FYI: 10 Surprising Upsides To Colonialism

[Razer]

I think I've found the worst article of 2016...

Illustrated:
https://listverse.com/2016/12/03/10-surprising-upsides-to-colonialism/

"Colonialism gets a bad rep these days, often with good reason. You’d
have to be a madman to look at King Leopold’s adventures in the Congo,
for example, and conclude that the Belgians were awesome imperial
overlords. Same deal with the slave-trading powers.

But that’s not the whole story of colonialism. Move beyond the headline
atrocities, and a more nuanced picture begins to emerge. Far from being
a nonstop cavalcade of horrors, colonialism often resulted in some
seriously awesome, surprising stuff.


10 Spreading Good Government

Most of us kind of take democracy and functioning government for
granted. But a largely democratic world was by no means inevitable. For
most of human history, “government” meant a military dictator or crazy
king telling you precisely where to live, what to wear, and when to die
in battle for some pointless cause.

So why does most of the world now at least pay lip service to democratic
norms? For that, you can thank the European colonial powers. Wherever
the British went, they instituted governments that looked like their
own. That meant parliaments, an efficient civil service, and a basic
package of democracy. The French, meanwhile, folded their conquered
territories into France itself, promoting Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite.

When decolonization finally rolled around, many of those democratic
institutions remained in place.


9 Creating Modern Medicine

For colonial powers, tropical diseases were a constant pain in the
derriere. Asia, Africa, and South America were swimming in bugs that had
a nasty tendency to kill colonists and subjects alike. That meant
unnecessary expenditure, time and men lost, and a problem extracting
that sweet, sweet natural wealth.

The solution? Throw everything modern medicine had at the problem.

Europe was at the vanguard of modern medicine in the 19th century. The
British discovered the antimalarial properties of quinine, which is
still our only effective antimalarial. The French became specialists in
tropical medicine thanks to their North African holdings. Public health
in general received a massive boost thanks to techniques learned in the
chaos of the colonies.

Even conquered natives benefited from this, in the form of hospitals and
new treatments pioneered in Europe. It’s no stretch to say modern
medicine is a by-product of imperialism.


8 Economic Booms

Of course, colonialism isn’t something that exists only in that fairy
tale land we call “the past.” Welcome to Africa, where the Chinese are
engaging in a massive exercise in 21st-century colonialism. According to
Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo, the resulting economic boom has been the
best thing to happen to the continent in decades.

Her data shows that this new colonialism has created jobs for millions
of Africans and lifted many out of poverty. The boon from Chinese
investment has massively benefited the poor in Africa and China alike.

That’s not to say all colonial adventures improve people’s lives.
Spanish dalliances in the New World memorably crashed Spain’s economy.
But it does show that imperialism can be handled well, in a way that
benefits the many rather than the few.


7 Global Languages

Remember the story of the Tower of Babel? Humans were getting all uppity
with their engineering prowess, so God scrambled their languages so they
could no longer cooperate. Well, colonialism was sort of like that in
reverse. From hundreds of thousands of different tongues, the age of
empires whittled humanity down to just a handful of big ones.

Seriously. There are currently 106 countries where English is spoken,
many of them former colonies. Spanish is spoken in 31, modern standard
Arabic in 58, and French in 53. Taken together, pretty much the entire
world speaks at least a smattering of English, Spanish, Arabic, French,
Russian, or Mandarin—all languages associated with imperial nations. And
that has massive advantages.

The ability to communicate breaks down barriers to trade and
understanding. It allows wildly different countries to find common
ground. While it’s not a prerequisite, it’s certainly helpful in uniting
people.


6 The Creation Of Modern Art

Who likes Picasso? What about Art Deco architecture? Or modern
sculpture? We’re betting that at least half of you said yes to one of
those. In that case, you should probably be thankful for French and
British colonization of Africa. It was the display of African tribal art
in Paris and London at the dawn of the 20th century that inspired all of
these movements.

Artists like Picasso and Matisse saw the treasures from the Ivory Coast
or Benin City and were inspired. Architects were seduced by the simple,
powerful forms of ruined African temples. It was the imperial trade that
brought these objects to public view and allowed them to inspire
everyone from designers to artists to architects.

It’s incredible to think that, without African art, something like Art
Deco wouldn’t exist. New York would look completely different. The
cultural benefits of colonialism are all around us.


