In historic books authors tend to remain thoughtful of the current social and sociological situation of a region. Cook had the same intention while writing on historic events that happened in the past century. In the book the author creates a timeline of between 180 and 1914. The timeline created by the author was symbolic in the wealth issues that colonies and colonizers enjoyed. According to Cook colonies and colonizers became of significant importance between the two years (78). At the time colonizers has the most fortunate power and will to get colonies in less powerful continents like Asia, Africa and the South America. The allocation of colonies was at its peak during this period of time. It was also a time whereby resources in colonies mattered so much in the global market. According to Cook most of the colonies had only one interest in mind that they could get more resources (34). It is for this reason that some colonies in Africa and Asia had to be decided away from the field since they had competition. In the book by Cook colonies are viewed as self interest bodies that only cared about creation of dynasties and acquiring of resources. In his book Cook mentions some specific colonies. They include the Leopold’s rule in Congo, the British in India and the America’s Hawaii. These three examples appear in different chapters of the book. In this structure t5he author has the ability to create completely different perspective of the leadership styles each colony used. Regardless of the strategy applied by a colony some qualities were visible across the colonies. This includes use of power, exploitation of both human and natural resources and all were under a rule located in the west. According to Cook this created a more synchronized mode of handling colonies in this significant era in the global colonization history (112).
Also in his book Cook analyses the role of women in the era of colonization. He also highlights the challenges women and children go through during colonization. He drew his argument by focusing on both sides: colonizers and colonies. However, he focused more on colonies from which women were mostly used as negotiating tools (89). At this time in the global timeline, women held less significance in the societies. In most cases this was advantageous since few numbers of women were taken into slavery. However, women in this era were used as laborers together with their children. In relating to war, women and children were rarely involved in the direct approach to war. For instance, Cook analyses the role of women in the colonization of the Democratic republic of Congo. Leopold’s reign used women as some of its soldiers but they made little significant on the front line. Additionally, Congo used women I their war to independence but in more of supporting roles.
Cook argues that the era he chose to base his argument was an era in which imperialism would be easily achieved by the influence of power and might. Many empires like the Dutch, English, Russian and the American had a lot of might that made them more powerful and easy to capture more colonies. In his colonial analysis Cook also analyses the technology different colonies used in creating approaches towards colonies. With this analysis Cook showed how much similarity and difference colonizing dynasties had and how they were successful in this period of rampant imperialism.
Works cited
Cook, Scott. Colonial Encounters in the Age of High Imperialism. New York: Pearson. 1996. Print.
