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'Neocolonialism' is a term used by some intellectuals to describe international economic arrangements by which former colonial powers maintained control of their former colonies and new dependencies following World War II. The term itself can obfuscate current colonialism, as some governments continue to administer foreign territories and populations in violation of United Nations resolutions^[1] while resource companies continue to justify exploitation as being beneficial for the subjugated populations. For territories under economic control there are similarities to the colonialism of the 16th to the 20th centuries.

Contents

Economic control

See also

External links

References

Economic control

The contention is that governments have aimed to control other nations through indirect means. In lieu of direct military-political control, neocolonialist powers employ economic, financial, and trade policies to dominate less powerful countries. Those who subscribe to the concept maintain this amounts to a ''de facto'' control over targeted nations (''see Immanuel Wallerstein's World Systems Theory'').
Both previous colonizing states and other powerful economic states maintain a continuing presence in the economies of former colonies, especially where it concerns raw materials. After a hastened decolonization process of the Belgian Congo, Belgium continued to control, through The Société Générale de Belgique, of roughly 70% of the Congolese economy following the decolonization process. The most contested part was in the province of Katanga where the Union Minière du Haut Katanga, part of the Société, had control over the mineral and resource rich province. After a failed attempt to nationalize the mining industry in the 1960s, it was reopened to foreign investment.
Critics of neocolonialism portray the choice to grant or to refuse granting loans (particularly those financing otherwise unpayable Third World debt), especially by international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank (WB), as a decisive form of control. They argue that in order to qualify for these loans, and other forms of economic aid, weaker nations are forced to take certain steps favorable to the financial interests of the IMF and World Bank but detrimental to their own economies. These ''structural adjustments'' have the effect of increasing rather than alleviating poverty within the nation.
Some critics emphasize that neocolonialism allows certain cartels of states, such as the World Bank, to control and exploit usually lesser developed countries (LDCs) by fostering debt. In effect, third world governments give concessions and monopolies to foreign corporations in return for consolidation of power and monetary bribes. In most cases, much of the money loaned to these LDCs is returned to the favored foreign corporations. Thus, these foreign loans are in effect subsidies to corporations of the loaning state's. This collusion is sometimes referred to as the ''corporatocracy''. Organizations accused of participating in neo-imperialism include the World Bank, World Trade Organization and Group of Eight, and the World Economic Forum. Various "first world" states, notably the United States, are said to be involved, as described in Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins.
Critics of neocolonialism also attempt to demonstrate that investment by multinational corporations enriches few in underdeveloped countries, and causes humanitarian, and environmental and ecological devastation to the populations which inhabit the ''neocolonies''. This, it is argued, results in unsustainable development and perpetual underdevelopment; a dependency which cultivates those countries as reservoirs of cheap labor and raw materials, while restricting their access to advanced production techniques to develop their own economies.
By contrast, proponents of neocolonialism argue that, while the First World does profit from cheap labor and raw materials in underdeveloped nations, ultimately, it does serve as a positive modernizing force for development in the Third World.

See also

★ Imperialism

★ Colonialism

★ Post-Colonialism

★ Neoliberalism

★ Globalisation

★ François-Xavier Verschave's book on ''Françafrique''

★ Dependency theory

★ Modernization theory

★ Washington Consensus

★ Eco-imperialism

External links

★ China, Africa, and Oil

★ Mbeki warns on China-Africa ties

★ ''Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism'', by Kwame Nkrumah (former Prime Minister and President of Ghana), originally published 1965

★ Comments by Prof. Jeffrey Sachs - BBC

★ Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs video (ram) - hosted by Columbia Univ.

★ ''The myth of Neo-colonialism'' by Tunde Obadina, director of Africa Business Information Services (AfBIS)

★ http://www.africahistory.net/imf.htm — ''IMF: Market Reform and Corporate Globalization'', by Dr. Gloria Emeagwali, Prof. of History and African Studies, Conne. State Univ. Opening passage reads: ''The bosses of Africa are the WB and the IMF. Their programme is to integrate Africa into a system of economic neo-colonialism...''

