The study of neocolonialism involves the exploration of aspects of strategic and economic dominance of former colonial dependencies. Neocolonialism highlights the fact that colonialism and imperialism do not simply have a historical dimension. Rather, the political economy of power and economic relations in some cases takes the form of a continuation of colonial and imperialist interdependencies. Postcolonial dependencies could include activities such as the nomination of puppet governments, control of the development pace and direction of the developing nation, and exploration of exclusive trade relationships.
Neocolonialist discourses argue that dominance over legal, military, cultural, and political issues did not stop with the formal European abandonment of their colonies and/or the independence movements that found voice in many foreign-ruled countries. In some cases, the forms of dominance simply became more informal and indirect.
History Of Neocolonialism
In 1955 an Asian-African conference was held in Bandung, Indonesia, at which representatives of formerly colonized nations collectively denounced their former Western imperialist/colonial domination. Predominant objectives were decolonization, national sovereignty, and independence; a voice in their respective nations’ development; and a strategic role on the world stage.
By the 1960s many former colonies had become independent, both politically and legally. It was then that use of the term neocolonialism became widespread. A famous proponent was Kwame Nkrumah, the first prime minister and later president of Ghana, who, while leading his country to independence, recognized that in spite of a country’s formal independence and sovereignty, its economic and political system frequently continued to be directed from the outside. Often it was no longer military but monetary power that determined the continued imperialist dominance of the former colonial states—economic power exercised by pressuring the formerly colonized state to purchase products from its former colonial power.
Within an almost exclusive trade relationship such as this, neoliberalism, free market mechanisms, and competition are invalidated at the expense of the local economy in the formerly colonized state. Moreover, developing countries may be unable to set prices for their natural resources that may be in high demand in the colonial nations, perhaps resulting in a divergence of local markets’ needs, production, and low labor costs.
Third World Development
Following the Bretton Woods agreement, the introduction of an international monetary system, and the oil crisis of the 1970s, many Third World countries had to postpone their development strategies; the creation of a global capitalist market favored the hegemony of developed countries. Small developing countries were not yet able to compete with the bigger and richer countries, which determined the rules of this international system. World capital and world economies came under the control of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The United Nations entered world politics. Through these multiple institutions, many developed nations, foremost of which was the United States, were able to exercise control of world capital.
As later studies would reveal, the import substitution strategy regularly prescribed for developing countries as a means of improving their underdeveloped economies resulted in (a) developing countries focusing on the production of finished goods, with accompanying high import duties to protect the local industries, and (b) multinational companies (MNCs) subsequently exporting lower-import-duty machinery and technologies. Increasing foreign direct investments (FDI) created new debt and technological and structural dependencies of neocolonized countries on foreign capital. It also resulted in the neocolonization of developing countries by international economic powers.
The Neocolonial State
When it comes to strategic dominance in the neocolonial state, proimperial civil servants can control state issues such as exchange rates, fiscal policy, allocation of resources, foreign investment, and a pluralism of legal environments in favor of the colonial powers. Regarding foreign-policy issues, a danger exists that the country will be incorporated into the imperial power’s geopolitical and imperialist aims instead of addressing its own economic, political, and developmental needs. Development goals, including the improvement of living standards, increasing access to education, and the creation of more jobs might become secondary considerations if the neocolonial state is not left to establish its priorities.
Voices from outside the neocolonial states insist that the former colonies should focus first on their agricultural sectors and second on industrialization, to ensure that their people have enough to eat. Such a view is often rejected by the leaders of developing countries, who argue that it would take them forever to feed and to increase the living standards of all their citizens. Industrialization and foreign trade, however, cannot be postponed; otherwise, the gap between the developing and the developed countries will increase, with dependencies on manufactured products growing exponentially.
Outside Cultural Influences
Certain development aid or loan programs have been criticized for forcing former colonial territories to agree to financially or ideologically unfavorable conditions. The neocolonial dependencies of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America do not stop there. Cultural influences, such as access to news, information, and media, can promote imperialist popular cultures and zeitgeist, subsequently increasing the sale of said media and cultural products at the expense of the creation and promotion of local or regional cultures and tastes. This particular notion of cultural imperialism, which became popular in the 1970s, embodies domination by international media corporations and the introduction of specific cultural values by a dominating foreign force. Clearly, cultural imperialism has vital social and economic consequences for the local cultures.
