Colonial Encounter

As we know, Asia is a typical victim of colonialism, when it comes to colonists, people from this region seems to have a lot to say and cannot control their sentiments. No matter the colonized is China or India, they suffered a lot, and how to treat this history correctly and positively become a serious theme today. Colonialism is a topic full of complicated feelings: anger and misery from encounters such as people from Asia or South America, while fortune and power from colonists such as Spanish and British colonists. The colonists brought misfortune and conflicts and even death to the colonized, not to mention hunger and disease, forcing them to work to the extreme with no pay, thus as common sense, the colonists are considered as a negative example when it comes to the growth and development of the colonized. However, as the evidence and materials multitude, some believe the significance of colonial encounter in Asia extends what we have learned. In other words, colonialism influenced the encounters positively. The unity of the nation, the economy of the region and the diversification of its politics and culture are the positive results of colonialism from western countries.

Absolutely, the significance of colonialism was a double sward. It, on the one hand ,resulted in hurt and tear, on the other hand, colonialism brought new things to the colonized. And when it comes to colonialism, empire is supposed to be mentioned, because the essence of empire and colonialism is closely related. Empire, to some extent, conveys a negative meaning. Extension and war are two main course for an empire. For instance, Roman Empire and Mauyra extend their territory and land to gain more respect and power via violence and conflict, sometimes even wars. However, when they conquer other countries , they influence the life of local people and brought about changes and development.

The essence of an empire, as we know, is to squeeze the weaker ones and achieve the most profit. Moreover, except gaining profit to the extreme, they try to establish their own politics and national identity on the colonized land: they want to exclude the colonized self identity and assimilated them. What’s more, the so-called cultural invasion also existed when the colonists were strong enough. Thus, it is too hard to judge whether the colonialism is good or not. For instance, they used extreme means to open the door of the colonized, however, at the same time, updated ideas and products flowed into the land, people there were saturated with new things and broadened their horizon, even though their life became unfortunate, they encountered things that they would not know in their life.

Another important essence of colonialism and empire should be mentioned is that, the amount and range of the colonized became the comparison between two big countries. For instance, before the second war, the British was already feeling tremendous pressure to catch up with the Spanish and the Portuguese who were well on their way to establishing colonies which began with Christopher Columbus voyage to the New World in 1492. Thus, in order to be more competitive, the only way to demonstrate their strength was to find and conquer more land and people. Thus, by the present voyage techniques and financial support, they exploited those relatively weaker countries to exert political and cultural impact. They brought their beliefs and religion, race and nation to the colonized to influence them and explore the land there.

Empire and their disgraceful colonialism resulted in hunger, disease and death in one region, and what’s more, they seemed to be proud of the exploitation and invasion, and did not feel guilty of the damage they brought about. Thus when colonialism is mentioned, people feel disgust and uncomfortable.

However, even though the colonists’ damage results in bad effects, they also brought about something good.

At first, the colonized itself had its own conflicts and quarrels. For instance, which one should be the king or emperor, what kind of policy should be implemented inside the country and what kind of foreign policy should be issued, etc. However, when they encountered colonists, the whole nation united and they rebelled. They picked up their belief and rebounded their relationship. Even though they cannot expel the colonists out of their land, they united more than ever before, which is significant to a nation. Moreover, in the duration of the rebel, the upper class coordinated with the folk, regardless of identity and status, all they wanted to do was to regain their home. They became more stick to their race and religion, thus in the process of rebel, they created so many artwork. Paintings, music and buildings full of miserable and tough feelings turned out to be the most appreciated art nowadays. Without the invasion, culture from different countries, due to the limitation of the land and territory cannot be transcended, thus the whole world would still be separated as for the art and language, etc.

As for the economic exploitation from the colonists, they always used the least pay to squeeze the most labor or exploited the land and natural resources like oil and ore. However, the colonized in Asia suffered more. They were sent to different places by ships, however, limited by the distance and poor environment, loads of people died in the process, what’s more they cannot eat and drink, even talk was forbidden. When they arrived, they were forced to build or do hard works for the colonists just for a bowl of rice. However, it also brought about business opportunity for the colonized. They found out they had land and resources, trade and business became a way of gaining money. The colonized became more open and positive when trade with other countries, in order to make trade more convenient, the colonized sponsored by the colonists to establish wharves and updated ships. They themselves learned knowledge of trade and voyage to explore the unknown field, thus brought fortune and money to themselves.

When the colonists completed their economic exploitation, they began a deeper one: change the colonized identity and policy organization. Thus, they applied the policy of itself on the colonized while the colonized had its own policy, and two or more different politics collapsed. It was ridiculous at that time, but as time went by, different ideas and policies riched its policy organization and consciousness, thus, to some extent, it was not too bad. The invasion in the field of policy belongs to the upper class, however, the folk were also influenced a lot. One thing was language, the colonized were forced to accept different languages and knowledge, even though it was against their national identity, the result of forcing knowledge is positive from today’s perspective. For instance, the colonized learned democracy and the effect of it, thus they changed the original policy to make the whole society democratic and acceptable.

One thing need to be mentioned is that the colonists sent the local to the colonized primarily to supervise their work and life, however, due to historical causes, some of the colonists stayed and combined with local in the colonized, thus a different combination between the colonists and the colonized existed. They live together, communicate and sometimes conflicts happened. However, it is something worth to be mentioned. Their children, due to double identities would be treated differently in society, their national identity was ridiculous and strange. What’s more, we cannot judge the result is good or not. Because simply to the family or the people themselves, this situation may be miserable, but from a long-term perspective, the combination of two totally different nations may be good to the world and the whole civilization: it increases the diversification of the globe and culture.

In the book of Rushdie, named Midnight’s Children. Midnight's Children is a loose allegory for events in India both before and, primarily, after the independence and partition of India. The protagonist and narrator of the story is Saleem Sinai, born at the exact moment when India became an independent country. He was born with telepathic powers, as well as an enormous and constantly dripping nose with an extremely sensitive sense of smell.

When I first read the book, I was surprised, the author demonstrated his feeling of colonialism from a child’s perspective. With some magic factors, he expressed his sentiments towards empire and the colonists.

In conclusion, the colonialism broke the limitation between nations and regions, thus, from a long-term perspective, the completion of globalization becomes faster and faster. Moreover, the fusion of different religions and culture riches the civilization of the world, thus people from different nations learn more things such as languages and art. Even though it brought damages to the colonized, the positive effect cannot be ignored.



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