Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Issue of Colonialism

Colonialism is a complex and a much misunderstood topic. Most people think Colonialism is just "evil Europeans oppressing the poor natives". While this is true to a cretin extent, it is an oversimplification. For example native tribes/kingdoms have been known to willingly ally with the Europeans against their enemies, such as the case of the Teetla alliance with the Congo Free State against the Congo Arabs. Most colonial "European" armies, despite popular thinking, are almost totally dominated by indigenous people with the only Europeans are the high ranking officers. A typical colonial European army in Africa probably has about 1,000 Asrakis ("regular" native troops) and tribal allies, and only 5 white officers. This is because it is cheaper and much less logistics for the Europeans if they just use the natives to fight for them, and only use regular Europeans at a last resort. Another misconception is that it was "only the Europeans were evil, and the natives were noble savages". In reality, the native kingdoms were just as cruel as the Europeans that dominated them. For example, the Zulu kingdom committed mass killings of rival tribes on such as scale that some scholars argue that it was genocide. The Arabs were enslaving the local African tribes on an even greater scale then the Europeans. The Chinese were putting down colonial revolts like the Miaos, Dungans (Central Asian Muslims), Panthays (Burmese Muslims), and the Taiwanese aborigines with genocidal cruelty. Yes all in all, the Europeans were cruel and oppressive (one needs to only site the Congo Free State), but the issue is much more complex then that. People with political agendas should really stop condemning the European colonialism, since it is such a complex issue. We should study issues extensively before turning to a political agenda, since it is unwise to be the actvist who protests "save the children in Sudan" despite the fact that activist can't even locate Sudan on the map, let alone understand the political situation of Sudan.

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