Rory McClurg

Response Paper #4

Post-Colonialism and Failed States

     The post-9/11 world has changed international concerns and priorities drastically. During most of the 20^th century, the Europeans and Americans, the ones with international power at the time, were preoccupied with colonial assets and the Cold War. As terrorism became a more important issue, it became apparent that failed states were a huge problem that had been largely ignored in the past. This paper will be centered around how colonialism in Africa has doomed the continent to have a rash of failed states.

     The colonial era was one highlighted by exploitation and upheaval of the native norms. The Europeans essentially started grabbing up whatever territory they could get, but when drawing the lines on the map, they did not take into account any of the preexisting cultural differences between natives. The Europeans, very used to the idea of a nation state with concrete borders on a map imposed this system on natives in areas such as West Africa, that were not acclimated to such concepts. This “drawing of the lines” so to speak, lumped tribes that didn’t always get along or even those that had deep seeded for one another in the same country. This is readily apparent in Nigeria, where the borders were drawn not considering the fact there were many competing ethnic groups in the country such as the Igbos and the Biafrans. This led to much instability in the country, which even culminated in a civil war in 1967 resulting in over a million deaths. This is a common theme throughout postcolonial Africa, civil wars have erupted in Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Rwanda to name a few.

     The way Europeans treated their colonies speaks volumes about why many ex-colonies are failed states. Sometimes the Europeans even intentionally broke apart whole nations into competing spheres within a single state to more easily maintain control of the natives. During the Belgian occupation of what is now Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, they essentially exploited the country for its resources and left. They placed the wealthy Tutsi minority tribe in power, who treated the poor Hutu majority as nothing. In addition, the Belgians only concern was acquiring profit from this colony, and forced the peasants to work with no pay. After they were done with the colony, they essentially just left with no assistance to the natives. The toxic way this colony was run and subsequently abandoned by the Belgians paved the way for one of the worst genocides in history, and civil war. Considering how African colonies were exploited, it is no surprise fourteen of the top twenty failed states according to the failed states index, were previously European colonies in Africa.

Reference: Failed State Index, Foreign Policy Magazine

                        http://www.foreignpolicy.com/failedstates2013