Colonialism
Read the following perspectives on colonization:
Thesis I about colonization
Europeans colonized the Americas, and Asia (India) in order to bring civilization, religion, and government to these regions. The European nations should be honored and praised for spreading their culture and bringing civility to the uncivilized.
Thesis II about colonization
European colonization in the Americas, and Asia clearly represented imperialistic nations searching for greater land, wealth, and authority. The European nations should not be honored as discoverers or as people spreading civilization; Instead, they should be seen as conquerors, destroying advanced cultures and societies in the pursuit of greater power.
Questions to Ponder
Do people ever have the right to take another’s property? If so, when? If not, why not? Why did Europeans believe they had the right to take and use land that had been Native American land?
Within a few generations of the European’s arrival, the Native American population of the Americas was reduced by 90%. What caused this decrease? Was it essential? Is this an example of genocide? Was the purpose of European colonization to spread civilization or promote national interest?
Between 1500 and 1750, the nations of Western Europe took over almost all of North and South America. Between 1750-1900, they did the same in Asia and Africa. They claimed to have done so to spread Christianity and their idea of civilization. The greatest immediate changes that resulted from this conquest and colonization were that the natives in these areas became poorer while Europe became immensely rich and powerful. Do you think the Europeans were being honest when they claimed to be doing this for the good of Native Americans, the Asians, and the Africans?
September 17th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Colonialism is when a country takes over another country. Today, Mr.Chung showed us a picture of a statue in front of McKinley High School. He went up closer to the statue to see what he was holding. He saw a paper that said that America had a Treaty of Annexation with Hawaii. We also looked at a book that had all the countries that were colonized. The book didn’t have a picture of Hawai’i. This meant that we have been colonized for so long we were like nothing.
Colonialism begins with a war and whoever wins takes over the loser. It’s sort of like a game of soccer. This is what colonialism is to me.
September 17th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Did you know Hawaii was colonized? Those sneaky Americans tried to erase that history a long time ago, but they left tiny little clues behind. The Americans brainwashed us by telling us all the good things they’ve done. Teachers are supposed to brainwash us by making students read textbooks about America and all the good things they have done even if it is not the whole truth. Mr.Chung, my teacher does not do that, he tells us the truth about what happened to our country. Colonialism means to take over a country and own it. I do not like colonialism one bit! Do you?
September 17th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
When people colonize a nation they should at least give them a right to say how they feel. They should treat the people like how their own citizens are treated, not like slaves. They should give them a right to vote.
But can you believe that the Americans colonized us without warning? They should have made a treaty. You know what the WORST thing was? McKinley lied to his people and said that they made a treaty. Some teachers teach them lies that they have been taught. At least some teachers (like my teacher Mr. Chung) are telling the truth. Today in class he showed us a picture of a statue at McKinley High School with McKinley holding a treaty for Hawai’i that he took when he was walking by on a Sunday morning. He kept climbing up the statue and he saw what it said on the scroll. They are pretty much brainwashing us to believe lies.
Well getting back on subject, I do not like colonialism because what if someone took over the whole world and treated everybody like slaves to the bone. Do you like colonialism?
September 17th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Colonialism isn’t right because it takes over the country and then it erases the knowledge, traditions, and most importantly their freedom. Americans try to erase that part of history to prevent them from looking bad. It is like the statue of President McKinley who was president when Hawaii was taken over. What really ticks me off is that he named a school after himself in his “honor”, that is just evil. On top of that, the statue has McKinley holding a fake Treaty of Annexation when the Hawaiians wanted a Treaty of Independence. It is kind of like National Treasure because someone tries to keep the truth secret.
Colonialism also makes us children think a certain way so in school we children are only supposed to learn about what a great place America is. It is all lies because the Americans only get involved in wars when something happens to make them mad. Then they bring in the army or military. Plus, they want our teachers to brainwash us into thinking that America is a good place to live. They also try to take advantage of the fact that we are still very young and will believe anything that we hear.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
I don’t think that colonialism is right because one country shouldn’t be able to take over another, but if one country has developed steel and guns and the other country didn’t and they go to war, the country with the guns and steel are going to win the land and that country would be colonized.
Another way that the Europeans could have colonized a lot of countries other than guns and steel was the Europeans had a bunch of diseases. Europe had so many diseases in their past that some people got immune to them so when they whent into another country they carried the deseaes with them. The people who hadn’t experienced the disease before died from it.
September 18th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Colonialism isn’t right because one side might have a great advantage. One side might have more people but have stones and slingshots and the other side might have cannons, tanks and guns.
September 18th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Colonialism is when one country takes another country over. One thing that you probably didn’t know was that Hawaii was colonized and now people are thinking that we had a peace treaty. They created a fake treaty and said that they own Hawaii now.
Also the Americans only mention the really great things that has happened between us and the Americans. There is a statue of John McKinley holding a fake peace treaty between us and the Americans!