In my middle school, I learned about Korean history for three years. One of most important, but an unfortunate event was Japan’s colonization in Korea. Every time I learned about this chapter I did not understand why Korea was the only country that was bullied around by strong nations like China and Japan. I did not understand why Koreans were the only weak country that went through hard times in history. However, learning about European Imperialism changed my whole view on this subject. There were so many countries in Asia, Africa and Southern America that were conquered and gained independence. Surprisingly, they shared many similarities such as going through economic crises, need of other’s help to achieve their independence, active political fights for independence and religious effects.
Many countries went through economic crises due to European imperialism. Imperial countries wanted products like sugar, rubber, opium, tea, silk, ivory, cotton, and silver. All these are examples of common cash crops, and Europeans grew plantations in other countries to sell them back in Europe for a higher price. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, “every village was required to provide four men a year to ‘work’ as full-time slaves. These unpaid workers brought rubber latex, which was highly demanded in Europe. They were forced to work for a long time, and they were not allowed to grow food to sustain their family.“ In order to ensure that these men continued to work diligently, King Leopold II held their wives and children hostage and cut off the hands of men who refused to work. In many cases like Congo, people were brutally harassed during the work. One man who was a Christian missionary said, “Leopold robbed the wealth of the land and put it into his own bank account.” In the case of South Korea, the Japanese put tremendous tariffs on Korean goods so that Koreans have to live on Japanese products. In 1934, Japanese was in a war with Chinese and they needed rice badly to sustain their soldiers. Originally, they were planning to buy cheap American rice, but the United States went through a drought. So they decided to steal Korean rice along with minerals, coal mines to get ready for the war. During this time, Koreans were forced to work for Japanese factories; the number of workers increased from 200 thousand to 600 thousand from 1940 to 1945. They worked in a bad situation from 12 to 14 hours a day, because they did not have labor unions.
Many countries gained independence on their own. However, there were also some countries that got independence fairly easy from help of others. Originally, Ethiopia desperately wanted help from the League of Nations when Italian leader Mussolini marched his army from Eritrea and Somalia. Britain wanted to help, but France was afraid of Italy. As the result, the only powerful countries in League of Nations decided to do nothing. Soon, Ethiopia was conquered very easily. However, 5 years later after World War II, the British declared Ethiopia as an ally and sent British troops to help the Ethiopian army and to send Haile Selassie back to Addis Ababa, the capital. Korea also asked for help many times to countries like Britain and the United States. However, they were unsuccessful. In November 1943, the United States, Britain and China realized Korea’s desperate situation and told Koreans they are going to help. They did not. Due to World War II, Korea was free at last. In July 1945 Potsdam, strong countries declared that Japan lost all of its colonies including Korea.
Most importantly, the fight for independence made people aware of their rights. Everyone fought for the same goal, and they became politically active. The suppression of culture motivated Koreans to fight against the Japanese. They created the Declaration of Independence, and had a movement in which 33 patriots established a provisional government in Shanghai and organized one of the first struggles against Japanese forces. They protested for international support at the 1919 Versailles conference, which failed. They marched on March 1, 1919 which later became the Independence Day. During these movements, many Koreans went to prison such as Gwan-Sun Yu. She died at the age of 16 after being a leader in these movements. These movements represent that their interest in politics grew during the independence. Surprisingly, Burma went through similar process during their independence. Like Korea, many students and intellectuals were involved. It started with college students to Buddhist monks who decided to be part of protest. Soon, two student leaders Thakin Nu and Thakin Aung San organized a student strike. Years of protests convinced British to separate Burma from India. Moreover, Aung San and 29 nationalists known as 30 comrades joined Japan in driving British out. Overall, independence was not easy for many countries; however it motivated people to be part of government and to be politically active.
Lastly, there were religious changes in which Europeans converted non-Christians to Christianity. The best example is Columbia. In Spain, majority of religion was Catholicism, and there were many religions in Columbia prior to Spanish conquest. These tribes believed in their indigenous gods until they were converted to Catholicism. This overwhelmed many natives, and whites soon destroyed numerous traditions. In Nigeria the Europeans introduced Christianity to the Ibo Society. It created a division between the people, and soon the church had more authority than the original leaders, due to their superior weaponry like guns. British sent these original leaders to jail and required the whole village to pay. The last example is Jamaica’s religious changes through conquest and independence. Religiously, Church of England used to be the most dominant religion in Jamaica. Other religions, such as Rastafarianism, emerged when Jamaicans suffered through poverty, depression and racism. It is an afro-centric religion which focuses on black men’s pride and the battles Jamaicans faced against Europeans while slave trade was going on.
In history, Britain conquered about 57 countries all over the world: North America, The Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southwest Asia, North Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania. During World War II, Japan invaded more than 20 countries. Basically, few countries invaded many countries. The successful countries continued to conquer other lands until they were satisfied. Also, they invaded weak nations using similar methods such as using military tactics, getting rid of a culture, introducing a new religion and so on. Fortunately, wherever the country was, all of them gained independence at one point in history. Some of them fought, while the others were helped by the stronger countries. Some of them had good effects on their economy, while others went through horrible crises due to the conquest. The important thing to learn from this is that this dark part of history will last forever. History will not be forgotten, and students will always learn about their country’s past. It is crucial that people as well as governments care and think about this topic.
