The Influence Of Popular Media During The Era Of Colonialism

Julio

History 15

Term Paper

The Influence of Popular Media during the Era of Colonialism

It is important to understand that an individual's actions and decisions whether positive or negative will not only have a great impact over their lives but they will also have a tremendous impact over the lives of their families, their societies, and future generations. In addition, it is important to understand that a society's media has a great power to persuade an individual's actions and decisions. The negative actions and decisions taken by Europeans during the era of colonialism did not only have a great impact on their civilization at the time but they changed forever the course of human history. The negative actions and decisions taken by the Europeans were encouraged and supported by their media during the era of colonialism. The most popular media during the era of colonialism were books, news papers, and propaganda. The media played a major role in influencing the way European's behaved; therefore Colonialism in Africa and India had terrible consequences. Colonialism marked the beginning of the era of discrimination between human beings in terms of skin color. In addition, during colonialism the natives of the African continent were forced to become the European's slaves against their own will. Finally, Colonialism exploited the colonies' hard to get natural resources such as Rubber and Ivory for the Europeans own economic benefit. However, what were the reasons that motivated the Europeans to do the terrible things they did during the era of colonialism? The reasons that motivated Europeans to do the things they did during the period of time of colonialism were that Europeans viewed themselves as superior to the other races. In addition, Europeans had immense economic ambitions including the desire for new markets and access to more natural resources. Last but not least, Europeans were constantly competing against each other to see which nation could conquest more territories and spread their empires.

One of the strongest reasons that motivated Europeans to do the terrible things they did during colonialism was that Europeans believed that they were superior to the natives of those colonies. There were many reasons why the Europeans strongly believed that they were superior to the people from the colonies. One of those reasons was that Europeans practiced Christianity and the natives from the colonies did not. Europeans believed that Christianity was the one and only religion humans should follow because it was the only way to get into heaven. When Europeans first realized that the people from Africa and India did not practice Christianity, not only did Europeans feel superior to those people but also they felt that it was their duty to convert them into Christianity. In the book the Human record written by Andrea and Overfield, there's an illustration at the top on page 307, called "The Kipling Reader". This is a great illustration that shows how the British saw themselves not only superior to the Indians but that it was also their duty to convert them into Christianity. In the Kipling Reader Illustration the British soldier is portrayed not only as superior to the Indians but in a sense also as a Christian figure. The Illustration has a tall soldier who looks that his leading many Indian kids. The Indian kids are following the British soldier showing facial expressions of Happiness because they are being guided by the right religion path. Europeans believed that their religion contained the right morals and values. Therefore, when Europeans saw that people from Africa and India did not follow or shared their morals and values they felt it was their duty to colonize them and covert them to Christianity.

Another reason that Europeans used to justify their belief of superiority to the Africans and the Indians was the difference between skin colors. Europeans believed that the lightness of skin color reflected the purity of the individual. Therefore, they did not only see people from Africa and India as not pure for having darker skin color but they also saw them as evil and not to be trusted. In the book the Human record written by Andrea and Overfield, there's an illustration from "An ABC for Baby patriots" at the bottom of page 306 that has a person from Africa and a British person negotiating a treaty. This illustration demonstrates that the British soldier with lighter skin color is honest and pure human being while the African individual with darker skin color can not be trusted. Next to the illustration there's an explanation to the illustration. "W is the word Of an Englishman true; When given, it means what he says, he will do. Skin color differences were one of the methods used by Europeans to justify their superiority to the Africans. In addition, this notion of superiority was constantly being supported and spread by the media at the time. However, not only did religion and skin color were the main reasons for Europeans to justified their sense of superiority towards the people of the colonies, there were also many other factors that contributed to make Europeans believe they were superior. Europeans also saw themselves superior to the people from Africa and India because they saw themselves as more intelligent due to their knowledge of math, science and advanced technology. Thus, European's culture, religion, education, skin color were all important factors that influenced Europeans to believe that they were superior to people from Africa and India.

Another powerful reason that motivated Europeans to do the terrible things they did in the colonies was that they had massive economic interests in their new colonies, including the desire for new markets and access to more natural resources. The Europeans did not care about how many people they had to exploit or if the people from their colonies were going to be benefited by the natural's resources and farming collected from the people working as slaves for the Europeans. All they cared about was that the colonies were a great opportunity to generate great profits by opening