In: Finance
Responses should be 200 words in length
There is no doubt that so many relations in this world are still dictated by the economic and cultural impacts of colonialism. What are some of the impacts of our day to day lives in the US?
The impact on the lives of all the Native American peoples began subtly after years of contact and trading. Changes began to occur in the religious traditions of the Native American peoples. This can be seen in the way their mythological stories altered to address the existence of European peoples.
Colonialism did not, however, merely impact the development of those societies that did the colonising. Most obviously, it also affected the societies that were colonised. In our research (Acemoglu et al. 2001, 2002) we showed that this, again, had heterogeneous effects. This is because colonialism ended up creating very distinct sorts of societies in different places. In particular, colonialism left very different institutional legacies in different parts of the world, with profoundly divergent consequences for economic development. The reason for this is not that the various European powers transplanted different sorts of institutions – so that North America succeeded due to an inheritance of British institutions, while Latin America failed because of its Spanish institutions. In fact, the evidence suggests that the intentions and strategies of distinct colonial powers were very similar (Acemoglu and Robinson 2012). The outcomes were very different because of variation in initial conditions in the colonies. For example, in Latin America, where there were dense populations of indigenous people, a colonial society could be created based on the exploitation of these people. In North America where no such populations existed, such a society was infeasible, even though the first British settlers tried to set it up. In response, early North American society went in a completely different direction: early colonising ventures, such as the Virginia Company, needed to attract Europeans and stop them running off into the open frontier and they needed to incentivise them to work and invest. The institutions that did this, such as political rights and access to land, were radically different even from the institutions in the colonising country. When British colonisers found Latin-American-like circumstances, for example in South Africa, Kenya or Zimbabwe, they were perfectly capable of and interested in setting up what we have called ‘extractive institutions’, based on the control of and the extraction of rents from indigenous peoples. In Acemoglu and Robinson (2012) we argue that extractive institutions, which strip the vast mass of the population of incentives or opportunities, are associated with poverty. It is also not a coincidence that such African societies are today as unequal as Latin American countries.
It wasn’t just the density of indigenous peoples that mattered for the type of society that formed. As we showed in Acemoglu et al. (2001), the disease environment facing potential European settlers was also important. Something that encouraged the colonisation of North America was the relatively benign disease environment that facilitated the strategy of creating institutions to guarantee European migration. Something that encouraged the creation of extractive institutions in West Africa was the fact that it was the ‘white man’s graveyard’, discouraging the creation of the type of ‘inclusive economic institutions’ which encouraged the settlement and development of North America. These inclusive institutions, in contrast to extractive institutions, did create incentives and opportunities for the vast mass of people.
According to Rybak and Decker-Fitts, many Native rituals also have the latent function of promoting a ‘greater sense of connection to deeper spiritual and emotional issues, contributing to the healing of significant wounds inflicted by traumatic and painful life experiences’ (2009, 339). For the Native American peoples, many of these traumatic experiences had been brought on from negative colonial contact. Not being able to carry out sacred practices so integral to the daily life of the Native American peoples had a great and lasting impact, not just on their spirituality, but their mental and physical wellbeing too. The effects of this impact are still being felt today. One such impact is ‘Psychocultural marginality’, a loss of one’s cultural identity, along with social and personal disorganisation brought about when peoples are ‘denied access to their traditional cultural values and norms’ (French 2005, 156). In the case of the Native American peoples, this was due to forced removal, displacement and cultural genocide (via attempts at assimilation and resocialisation). All of which has led to low self-esteem, extreme poverty, oppression, depression, loss of identity, substance abuse, violence, lower life expectancy, low educational attainment, limited employment, poor housing and ill health amongst numerous other conditions (French 2008; Ryback and Decker-Fitts 2009). According to Manson and Brenneman (cited in Grandbois and Sanders 2009) empirical studies show that many of these ailments and disadvantages occur due to the extreme personal loss and threat to personal identity the Native American peoples have been subjected to as a result of colonial contact. Moreover, many Native Americans are not re-socialised adequately after the failed attempts at assimilation into the dominant culture. Subsequently, they are left feeling as if they do not ‘subscribe fully to either their traditional culture’ (Grandbois and Sanders 2009, 570) or that of the Euro-American society. This has led to historical trauma and cultural alienation resulting from ‘colonialism, acculturative stress, cultural bereavement, racism, and genocide that has been generalized, internalized, and institutionalized’ (ibid., 570). This negative impact to the Native American is ‘cumulative, unresolved, historic, and ongoing’ (Danieli, cited in Grandbois and Sanders 2009, 570). Continual exposure to colonial abuse increases the chance of falling victim to the disadvantages and disorders of this way of life, which increases the difficulty of rebuilding their own Native American culture and personal wellbeing.