Native American Imperialism

While imperialism somewhat improved the lives of the native people in Africa and India, with the introduction of better healthcare and infrastructure increasing lifespans and boosting economies, it largely made life worse due to the introduction of deadly new illnesses, abuse from colonizers, starvation caused by the fixation on cash crops, and racist attitudes impacting the practice of traditional customs and limiting the natives’ voice in their own governments.
Indeed, with the establishment of infrastructure and modern Western health practices, imperialism was able to better the lives of colonized people. The implementation of advanced infrastructure such as paved roads, railroads, and the telegraph allowed for both faster transportation …show more content…
358). With its introduction, people had a way to travel from place to place faster-- and with this newfound travel ability, people from different regions interacted more and grew united enough to form a modern economy. A similar phenomenon occurred in Africa as well: railroads, dams, and telegraph lines built by Europeans like the Belgians, British, and Dutch made it easier for people to communicate both within a colony and with other nations. Furthermore, new technology, like the steamboat introduced by the Belgians to the Congo, allowed the trading hub that was the Kisangani River to flourish and the native economy to grow along with this boost in trading (lecture, 10/24). Overall, in both India and Africa, new unity among widely-spread groups lent itself to a sense of security, and the successful economy led to widespread prosperity. The building of this infrastructure was, of course, useless had no one been alive to use it, and so the Europeans also brought Western medicine and health practices to their colonies. Armed with medicines like quinine, they reduced the number of people, both native and European, who contracted illnesses such as malaria (textbook p. 341). In the …show more content…
Diseases carried into colonies from other countries were, of course, a major factor, as the native people had never encountered these illnesses and so had not built up an immunity to them. As a result, deadly diseases were widespread among those unaccustomed to them. In Africa, for instance, one of the most contagious and lethal diseases introduced by Europeans was smallpox, killing hundreds of natives (textbook, p. 350). In fact, these diseases moved quickly due to the weakened state of the natives, stemming from the famines that Europeans yet again had a hand in. In fixating on cash crops for export and not leaving enough land for natives to grow their own food to eat as well, food became a scarcity (textbook, p. 342). Again, both in the Congo and in India, starvation was rampant. In fact, people in India suffered numerous major famines while under British rule in the 1800s (textbook, p. 358). While starvation may not at first have been as agonizing as the immediate pain of a violent attack, the end result was often the same: death. Indeed, violence against natives was another source of fear and fatalities in colonies. In fact, commonplace violence was overlooked-- and often even instigated by-- Europeans, and as a result, many died from what was seen by Europeans as

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