neocolonialism

It is called “neocolonialism ” the process of political and economic domination instituted by the emerging capitalist powers (United Kingdom, Arabia and Belgium, United States, Prussia, France and Italy) over Africa, Asia and Oceania and throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.

History

At the same time that industrial capitalism was dismantled by financial capitalism, we will have in Europe and the USA a very large growth of industry, which has generated an unprecedented surplus of production.

In this way, the increase in industrial parks and capitalization made those powers seek to expand their markets and look for raw materials available at low cost and, for this reason, they aimed to turn the dominated areas into large markets for the consumption of their products. industrialized and, at the same time, raw material supply centers.

Nevertheless, colonization fueled the economy of the metropolises with coal, iron and oil; food products, lacking in Europe, where the civilizationist argument emerged that the progress of science and technology should be taken to the world, a motto that was reinforced by the theory of social Darwinism, by Herbert Spencer, according to which Europe represented the height of the development of human societies. On the other hand, Africa and Asia were considered uncivilized societies.

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Neocolonialism in the World

Among the countries that launched the neocolonialist conquest, the most successful was England, which was able to found a true Colonial Empire. Unsurprisingly, with English industrialization, in the 18th century, large companies were constituted and monopolized production.

As a result, the entire African continent was conquered, except for Ethiopia and Liberia. In Asia, despite all resistance, it was no different:the opening of Chinese markets began with the Opium War (1839-42) and ended with the Treaty of Beijing (1860), responsible for opening eleven other Chinese markets, as well as increasing the advantages of forex traders.

Japan has for centuries prevented foreign presence in its territories. However, in the second half of the 19th century, US troops forced the Japanese economic opening, as had occurred in the Chinese case. Finally, it was only in the 20th century that the colonies achieved their independence, some still in the 1970s and, in all these former colonies, we find serious social and economic problems.

Curiosities

In 1884, during the "Berlin Conference", several European powers met to divide the colonial territories on the African continent.
World War I was the fruit of neocolonialism.
It is in this context that the largest economic conglomerates arise, such as trusts, cartels and holding companies.