Colonialism In Chinua Achebe's The Empire Fights Back

Colonialism is the exploitation of both a country’s resources and citizens by a stronger power that has taken control of it. Since the start of the 16th century, colonialism has been incredibly prominent with global powers, but, in turn, this has led to a dramatic subjugation of developing nations. This colonization has caused a lack of knowledge of one’s actual culture, terrible living conditions, and a sense of hopelessness and hatred toward their rulers, all of which represent the power that colonizers hold over the colonized countries’ heads. To begin, colonized nations often lose a sense of identity and culture as time progresses. As represented in Chinua Achebe’s “The Empire Fights Back”, many overlooked nations feel as though their

Source three’s description of St. Croix represents this disparity between the colonizer, Denmark, and St Croix itself, with Denmark entering and assuming control over it. Despite this colonization seeming innocent, the reasons behind it are often in the country’s own self-interest, with them often wishing to take advantage of materials such as sugar or even the nation’s population through the outsourcing of consumer goods. Often times, much of the profits made from this exploitation rarely go back into the colonized nation and instead funds the ruling nation, which essentially destroys any chance of economic recovery after the nation is freed from said power. In turn, this failure can lead to an unequal division of wealth and necessities not only between the ruler and the conquered but between those in the nation itself, which is one of the main reasons why there is such a prominent distrust by the colonized nations in their rulers or former rulers. An example of this is in Rwanda, a formerly Dutch ruled nation in East Africa, where the Dutch favored one group of people over the other, leading to a great inequality of abundance. The Tutsi people, who were supported by Belgium, and the Hutu, who lacked many significant needs, often went head to head because of the eliteness that the Dutch had instituted over the Tutsis. Because of this, the Hutu eventually led a massive uprising and genocide against the Tutsi people. This instance not only represents a consequences of long-standing relationships and favoritism toward a particular group, but also shows the effects of heavy control on the nation itself, a country’s selfish needs often going before those of the