Colonialism: Indigenous Response?

1. Colonialism is a relationship between an indigenous (or forcibly imported)

majority and a minority of foreign invaders. The fundamental decisions affecting
the lives of the colonized people are made and implemented by the colonial
rulers in pursuit of interests that are often defined in a distant metropolis.
Rejecting cultural compromises with the colonized population, the colonizers are
convinced of their own superiority and their ordained mandate to rule.
2. Exploitation colonialism involves fewer colonists and focuses on access to
resources for export, typically to the metropole. This category includes trading
posts as well as larger colonies where colonists would constitute much of the
political and economic administration, but would rely on indigenous resources
for labour and material. Prior to the end of the slave trade and widespread
abolition, when indigenous labour was unavailable, slaves were often imported to
the Americas, first by the Portuguese Empire, and later by the Spanish, Dutch,
French and British.
3. The indigenous majority was severely oppressed and humiliated for decades of
the colonial rule. The fact that the natives were excluded from citizenship and
forced to live on the verge of extinction, shows how illogical and vicious
colonialism can be. The indigenous people were robbed of any rights for health
care, education, jobs and housing. Instead, they were intensively exploited by the
colonialists for personal benefits and ambitions.
4. The slave trade during colonialism was in full swing, because it was crucial for
any colonialist venture. Entire villages and towns were raided to find suitable
people; young, healthy and strong, who were then captured and sold to the
Europeans. Many men died of starvation and lethal diseases, creating a huge
gap in the population, diminishing the birth rate. Consequently, families, left
without breadwinners, were suffering because of poverty and malnutrition. On top
of that, slavery deprived the world of the smallest chances for modernization and
caused detrimental consequences to the people, making them highly dependent
and vulnerable, even till this day.
5. There is no doubt, that after the European colonialism the indigenous population
of the colonized nations had to face severe aftermath in terms of culture, politics
and economics that irreversibly changed the way the people used to live before
the invasion. The reason for the colonialist devastating impact on the indigenous
people was that it was based purely on violence and monetary benefits. None of
the European nations made an attempt to ask whether the natives wanted to be
ruled or controlled. The people of South East Asia on this context were taken by
the storm, completely deprived of the slightest chance of just treatment and
respect.