The Negative Effects Of Imperialism

Even though it has been over sixty years since Myanmar was imperialized, remnants of the outcome of imperialism can still be well observed. The language, the clothing, the infrastructures all have been affected by imperialism. These effects may deceive people into thinking that imperialism was all sunshine and rainbows but in reality, imperialism brutally destroyed the different aspects of a country. Imperialism impacted societies in countless negative ways. It led to slave trade which then led to social discrimination around the world. It also damaged the cultures and created disunity among the natives. Last but not least, imperialism stripped countries off their natural resources and left nothing for the natives.
Imperialism is a forced

The arrival of the Europeans with their customs and religion caused the natives to be wildly mystified and made them reconsider their own customs. Soon many native people began to convert to Christianity and this resulted in disunity among the people as they turned against each other. Chinua Achebe powerfully expressed this through his book Things Fall Apart: “Our own men and sons have joined the rank of a stranger. They have joined his religion and they help to uphold his government.” (Achebe, 155) Another way imperialism destroyed cultures began at the Berlin Conference where Europeans met up to divide Africa. In the Scramble for Africa, the Europeans divided the country among themselves without concerning about the relationships between different regions. Enemies and rivals were put together as one territory, while countries with friendly relationships were divided up. An example would be Rwanda and Burundi, which used to be two separate regions until the Europeans put them as one during the Scramble for Africa. This border created growing tension between the two groups and resulted in the Rwanda-Burundi ethnic conflict which involved of a massive number of

Everyone, or in this case, every country, travels at a different pace. Some countries may develop slower than others, but that doesn’t automatically mean they require assistance. Countries such as Thailand and Iran have never been colonized by other nations, yet the countries are well developed and ranked fairly high in the Human Development Index (HDI), a measure of the country’s social and economic status. Mark Twain, a great American writer who was also an anti-imperialist, once said, “It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way.” So if the imperialists truly wanted to help the people, they should let them be and stop interfering in their business. In conclusion, imperialism had countless negative effects on the world today. It resulted in slave trade, caused cultures to be destroyed and took away countries’ natural resources. Had it not been for imperialism, the world today would consist of more diverse cultures with less discrimination and countries would be able to use their resources as they