Slavery And Imperialism

McCloskey argues that Slavery and imperialism had little effect on the worlds wealth disparities, especially that of west, however this essay will argue against this theory by stating that slavery generated money which boosted not only the economy but the rich, without the labor of slaves the industrial revolution would not have begun and a lot of what was developed on today would not exist as a result. The contributions slavery made provided a better standard of life of Europeans the group that stands out the most are the rich, the rich became richer whilst the poor were been exploited which contributed to wealth inequalities and the cycle of poverty which the effects are still seen today. Imperialism did in fact influence today’s economies

This derived from the mining of minerals in the colonies which were produced into goods in factories. Money generated from the plantations in colonies contributed to the development or improvement to factories. Many of these goods produced were sold as trade to other colonies at the time that could not produce such good this trade again benefiting the British economy greatly. Trade became the result of an economic system called Mercantilism -“Mercantilism is an economic system that dominated the major European trading nations during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries”. - A mercantilist economy was bought on by exporting manufactured goods and limiting the amount of imports, this bought on a sturdy economy for the British. An early introduction to the Industrial Revolution and featuring as on of the strongest economies at the time have help put the British ahead today as one of the leading first world countries. It is important to note that if it was not for use of colonization and slave trade the British would not have had the resources to begin the Industrial

Slave owners and colonial powers exploited slaves, it therefore had little to no cost to steal from the land and to steal cheap labor, which lead to the trend of the rich always becoming richer and the poor becoming increasingly poorer this has created a poverty cycle that still exists today as D. McCloskey for wrote Slavery and Imperialism Did Not Enrich Europe quoted Goldstone who said “it was the rise of the West and the decline of the rest that made possible the full extension of European power across the globe” . In countries such as India and South Africa the ‘native class’ (locals) are still mainly oppressed and cannot break out of the circle of poverty because the rich white colonialists are still living off the riches of their ancestors. On the other hand, descendants of slaves are still living in the shadows of their ancestors, the effect of colonial rules still runs prominently through our society. Decolonization took place after the Second World War as colonies took their independence from colonial powers. India was one of the British colonies that did not receive independence after the war and suffer from large debts and no capital. South Africa received its independence but still suffered from the effects of colonial powers, white people are the minority but still control the majority of the wealth in the country due to colonial power. As Tsidi Bishop said in 2014 “Jobs where