References

1. United Nations General Assembly Resolutions 1514 and 1541



★ Mongo Beti,'' Main basse sur le Cameroun. Autopsie d'une décolonisation'' (1972), new edition La Découverte, Paris 2003 [A classical critique of neocolonialism. Raymond Marcellin, the French Minister of the Interior at the time, tried to prohibit the book. It could only be published after fierce legal battles.]

★ Suret-Canale, Jean. ''Essays on African history: From the slave trade to neocolonialism'' (Hurst, London 1988).

★ Lundestad, Geir (ed.) ''The fall of great powers: Peace, stability, and legitimacy'' (Scandinavian University Press, Oslo, 1994).

★ Hoogvelt, Ankie M. M. ''Globalization and the postcolonial world: The new political economy of development'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001).

★ Birmingham, David. ''The decolonization of Africa'' (Ohio University Press, 1995).

★ Agyeman, Opoku. ''Nkrumah's Ghana and East Africa: Pan-Africanism and African interstate relations'' (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1992).

★ Barongo, Yolamu R. ''Neocolonialism and African politics: A survey of the impact of neocolonialism on African political behavior'' (Vantage Press, NY, 1980).

★ Thiong'o, Ngugi wa. ''Barrel of a pen: Resistance to repression in neo-colonial Kenya'' (Africa Research & Publications Project, 1983).

★ Cantalupo, Charles (ed.). ''The world of Ngugi wa Thiong'o'' (Africa World Press, 1995).

★ Ermolov, Nikolai Aleksandrovich. ''Trojan horse of neocolonialism: U.S. policy of training specialists for developing countries'' (Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1966).

★ Seborer, Stuart J. ''U.S. neocolonialism in Africa'' (International Publishers, NY, 1974).

★ Gladwin, Thomas. ''Slaves of the white myth: The psychology of neocolonialism'' (Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands, NJ, 1980).

★ Singer, Philip (ed.) ''Traditional healing, new science or new colonialism": (essays in critique of medical anthropology)'' (Conch Magazine, Owerri, 1977).

★ Kramer, E.M. (ed.) ''The emerging monoculture: assimilation and the "model minority" '' (Praeger, Westport, Conn., 2003). See: Archana J. Bhatt's "Asian Indians and the Model Minority Narrative: A Neocolonial System," pp. 203-221.

★ Emberley, Julia V. ''Thresholds of difference: feminist critique, native women's writings, postcolonial theory'' (University of Toronto Press, 1993).

★ Bhavnani, Kum-Kum (ed., et al.) ''Feminist futures: Re-imagining women, culture and development'' (Zed Books, NY, 2003). See: Ming-yan Lai's "Of Rural Mothers, Urban Whores and Working Daughters: Women and the Critique of Neocolonial Development in Taiwan's Nativist Literature," pp. 209-225.

★ Constantino, Renato. ''Neocolonial identity and counter-consciousness: Essays on cultural decolonization'' (Merlin Press, London, 1978).

★ Ashcroft, Bill (ed., et al.) ''The post-colonial studies reader'' (Routledge, London, 1995).

★ Conway, George A. W. ''A responsible complicity: Neo/colonial power-knowledge and the work of Foucault, Said, Spivak'' (University of Western Ontario Press, 1996).

★ Werbner, Richard (ed.) ''Postcolonial identities in Africa'' (Zed Books, NJ, 1996).

★ Simon, D. ''Cities, capital and development: African cities in the world economy'' (Halstead, NY, 1992).

★ Chrisman, Laura and Benita Parry (ed.) ''Postcolonial theory and criticism'' (English Association, Cambridge, 2000).

★ Hooker, M. B. ''Legal pluralism; an introduction to colonial and neo-colonial laws'' (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1975).