HISTORY FORM 3 – COLONIAL ECONOMY

Colonial economy was the economic undertaking which were operated by the colonialist or was the king of the economy introduced by the colonialists in their colonies. These included agriculture, mining, communication and transportation of commerce and trade. The colonialists introduced these kinds of economies in Oder to fulfill their economic demands such as raw materials, cheap labor, areas for investments and areas for settlement.

CHARACTERISTICS OF COLONIAL ECONOMY

1. It was export-import oriented colonial economy specialized in production of raw materials for the metropolitan industries and importation of manufactured goods in the colonies.
   
2. It was based on the exploitation of African resources such as man power minerals and so on.
   
3. It was based on monoculture system of production.
   
4. They specialized in the production of major commodities such as Mauritius – sugarcane and Ghana – cocoa.
   
5. It involved the building of physical infrastructure such as roads, harbours and railways for easy transportation of raw materials.
   
6. It was characterized by Domination of European . African role of middlemen was suppressed instead of that European established their trade companies.
   
7. Colonial production was based on coercion.
   
8. The colonialists used Africa as a dump place for their manufactured commodities such as clothes, wine, sweets and beards.
   
9. Introduction of money economy.
   
10. Establishment of processing industries such as cashewnutpupling industries.
    

 

edu.uptymez.com

OBJECTIVES OF COLONIAL ECONOMY
Colonial economies were shaped by the interests of the metropolitan economy, therefore, they responded to the demands of the colonial powers.

Objectives of the Colonial economy were:

1. Colonies were expected to provide raw materials, both agricultural products and minerals, to the factories of the European countries. Examples of the agricultural raw materials includes cotton, coffee, sisal, pyre thrum, tea, cocoa and palm oil.
   
2. Colonies were expected to import manufactured goods like clothes, shoes, blankets and utensils from Europe.
   
3. The Colonized people were expected to provide cheap labour for the benefit of colonial masters.
   
4. Colonies were also expected to be self- supporting. This means that the colonized people were expected to raise revenues that cool support administrative costs of colony.
   
5. Finally, in order to insure that exploitation of colonial resources was done efficiently, law and order was to be maintained. This in turn would facilitate the exploitation of resources for the benefit of colonial master.
   

 

edu.uptymez.com

METHODS USED TO ESTABLISH COLONIAL ECONOMY

These were three methods used to establish economy which were:

PRESERVATION

Under preservation the colonial economy preserved the followings:-

Labour unit. eg The use of family labour

Tradition system of production e.g shifting cultivation mixed farming and inter cropping. This was done mainly in the peasant economy.

CREATION

Taxation

Forced labour

migrant labour- Migrant labours were the labours comes from the distant areas where the labour reservations were established.

DESTRUCTION

Local handcraft industries were destructed.

importing ready manufactured goods to Africa.

Banning of local industries.

The colonialists instilled retaining some elements of pre-colonial economy to support production of raw materials which were needed by European example of things which preserved were

Traditional tools in peasant agriculture and families remained as the basic unit of production and pre-colonial relation production feudal societies were reserved.

DESTRUCTION

Also colonialists started to destroy pre-colonial element features such as barter system/ trade, traditional local industries, and African cultures.

CREATION

The colonialists introduced the new elements in the pre-African economy things which were introduced were:

1. Introduction of money. e.gIndian currency like Rupees during Germany rule.
   
2. Introduction of kipande system. forced people to walk with identification card
   
3. Introduction of cash crops.
   

 

edu.uptymez.com

WHY DID COLONIALISTS USED PRESERVATION METHOD / PRESERVED SOME TRADITIONAL AFRICAN ECONOMIC SYSTEMS.

1. Presence of resistance from the masses. In some areas in Africa which were centralized were strongly resisted new colonial economies systems e.g. disagree to pay taxes, land alienation etc.
   
2. Ignorance and absence of reactions of people. Colonialists preserved some traditional African economic systems because in some areas Africans were ignorant with a new economic system and were not ready to apply them.
   
3. Reluctant/ conservativeness of the people. Some areas Africans were not ready for the changes hence colonialists preserved their traditional economic systems.
   
4. Absence of enough land. In some areas land alienation was impossible hence colonialists left the Africans to maintain their traditional economic systems under colonialist supervision.
   
5. Good traditional labour system. Some of the African societies had good traditional labour system that is family which ensures constant supply of labourand production which prevent colonialist to apply new economic systems.
   
6. Awareness of cash crops production. In some areas In Africa including Buganda they had knowledge of practices cash crops even before colonial rule hence colonialists preserved them.
   

 

edu.uptymez.com

SECTORS OF COLONIAL ECONOMY AND THE SPECIFICATION [SPECIFIC AREAS WHERE IT WAS PRACTICED].

There are [5] five main factors of colonial economy introduced in Africa;

1. Agricultural sector

1. Peasant economy
   
2. Plantation economy
   
3. Settler economy
   

   2. Mining economy sector. It deals with the exploitation of minerals.
   

   3. Transport and communication
   

 

edu.uptymez.com

           4. Trade

TYPES OF AGRICULTURE INTRODUCED IN AFRICA DURING COLONIAL ECONOMY.

