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Benefits of Colonization Benefits of Colonization Erica Angelyne O. Lau

With the age of discovery during the 15th century, European countries introduced colonialism to the world. During this period, Portugal and Spain exploited new territories to gather resources from the Far East. Because of the rivalry between the two countries, the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed stating that the lands from the eastern side would belong to Portugal, and lands from the western side would belong to Spain. Exploration and colonization continued for several years and affected many countries. Many people think having these powerful countries colonize underdeveloped countries will bring harm; however, colonization has its own advantages. In spite of the fact that colonialism does not occur often in the present time, neocolonialism still indirectly happens to most countries today. And although people revolt against colonization, there are some people who actually think that colonization gives more benefits than harm to a nation.

First, colonialism introduces new and unfamiliar customs and traditions that are brought together to coexist. Usually, two different countries have their own customs and traditions; therefore, by having a foreigner conquer their country, natives can learn many traditions from their colonizer and vice versa. These new and old traditions can make a community stronger because these give them individuality, connection, and a sense of security to one another. An example of this is the spread of the Christian religion. According to a paper titled The Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Colonialism History Essay, European missionaries introduced and taught their colonies the Christian religion well. This revolutionized people’s thinking from being illiterate to being liberated.

Second, colonialism helps colonies discover natural resources. With the use of technology provided by the colonizers, new unknown natural resources were discovered by them and shared to the colony. Ainscough said in her article that rare resources benefit the colonizers because their colony may have vast to plant and grow crops. Their colony may also be wealthy in valuable resources like coal, gold, or oil; therefore, also benefiting from these. In addition, the natives can also get livelihood out of the newly-discovered resources, giving both the colonizers and the colony advantages. And because of the efficiency of the discovery of natural resources,

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this helped the colony to grow and prosper to what they are today. A clear example of this is the Philippines. Before Spaniards came to the Philippines, Filipinos would only plant the same crops but when Spanish arrived, they introduced a vast selection of products that they can plant and grow in their soil.

Third, colonialism brings modernization to underdeveloped areas. Provided with the technology, the improvement of roads, railways, and other means of transportation, education, health services were possible and evident in the present time form past colonies. A composition titled The Advantages And Disadvantages Of The History Essay expressed that technology needed for the enhancement of education, transportation, and medical services helped colonies improve on their standing globally. Another composition with the title Advantages And Disadvantages Of Colonialism History Essay stated that “it brought about modernization to regions that were technologically under developed”. They introduced trade and other forms of businesses. They constructed railroads for this and it eased the transportation of products from one place to another. Medical assistance was also introduced to the natives for many of them away due to sickness. According to Mueller, “colonial powers introduced western schools and healthcare”, which helped many colonies to improve and to compete with other countries.

However, there are many ideas that oppose these points because people tend to see only one side of the situation. For instance, Ainscough explained in her article that colonization made the distribution of power in the colony unbalanced. Most of the time, when colonizers colonize a country, they would automatically feel superior of the leaders of the colony, resulting to the lack of respect towards the natives. Another further disadvantage as said in the same article is the “potential conflict”. When a land is colonized, not only does it affect their country physically, but also “their lifestyles, cultures, traditions and ever their homes may be completely changed”. Ghosh stated that the uprising of colonization started slavery. According to the article titled History of Slavery, slavery was first tracked in Babylon during the 18th century BC in the code of Hammurabi which gives “chilling details” about the rewards and punishments of surgeons “operating on free men or slaves”. Ghosh also explained that colonizers sold many natives to different countries. According to an article tilted Advantages And Disadvantages Of Colonialism History Essay, “slaves were treated as if they were not humans by the colonial masters, they

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maltreated them badly by treating them cruelly beating them, starving or even killing them”. This essay also stated that because slavery ruined civilization, it caused colonies to become underdeveloped.

Although colonialism caused more harm than it benefited the colony, it eventually improved and became competitive with the colonizers due to many reasons. One is that after former colonies got freedom from their colonizers, they became wiser and adapted their strategies. After adapting strategies, former colonies improve and sometimes become better than their colonizers making them globally competitive and a threat to other countries. Another is that for the long run, the damage done by colonizers is actually benefiting to their past colony, they may not see it immediately, but the technology, cultures, resources and many more gave more advantages than it gave disadvantages to the colony. One might say that colonialism does not even happen in the present time, people may not experience this directly but many third-world countries experience neocolonialism. One of the most important reasons why neocolonialism happens is because of globalization. Exposure to social media, internet, television, radio and other mediums help influence people just like how colonialism works. But we should only allow these things to happen if they do not interfere with the people’s personal opinion and they do not take away the people’s freedom.

To sum up, even if many people are not ive of colonialism, in the long run, colonialism brings more good than harm that will help modernize the colony benefiting both the colony and the colonizer. The introduction of new customs and traditions, the discovery of resources, and the development of technology both enriched the colonizer and the colony in so many ways. It can be very beneficial to countries nowadays to accept colonialism not physically but mentally for many countries discover new technology that can help many other countries improve. If we continue not to accept colonialism, or even just the idea of it, the union of countries will slowly decrease. And worse, countries could build a wall that would close themselves to the world and not have any communication with other countries.

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Benefits of Colonization References

(2015, March 23). The Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Colonialism History Essay. Retrieved

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disadvantages-of-the-colonialism-history-essay.php

(2015, November 27). Advantages And Disadvantages Of Colonialism History Essay. Retrieved from https://essays.pw/essay/advantages-and-disasvantages-of-colonialism-history-essay173850

Ainscough, Abi. What Are The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Colonization?. Retrieved from http://society-politics.blurtit.com/1346243/what-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantagesof-colonization

Ghosh, Baivab. What are the Merits and Demerits of Colonialism? --- Explained!. Retrieved from http://www.historydiscussion.net/world-history/what-are-the-merits-and-demerits-ofcolonialiam-explained/1870

History of Slavery. Retrieved from http://historyworld.net/wrldhis?PlainTextHistoriesResponsive.asp?ParagraphID=cio#324 9

Mueller, Jennifer. Positive & Negative Effects of Colonialism. Retrieved from http://peopleof.oureverydaylife.com/positive-negative-effects-colonialism-8398.html