Stages of Colonialism: Updated
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
March 05, 2013
"Age of Discovery"
This period involved the conquest and plunder of the resources of the colonies by disparate European colonizers. Spain and Portugal were the two major European global powers in the 15th century.
In the 15th century, (i) the Pope of Rome was the most powerful person on the planet; he determined international law(ii) only one person had veto power on the plantation-European slave-master. Today, only five governments have that same veto power in the United Nations Security Council. They are China, France, United States , Britain and Russia. Only one government has to cast that veto to defeat any resolution before the Council. Ergo, through this new and improved Euro-colonial system of governance, Europeans have been able to maintain and ossify their global power control since the fifteenth century.
Treaty of Tordesillas : On 7 June 1494, Pope Alexander V! solved the conflict between Spain and Portugal re ownership of lands discovered. Pope Alexander V! drew "an imaginary line of demarcation across the earth." As a result of this fifteenth century papal decision, Afrikans in Brazil speak portuguese today.
East = Portugal
West = Spain
Age of European enslavement of Afrikan people/Industrial capitalism.
Industrial capitalism was built on the backs of Afrikan slaves. Industrial Revolution took place in Britain 1750-1850. All the manufacturing of raw materials, banking and Stock Exchange systems took place in Britain. Britain is the European country that benefited the most financially and economically from colonialism and slavery. Britain was the major European global power during this Stage.
Stage 3: "Age of Imperialism"--- European global expansion: Afrika
European colonial powers partitioned/scrambled/divided up Afrika among themselves at the Berlin Conference, November 1884- February 1885.
Participants included: Britain, France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium and United States as a "most interested ex-officio observer."
The following then becomes important re United States thus:
- United States got no colonies at this conference.
- United States has replaced ALL the major European global powers in Afrika today.
- United States is now the major European power in Afrika.
- United States is the LAST and ONLY surviving European global power since 20 November 1989--- (a) collapse of Berlin Wall and Soviet Union empire and (ii) end of Cold War between United States and Soviet Union-- East versus West 1945 -1989.
- United States emerged as a global power in 1920s under President Woodrow Wilson.
- United States consists of only five per cent of the global population yet it consumes about forty-five of the world's natural resources.
- United States was LAST in the nineteenth century but is FIRST in the twenty-first century.
Shem Hotep ("I go in peace").
Source: George Beckford and Michael Witter, "Small Garden... Bitter Struggle and Change in Jamaica" (1982), pp. 34-35.
Dr. Kwame Nantambu is a part-time lecturer at Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies.
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