5 The Development Of Infrastructure

Over the last few years, parts of Africa have been undergoing an
infrastructure boom. Great railways have unrolled across the plains of
Nigeria, the mountains of Ethiopia, and along the lakeside shores of
Uganda and Kenya. The projects are expected to send local economies
booming, lifting millions out of poverty.

These vital new railways didn’t appear out of nowhere. They’re the
remains of colonial infrastructure, being updated for the first time in
decades. Ironically, the economic boom these railways will bring is
partly thanks to Africa’s former colonizers.

Wherever the great empires went, they left robust infrastructure in
their wake. India still uses Raj-era rolling stock today, transporting
millions across the subcontinent. Old colonial roads are still in use
alongside ports, hospitals, schools, and universities. While the
infrastructure initially benefited the colonizers, it has been
repurposed to help the colonized.


4 Removal Of Brutal Occupying Powers

The story of the Spanish conquest is portrayed as one of bloodthirsty
Europeans super-murdering millions of Aztecs. While that definitely
happened, there is one part of the story that gets left out: The Aztecs
themselves were occupiers who were in the middle of conquering
neighboring states when Cortez arrived. And you’d better believe they
were brutal.

The Aztecs worked captured enemies to death. They sacrificed them by
ripping out their hearts. They forced prisoners into cannibalism. They
murdered children to appease the Sun. The Spanish, too, were mega-jerks,
but most of their jerkiness came from accidentally importing smallpox
and running off with people’s gold. Compared to the bloodthirsty Aztecs,
they were practically saints.

You see this time and again in colonial societies. Before the British
arrived, the Mughals had marched over India and razed Delhi to the
ground eight times in eight centuries, building skull pyramids from its
inhabitants’ remains. Even at the Raj’s most brutal, no massacres
touched the mass murder and enslavement of those times. And while we’re
on the subject . . .


3 Increased Peace

For the vast majority of human history, life wasn’t fun. Competition for
resources forced tribes into a nearly perpetual state of warfare. In
Central America, for example, various Maya cities were only one failed
harvest away from massacring one another.

Steven Pinker has identified the creation of nation states as integral
to ending this violence. In some places, the rise of those states was
the result of fierce battles and endless politicking. In others, it was
a direct result of colonization. Suddenly, once-competing tribes were
bunged together and told to get along and swear allegiance to France,
Britain, Spain, or wherever. While that created a ton of resentment, it
halted the almost continuous cycle of killing, forging brand new
national identities that still exist today (like Indian or Ghanaian).

Sure, in some cases, like the Belgians in the Congo, the murder rate
went up after colonization. But the overarching story is one of enforced
peace, which isn’t great, but it’s still better than no peace at all.


2 The Creation Of Modern Tourism

One peculiar side effect of the age of empires was the creation of
modern tourism. Before the 19th century, going abroad was restricted to
the rich and the scientifically curious. Middle-class people in Britain
who wanted to go somewhere exciting went to the pub.

Then the British Empire arose, bringing with it tales of adventure in
far-off places with exotic, romantic names like India, Egypt, Jamaica,
and Australia. Realizing the public hunger for these places, a guy named
Thomas Cook started offering package tours to the empire’s outposts. In
one fell swoop, the concept of the modern tourist was born.

According to the Journal of Tourism History, empires provided the
perfect vector for the development of a global tourist industry. By
repackaging places like Australia from a convict island to a “Down Under
paradise,” people like Cook changed how we thought of these places forever.


1 It Saved Millions Of Lives

While their rulers and leaders were off gadding about the globe, it’s
worth remembering that Europe’s masses were living through hard times.
Mass famines were common. France alone suffered 40 devastating
nationwide famines between 1500 and 1800. Millions were dying every decade.

Into this chaos stepped an unlikely savior: Peru. Spanish conquistadors
had brought back a wonderous foodstuff from the colonized nation. It was
durable, easy to farm, full of nutrients, and nearly always gave a
bumper harvest. It was the potato.

Incredible as it may seem, introducing the potato to Europe saved
millions of lives. Suddenly, crops no longer failed en masse. Starvation
rates plummeted. Populations in rural economies like Ireland exploded,
and rates of stuff like scurvy dropped off. Without Spain’s imperialism
in the New World, this continent-transforming food would have never been
adopted, and your family tree would probably be a heck of a lot emptier."

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