European influence in Africa Essay

The presence of Europeans in African countries had a great influence on the heathen gain grounds, traditions and norms of Africans. African societies were composed of sm solely ethnic groups bound by deep heathen and traditional benefits. Slave trade in northward Africa dis merged these cultural systems. The launching of Europeans in North Africa led to breaking of those small indigenous units into modular states that could be easily controlled by the compound rule. They abolished the indigenous legal systems and impose impudent legal systems based on European concepts of law.North Africa was integrated into the world capitalist system, where its main function was to provide raw materials and naked as a jaybird markets for western industrial revolution. This led to imposition of taxation forcing Africans into cheap salary labor. Land grabbing and alienation in settler colonies made it impossible for the economic system of the colonized countries to grow. This is because th e colonial administrations only developed areas they saw fit for their benefit and it led to growth of colonial cities such as Dakar, Lagos and Nairobi.western sandwichization in North Africa led to the rise of Christianity and reduced the number of Muslims in sub Sahara, which contributed to the destabilization of Africa traditions and cultural benefits. Christianity promoted the assimilation of new ideas and new sustenancestyles such as monogamy and nuclear family. African societies believed in polygamy and extended families. This is being practiced til now to day. Christian missionaries introduced westbound education, which involved mastery of European language and literacy.The borrowing of new habits and tastes coupled with Christianity and western education, led to the development of a new elite that included teachers, clerks, lawyers and doctors. Slave trade degraded the value of African people because they were employ against their will to benefit the European economy. This impacted negatively on African leaders because some still practice buckle down trade today. Europeans brought about, modernization in Africa in terms of Western education, Christianity and Western lifestyles. European influence in Asia (1650-1815).South due east Asia comprised of societies that varied in different aspects. Main societies in south East Asia included China, Thailand and Cambodia, thusly European influence on South East Asia varied extensively depending on indigenous states. Societies in South East Asia had very trenchant traditional beliefs and rulers who reigned with a conviction of permanency and stability. Europeans puddled new economic relationships in South East Asia by establishing new industries like rubber drudgery and improvement of traditional ones such as rice and sugar industries.They were amend and expanded to meet the European needs. Communities in Cambodia protested against economical changes when agribusiness in form of plantation farming wa s introduced. Europeans aimed to make the traditional cultures modern. This was received positively by some south East Asians who had been trained in Western schools. They believed that Western culture would have positive effects on their cultural and economical backgrounds. The elites adopted the European language and mode of dressing.Adoption of the Western culture led to political, economical and social growth in Asia. However, it was herculean to assimilate the European culture and lifestyles in Asia because of the diversity of Asian cultural customs and traditions. Asia is composed of Muslim, Christianity and Buddhism and therefore impacting Christianity in Asia was difficult. These traditional settings emphasized on unifying of social, economic, political and social spheres, though it is impractical to unify all the spheres.The influence of Europeans in Asia was highly varied and uneven through and throughout the sphere. They used superior military technology to achieve conq uest and monopoly. The Portuguese incursion of Malacca led to the decline of the trade systems as they tried to require the spice trade. The European therefore, caused the detachment of producers form their traditional markets. As a result the powerful trading cultures in southeastern Asia collapsed due to colonial influence. European influence was limited to the coastal ports and the adjoining regions.Peasant life in Asia was not affected by the European influence as they remained inside the confines of their village. (Alagappa 130-138). European influence in nerve center East (1825-1941). Middle east societies combined religion with governance of their states. European powers overwhelmed the region and tried to separate governance from religion. They replaced the indigenous educational, social and political systems through modernization. The Kuranic schools were replaced by the Western education.Middle east is an Islamic region that viewed European powers as enemies for creatin g Christianity in the Muslim dominated region. This created a sense of suspiciousness of the Europeans by the Arabs. Europeans faced great resistance form the Arabs who used field movements to adopt anti-western speeches in order to gain favor from their people.. European powers in the Middle East replaced the Muslim leaders by non-Muslim leaders to create artificial political territories since they did not arise from the societies.They created states that had conflicting ethnicities and divided different ethnic groups into two or three portions. For instance they divided the Kurds into Iran, Iraq, bomb calorimeter and Syria. (Kaelble 120-127). Dividing ethnic communities stirred political rivalry and violence in the Middle East. It also created instability among the Arabs, preventing political, social and economical development. The Arabs formulated revenge missions to the Europeans and resisted both form of invasion whether political, economical, educational or social.