After the opening vignette, Chapter 20 starts with the second wave of European colonization which spanned from 1750-1900. The second wave was quite different than the first wave because Asia and Africa were the focuses, demographics didn't change much, and the Europeans used different forms of control like through military action. It's disturbing to think about Europeans forcing their "better" culture on these Asian and African entities, but I can't oppose it since I'm living in a time that was directly and indirectly influenced by these colonists. I do think about what was forced upon these peoples, because as I said in my last blog, just because a form of government or lifestyle works for one entity, it doesn't necessarily work another due to culture, history, politics, and location. The best thing people can do when something or someone is forcing themselves on them is rebel like the US or the India who were both against Great Britain.
The second wave of European colonization demonstrated the extreme effects of the Industrial Revolution. Even the way these Europeans conquered these people portrays this because they used new technologies like repeating rifles and machine guns and therefore, they usually won.
Reading about how the colonists' education for different countries were made suitable for "primitive minds". It's sad because these peoples had the same capacity of intelligence as the colonists, but the colonists couldn't recognize that they had different ways of thinking. It's strange because these colonists were adapting to change themselves and yet they were largely incapable of treating other people with the same consideration.
I remember reading about Leopold II when I was younger. I don't think I understood the abuses his constituents forced upon on the Africans and then the complete exploitation of their natural resources like rubber. Maybe my age and being in grade school influenced the type of textbooks we had, and therefore, sparing us kids the gritty details. I believe I forgot that Belgium took over in 1908 to stop the horrible treatment. I believe Belgians were the inventors of the french fry, or pomme frites. The name, "french fry" has nothing to do with France or its origins, but the language the fry is originally in. INTERESTING.
I like how in different cultures, women were highly regarded or at least seen as equals to men. The Europeans had to come in and ruin the female perception! Anything the natives did were barbaric even though it wasn't. It was just different.
It sounds that once the Europeans began to colonize, "race" was constructed along with scientific racism. I tried searching on Google for when the word, "race" started being used, but instead I came upon a Yahoo answer. This person said, "I'm guessing you're in college? PC liberal universities like to think that if they pretend race doesn't exist, that racism will go away. This, in fact, makes racism worse because it forces dishonesty." It's so sad because it is a construct. I want to challenge this person to research in libraries all over the world before the 17th or 18th centuries and try to find race as something concrete and tangeable. In fact, human genetics are nearly 99% the same, so that 1% must be physicality.
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