government was unable to self-reflect and realize the true savages are themselves. Noble’s was one of the first historians to mention and defend the Native Americans as people not as undesirables. Although Nobles novel was

Western Imperialism was a period when the western powers of the world, Europe and the United States, decided to expand their territories by colonizing Asian countries. In Europe the Renaissance encouraged the Europeans to trade with other countries. The Europeans were motivated by trade and culture, but were mostly motivated by God, glory, and gold. They also wanted to cease the spread of Islam across Asia by educating the locals about the Christian faith. The first European country that started the “Age of Exploration” was Portugal.

The essay fails to address several aspects of the assignment and demonstrates a lack of clear understanding of the concepts and facts. It contains serious flaws.

The article “US Policy Toward Political Islam” by Stephen Zunes is a thoroughly researched topic. His depictions of a greedy, judgmental America are accurate and to the point. While there is a good chunk of useful suggestions that may have created less hostility from our Eastern counterparts, it is not logical or possible to say that following these sanctions out would have changed the outcome of the last ten years. What can be said of these ideas, is that following a more honest approach to politics through US policies would have given America a much needed transparency. Many of the extremist groups are founded on the hatred of American downfalls such as our tendency to overtake their lands by military force in order to exploit the lands

The Navajo Indians emulated the pueblo. The shed their animal skin clothing for cotton and learned quickly how to farm. These people settled in between the Rio Grande and the Grand Canyon. They herded sheep and grew corn in the valleys. They were a peaceful group of people, and were one with their surroundings.

In Samuel P. Huntington’s article “The West: Unique, Not Universal,” he addresses his audience with a very controversial question: Is Western Culture universal or unique? Huntington elaborately opens up this question with research and examples to explain and persuade readers that the West will never be a universal culture for all, but rather a unique culture that will be accepted by those who appreciate it. For decades now, historians and scholars have debated with one another to determine who is right and wrong. However, from a handful of articles from different scholars, Samuel Huntington’s statement that the West is unique rather than universal is supported and even further elaborated on by these particular sources. A common understanding between all the sources, that must be noted, is that a civilization’s culture is not comprised of material goods but rather their culmination of their religion(s), values, language(s) and traditions. While although there are scholars out their that negate the West is unique, a large amount of scholars still argue and strengthen Huntington’s argument that the West has unique and exclusive characteristics that make them distinctive and rare.

“...Orientalism is not so innocent a form of knowledge as this. Instead, he redefines Orientalism as the ubiquity of a sense of the division of the world into two spheres in aesthetic production, popular culture, and scholarly, sociological, and historical texts. In other words, he is suggesting that the concept of difference between east and west is a geopolitical difference which is written up throughout the texts of western culture whether through travel writing, political texts, paintings, or in academic discussions” (Sharp 2009, 31).

I have often wondered about the early days of Jesus, what he did before he met John the Baptist, got baptized, and started his new life. Many people believe he went for a long walk, a journey to the East, like the one described by Hermann Hesse in the novel with that title, A Journey To The East, which goes to the same place as the Chinese story called Journey To The West. Some says Jesus went to India and some say he went to Tibet.