The major colonial institution talked of by Amsden (21) is the American and the greater European countries. Colonialism got praises from various quotas for having brought civilization to the native countries; however, colonialism in actual sense impeded development in many ways.
Industrial revolution resulted to the widened gap between rich people and the poor ones. This happened because the money got from the industry was repatriated to the mother country leaving the colonies with nothing. The colonialism lead to the emergence of various rebels such as Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in the 1954 and Vietnams in the 1950’s, this uprisings did not give room for any development as people kept on fighting. Greater percentage of Europe’s savings were taken to areas such as US Australia, Canada and the like with only a negligible given to Africa and Asia preventing any effort to develop the colonized countries. A part from the shortage of money to invest, there was a very sensitive shortage in democracy for the natives and more power on the foreigners. The locals were not having money to invest and no political power fend them hence retarding development in the native land.
There was a lot of discrimination shown to the natives as British monopolists were given transfer to India with rent-free while the rest were to pay for their rent. Peasant farmers were also highly taxed on land when Europeans were exempted. Locals were forced to plant cash crops in a large scale leaving little space for food crop, which lead to famine in the native land. In the colonial governments, rich raw material led to high demand and since the labor could not match, the demand inhumane ways were used to increase hand on the lands. In entrepreneurialism, colonials seemed to have not benefited so much from the foreigners as foreigners firms did not thrive well. The colonials performed much better after the colonialism was over indicating that the natives had the opportunity to develop themselves even without the foreigners.
In the opinion of Easterly (274), the colonialists reinforced autocracy. The preferred way of rule by colonialists was indirect rule, that is, depending on local intermediaries or rulers. This was convenient because the colonial administration was unable to have enough Europeans to administer within the colonies. More often than not, the few European administrators disorganized the pre-colonial systems and did little to develop beneficial institutions. The colonialists delegated the responsibility of taxes collection as well as the supervision of compulsory or forced labor to the chiefs. In addition, the chiefs were expected to hand out justice. Because of unchecked powers, the chiefs always took advantage and collected more taxes as well as labor for individual gain (Easterly 274).
The decision by the colonizers to expel the African elites in favor of the traditional rulers to control the interior was the worst, the frustrated African elites shifted attention to Pan-African ideologies, which later had a crucial role in the independence movements. Moreover, the decision created mistrust amongst the traditional rulers and the educated (Easterly 275).
The colonialists suffered from excessive personal-confidence of bureaucrats, desultory expertise of the local conditions, little feedback on what worked from the locals, and coercive or authoritative top-down planning. Based on the theory or hypothesis that colonialists or whites know best, whites forced schemes of development on the locals instead of respecting locals’ economic choices. For example, the British forced a tax or levy on huts to attempt to promote production of oil palm. The locals opposed being taxed or levied for own goods, as a result, the native auxiliaries and British soldiers killed the resisters. Another example is the introduction of irrigation of rice within Sierra Leone. The yields declined rapidly because of the by-products of irrigation of salinity and acidity (Easterly 281).
Works Cited
Easterly, William. "The White Man's Burden." Lancet 12.20 (2006): 273-293. Print.
Amsden. "Where the Sun Never Sets, and Wages Never Rise." A Hidden Clue 3.2 (2007): 21-37. Print.