Academic discussion and analysis of the continuation of colonial dependencies revolves around theories of development and dependency. The prevalence of rich developed countries’ self-interests in international politics and the rise of free-trade imperialism are discussed in World Systems Theory. Modernization theorists argue that the development of developing nations will occur gradually, similar to the development processes that many of the developed countries experienced in the past.
Colonialism Defined
Understanding the political economy of neocolonialism requires understanding its antecedent. The term colonialism often refers to European colonialism, both classical and modern. In classical Greek, colonialism means “people settling down away from home and the administration and governing of such settlements.” Greek colonization had a regional character, with new settlements spread around the Mediterranean and Black seas. In contrast to the more economic-oriented Greek colonization, the Roman Empire pursued foreign settlements more on the basis of strategic and political control of conquered territory and the expansion of its empire.
The Golden Age of the 15th and 16th centuries heralded a period of European overseas expeditions undertaken in search of spices, slaves, food, and territories. Asia and Latin America saw a rapid increase in the number of foreign settlers, tradesmen, adventurers, missionaries, and diplomats, each group employing economic or military power in its attempt to exploit and fleece the native population. In later years, some of these settlements were controlled and administered by new immigrants, who in some cases sought independence of their own. In the United States, for example, former colonizers Britain and France strongly opposed such a move but, as history shows, unsuccessfully.
In contrast, modern colonialism refers to colonial domination not mainly through economic or military power settlements, but through expansionist imperial control from the outside—from the colonizing country. The positions of many high-ranking civil servants and senior administrative roles of the colonized territory are filled by representatives or delegates of the colonizing nation. In Latin America and Asia, many of these colonies remained under colonial rule and administration until the 20th century.
Imperialism Defined
Colonialism is often associated with imperialism. Whereas the former addresses one specific form of foreign domination (i.e., colonial control), imperialism encompasses a wide range of commands by a foreign power, including military, economic, and political. The concept of imperialism, which appears to have originated during the times of Napoleon I (1769–1821) and Napoleon III (1808–73) of France, soon found its way into the vocabulary of the expansionary empire of Great Britain. Whereas imperialism originally was characterized as political control over a foreign territory, later it extended to include economic and technological control.
The economic causes of imperialism had their genesis in (a) the economic problems that beset Europe in the 19th century and the need to safeguard the import flows of agricultural products from overseas territories, and (b) the protection of the selling markets for Europe’s own industrial products. The dependentistas (Latin American dependency theorists in the 1960s and 1970s) not only recognized the significant role that economic dependency was playing, but also highlighted the fact that Western capitalism actually increased underdevelopment in formerly colonized countries. Later research expanded the concept of imperialism to cultural imperialism and the ecological aspects of imperialism.
Bibliography:
- Ankie Hoogvelt, “Globalization and the Postcolonial World,” in The New Political Economy of Development, 2nd ed. (Palgrave, 2001);
- Ilan Kapoor, The Postcolonial Politics of Development (Routledge, 2008);
- Albert Memmi, Decolonization and the Decolonized (University of Minnesota Press, 2006);
- Theodore Moran, “Multinational Corporations and Dependency: A Dialogue for Dependentistas and Non-Dependentistas,” International Organization (v.32/1, 1978);
- Kwame Nkrumah, Neocolonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism (Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1965);
- Thomas Sebastian, Globalization and Uneven Development: Neocolonialism, Multinational Corporations, Space, and Society (Rawat Publications, 2007);
- John Springhall, Decolonization Since 1945: The Collapse of European Overseas Empires, Studies in Contemporary History (Palgrave, 2001);
- Corrine Wickens and Jennifer A. Sandlin, “Literacy for What? Literacy for Whom? The Politics of Literacy Education and Neocolonialism in UNESCO and World Bank–Sponsored Literacy Programs,” Adult Education Quarterly (v.57/4, 2007).
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