FYI: 10 Surprising Upsides To Colonialism

[Razer]

On 12/06/2016 03:28 AM, John Newman wrote:
> I think you're right. "creation of modern tourism" wtf?  SAVED
> millions of lives? which lives?
>
> Yeah, despicable shit. Surprised Zen didn't post it. It fits his white
> European dominance narrative perfectly.
>
> -- 
> John

Definitely 'history written by the victors, for the victors'

Rr

>
> On Dec 5, 2016, at 11:15 PM, Razer <rayzer at riseup.net
> <mailto:rayzer at riseup.net>> wrote:
>
>> 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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