The Impact of Colonialism and Imperialism On Contemporary Society - Essay Sample

Introduction

The impact of colonialism and imperialism are still fresh in the minds of the contemporary society. Notably, some of the impacts of both colonialism and imperialism are still in practice in todays' governments. Across the globe, multiple compelling evidence consist of intractable conflicts experienced in most western colonies and the soviet powers. Such countries include Africa, Southeast Asia, the Balkan, and South America. Many postcolonialism and imperialism still affect contemporary society. Notably, by early 1900, after a prolonged duration of the struggle for independence, many western colonies, including Algeria, Indonesia, and India, have attained self-governance. However, the sovereignty did not come with freedom from the imperialist influence.

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The quest for colonial legacy was evidence regarding the formation of new governments with the sole purpose of keeping boundaries created during the colonial era. However, instead of transition from rivalry to unity, many countries have still practiced ethical rivalry. The current governments have created situations that have promoted ethnic rivalry just as was during the colonial period. Most governments have continued to practice favouritism among ethnic groups and tribes. For instance, Sri Lanka is a typical example where ethic rivalry arising from the unequal distribution of wealth has continued ever since colonial times, particularly between the Tamils and Sinhalese due to their education status. The influence of imperialism and colonialism is majorly evident in the enforcement of government, social, and economic policies. For instance, due to higher educational skills than the Sinhalese, the Tamils dominated most of the governmental and academic jobs in such lucrative fields like medicine, engineering, and science.

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union, officially known as the union of the socialist republicans, was an independent federal state in northern Russia that lasted between 1922 to late 1991. The union consisted of soviet republican who had a centralized economy and governance. The country was characterized by a one-party state ruled by the communist, having its capital in Moscow as the largest republican. Notably, during its reign, Soviet Union was the world's largest country associated with the great diversity of more than 100 distinct nationalities, with the majority being the east slaves (Russians, Belorussia's, and Ukrainians). Collectively, these groups consisted of more than half of the population.

Declaration of independence took its toll after the collapse of the USSR. Outreaching consequences befell most entities, including economic and military weakening. Gorbachev's loosening of military and government forces resulted in a domino effect that necessitated eastern countries, including Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, to declare their separate independence. Notably, after the fall of the berlin wall in 1989, both east and west Germany reunited and formed one block within 12 months, which led to the end of the cold war. Consequently, the soviet entities were at the receiving end when anti-Soviet governments, including Romania and Bulgaria, staged protests which ended the communist regime across the soviet bloc. Everything changes and turned out differently for the entities due to increased pressure from the protest. For instance, other countries, including Belarus and Russia, followed suit by creating independent states and thus leading to the eventual collapse of the union by 1990, all former communist colonies had been replaced by a democratically elected form of government. The move is still being felt and practiced in the contemporary governments today as many nations have sound and effective democratic policies and leadership structures.

Arab Spring

Arab spring involves multiple pro-democracy uprisings and movements that were majorly witnessed in Muslims economies, including Syria, Morocco, Egypt, Bahrain, and Tunisia. The major uprising began by early 2011, which led to the name 'Arab Uprising.' However, both social and political impacts have ever since remained in contemporary society. The uprising majorly involved group protests that eventually caused regime alterations in Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. However, various political and social impact was not witnessed in all countries as Morocco, Syria, and Bahrain were not successful. The primary objective of the regimes were to promote cultural freedom and increased democracy. All the countries were involved in the uprising due to increased instability and oppression for power. Notably, given the significant consequences witnessed in northern parts of Africa and middles east, the Muslim countries were motivated to act defiantly.

The Arab spring started in late 2010 when the current Tunisia vendor Mohammed Bouazizi set fire on himself in protest of deliberate seizing of vegetables by the police officer over concerns of non-acquisition of permit. Therefore, the sacrificial incident acted as a motivation to revolutions in the country, making the country's president Zine Ben to flee for his life over safety concerns to Saudi Arabia. The revolution was termed as the Jasmine revolution. The revolution attracted and motivated activists from other nations in the region, which eventually created the massive Arab spring. Some of the major concerns for the revolution included demand for increased political participation like freedom of election and increased social freedom. Other revolutions emerged after the Tunisians Jasmine, including the Tahrir revolution in Egypt and similar uprising in Bahrain. However, in some countries, the revolutions translated into civil wars including Yemen, Syria, and Libya.

Population Policies

The government can be involved in population issues by enacting and implementing various policies to plan and budget for the population. Moreover, population policies are customarily defined with objective measures that influence the demographic process. Different types of population policies exist, including pro-natalist, anti-natalist, and a combination of both. Every county undergoes uncertain demographic structural imbalance in populations and thus pressure on the available resources. Natalism policies are aimed at promoting human reproduction in such counties as Germany. Such countries have put in place birth incentives to enable increased population. Anti-natalism is policies that limit the population of the country, which is enforced in a few countries, including China.

A combination of both policies are aimed at promoting and regulating human reproduction. The main advantage of implementing anti-natalism policies is that the government will control the its population and maintain it within the confines of the available resources. Hence there will be no pressure on food. However, the disadvantage that it would be against natalism that advocates for the promotion of reproduction. Thus, the policy would be against humanity and social reasons that encourages childbearing and parenthood. Anti-natalist argues that people should stop procreating since it is ethically bad. However, this may negatively impact a county's governance structure as there would be no continuity and thus no succession concerns.

Brexit

Brexit refers to British exit or the United Kingdom quitting the European Union (EU). The results of the public referendum of 2016 revealed that 17.5 million favoured Brexit. The number translated to 52% against the opposers at 48%. EU is a political and economic union comprising 28 European countries, which permits free trade between member countries without imposition of additional charges. Moreover, it allows free movement, work, and employment among the member countries. The main argument for the withdrawal was that the benefits of the unified monetary body exceeded the cost of free movement of immigration. The result of the move implies that there will be a custom regulatory body between Britain and Northern Ireland in the Irish sea, including value-added tax (VAT). Moreover, the United Kingdom and the European Union would henceforth enter trade negotiations that will necessitate tariff imposition on each parties' imports. However, this was not to apply to the good already purchased on goods in transit or process.

The main advantage of Brexit is that the UK economy will be boosted since the country had suffered from the union. Moreover, it would impact such areas, including employment, trade, and growth. The Brexit significant disadvantage of damage to the UK economy and thus with the exit, the country would negotiate terms of trade that are favourable in boosting its economic growth. However, this might disadvantage other countries to the union who had been enjoying free trade without tariff imposition. Uncertainty over Brexit revealed that the UK economy deteriorated from 2.4% in 2015 to 1.5 in 2018. The Brexit would also do away with Britain's free tariff trade status with other EU countries and also implicate it negatively to Britain's young employees, including Germany, which been tipped to have a shortage of 3million skilled labour by 2030.

Works Cited

Dabashi, H., 2012. The Arab Spring: the end of postcolonialism. Zed Books Ltd.

Fieldhouse, David Kenneth. The West and the Third World: trade, colonialism, dependence, and development. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.

Hobolt, Sara B. "The Brexit vote: a divided nation, a divided continent." Journal of European Public Policy 23, no. 9 (2016): 1259-1277.

Martin, Terry Dean. The affirmative action empire: Nations and nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939. Cornell University Press, 2001.

Schultz, T.P., 2007. Population policies, fertility, women's human capital, and child quality. Handbook of development economics, 4, pp.3249-3303.