1. PEASANT ECONOMY/AGRICULTURE E.G. IN UGANDA
   
2. SETTLERS AGRICULTURE IN KENYA AND ZIMBABWE
   
3. PLANTATION AGRICULTURE
   

 

edu.uptymez.com

PEASANT AGRICULTURE

These are small scale agriculture productions where by a farmer produces both food crops and cash crops.

Colonialists introduced peasant agriculture during colonial rule for the following aims/reasons;

1. Earning cash by selling cash crops.
   
2. Production and producing food crops for their survival during colonial rule.
   
3. To ensure that peasants [small scale farmers] are producing for capitalists.
   

 

edu.uptymez.com

HOW PEASANT ECONOMY WAS INTRODUCED IN AFRICA.

Introduction of peasant, cash crop farming in Africa was difficult because of the following reasons:

1. African traditional was only producing food crops for direct consumption.
   
2. Ignorance. Many Africans were ignorant [not aware] on cash crop production.
   
3. Readiness of the people. Many people were not ready to produce cash crops.
   
4. Poor technology. Most of the peasants were using poor technology in the farming i.e. hand hoes, axes, panga etc.
   

 

edu.uptymez.com

Due to the above difficulties colonialists do/ applied the following things in order to introduce peasant cash crops production;

1. Missionaries’ persuasion. Missionaries persuade Africans who converted to Christianity to grow cash crops.
   
2. The use of force. Those Africans who rejected to grow cash crops were forced to grow cash crops through;
   
3. Orders from the colonialist, chiefs and African head men received orders from colonialists to force their fellow Africans to grow cash crops.
   
4. Through seeds nglish-swahili/distribution” target=”_blank”>distribution and cash crops planting supervision.
   
5. Establishment of large farms in villages which grow cash crops where by people were forced to work there.
   
6. Restructuring of colonies.
   
7. Ennglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>couraged the use of poor (crude) technologies in production i.e. the use of hand hoes, panga, axes etc.
   

 

edu.uptymez.com

CHARACTERISTICS OF PEASANT AGRICULTURE [ECONOMY].

1. Family was the unit of production. Peasant economy was characterized by the members of the family to be sources of labour in production.
   
2. Peasant based on a small unit of land. Peasant was characterized by practice of agriculture on a small piece of land which was populated.
   
3. Peasant based on inter-cropping. Peasant practiced more than one type of crop in a single area for food and cash crops.
   
4. Peasant used poor technology. The use of poor technology in production such as hand hoes, axes and pangas were much applied in the peasant economy.
   
5. Peasant used on a dense population made it hard for land alienation to be practiced, if land alienation was used, many people would be affected and there would be chaos in the area.
   
6. The colonial government was afraid of the centralized kingdoms that proved to be tough against the establishment of settlers’ agriculture.
   
7. Some areas were tough and unfit for white settlement i.e. Uganda equatorial region had high temperatures that disnglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>couraged white settlements.
   
8. Certain crops i.e. [cotton and coffee in Uganda] needed great care and could not be mixed easily with other systems of agriculture.
   
9. Centralized and strong kingdoms in Uganda proved efficiency and capability to organize and supervise agricultural activities in their areas. These traditional chiefs were paid lowly for supervising that activity.
   
10. Taxation was imposed on the people so that they could cultivated cash crops.
    

 

edu.uptymez.com

CASE STUDY

PEASANT ECONOMY IN UGANDA

Uganda was among of the first colonies which peasant economy was introduced by colonialists. The reasons behind for people of Uganda to be preserved to continue to practice small scale agriculture it was because Uganda was a centralized state having good traditional and systems under feudal relations before colonial rule.

Due to that Britain did not want to disturb that system so as to avoid resistance. Therefore they left the people of Uganda to continue growing food crops alongside cash crops under British supervision.

FACTORS/ REASONS WHY PEASANT AGRICULTURE ECONOMY WAS INTRODUCED IN UGANDA AND NOT OTHER AREAS.

1. Dense population.
   
2. Problem or shortage of labor supply. Labour supply in Uganda was a problem since traditionally family was a basic unit of production hence colonialists introduced peasants.
   
3. Unfavorable climatic conditions to the Europeans. Europeans could not be able to stay in Uganda since climatic conditions of Uganda which was characterized by heavy rainfall, coldness and hotness were not suitable or favorable for them.
   
4. The nature of crops. Peasant economy was introduced in Uganda because the types of crops such as coffee which were grown in Uganda needed great care and great supervision.
   
5. Good centralized feudal political system.
   
6. Readiness of the people.
   
7. The influence from colonial government.
   
8. Peasant economy was cheap and easy to control.
   
9. The infrastructure and the territorial problems in some areas of Uganda and Tanganyika. Therefore the factors/reasons above were the factors behind the introduction of peasant economy not only in Uganda but also in north Nigeria and Tanganyika (in Kilimanjaro, Bukoba, Mbeya).
   

 

edu.uptymez.com