First of all, colonization is a disgraceful term, not to say that there is anything wrong with the act of colonization itself, but that the so-called colonial act in modern times has gone far beyond the scope of colonization itself. It is a plunder of economy, politics, culture and even territory, so colonialism is a disgraceful thing, so today all countries have ruled out the so-called colonial title for overseas territories. Colonies are generally beneficial to colonial suzerain countries, but not necessarily. For a colonized country, it is usually oppressed and slaughtered. Although colonial actions are also conducive to spreading advanced modes of production and culture, they can never alleviate the suffering of the people in the colonized countries.
Overseas colonization is also hierarchical, and Spanish colonization in America is the lowest level of overseas colonization. The Netherlands and Portugal can be regarded as intermediate, and countries such as Britain, France, Japan and the United States belong to advanced colonialism.
First of all, Spain's colonial behavior can be said to be the most notorious of all overseas colonial behaviors. The purpose of Spanish overseas colonization is simply the desire for rare metals such as gold and silver. The Spanish took a tough and violent approach and took military measures to combat massacres, destroyed local religious culture and forced Catholic colonization, which caused great harm to Native Americans. At the same time, the Spanish also brought smallpox, which is a terminal disease of Indians everywhere, and because of racial and religious discrimination, the Spanish will not give any so-called humanitarian assistance to Indians. How bad is this colonial behavior? According to the data, before the arrival of the Spanish, there were150,000 Aztecs in Central America, and only about 3 million remained after the Spanish rule. This is only the statistics of the valley bottom of Mexico, excluding the Mayan descendants in the rainforest area of Central America and the Incas in the Andes, as well as other ethnic groups in the Caribbean and the northern plains. It is conceivable that the Spanish have dealt a devastating blow to the American nation.
But at the same time, Spain's colonization did not benefit the country, because Spain's colonial behavior was simply precious metal plunder. Gold and silver flowed into the life of the Spanish royal family and nobles in large quantities, satisfying their desire for wealth and not generating much capital accumulation. Coupled with the strong feudal ideology of Spain at that time, it restricted the development of industry and commerce. The most fatal thing is that a large amount of gold and silver flowed into the Spanish market, which led to serious domestic inflation, soaring prices and sluggish economy. Not only did overseas colonization not bring much economic benefits to Spain, but the Indian people's constant national resistance also consumed a lot of manpower and material resources. This is also the reason why the kingdom of Spain, which once dominated the world, declined rapidly after the rise of countries such as the Netherlands and Britain.
To sum up, Spain's colonial behavior was a complete failure, which not only brought unprecedented disasters to the American nation, but also made Spain lag behind other European countries for a long time.
The second overseas colonization of the Netherlands and Portugal, generally speaking, the Netherlands and Portugal trade as businessmen, and the essence of their colonial expansion is to expand trade profits. Therefore, the colonial behavior of the two countries is much milder than that of Spain. Their overseas colonization is a commercial-centered colonial behavior, earning profits by peaceful trade, not plundering. Commercial behavior has also brought domestic capital accumulation and capitalist development, and improved the living standards of domestic residents. But both countries ended in decline. Because both countries have a serious problem, that is, small countries, few people and obvious shortage of manpower, and the most important thing is the threat from powerful countries. Portugal's threat came from neighboring Spain, while the Netherlands came from France and Britain, and finally split into today's Netherlands and Belgium at the instigation of Britain, France and Germany.
Although trade behavior is a relatively mild colonial way, it has brought some negative effects to local residents due to racial discrimination and other reasons. And most importantly, the final colonial model has also developed into the third colonial model, which is an inevitable trend of industrial revolution and productivity development and irreversible.
The third is industrial colonial expansion, represented by Britain. First of all, industrial colonial expansion is the product of industrialization and the maturity of capitalism. With the development of productivity, the demand for resources is huge and the output is surplus, so it is necessary to find the origin of raw materials and the market of products. The economic impact of industrial colonization on colonial countries is devastating, and the influx of a large number of cheap products will lead to the complete disintegration of the country's version of the economy. Apart from the factors of national oppression, the biggest negative impact of colonization in the industrial age is that the colonial economy completely loses its independence. The colonial congress reformed the colonial economic structure according to its own needs, making it completely dependent on the economy. But the colonies will also get some benefits, that is, capitalist ideas and high-level production methods, and many regions and countries will benefit from them. But generally speaking, the negative impact on the group is higher than the positive impact.
There were three kinds of colonies during the colonial period:
The first type of entrepot trade ports are represented by Hong Kong and Singapore. This kind of colony is the luckiest, because the development of commerce has brought economic prosperity and people's prosperity. However, the location conditions of trading ports are extremely demanding, and they are not used anywhere, and they are still a few at will.
The second is the industrial origin, represented by the northeast. Although the Japanese have committed numerous crimes in Northeast China, their colleague Japan has also invested a lot of energy in developing palaces in Northeast China, bringing advanced production methods and providing a relatively complete industrial base in Northeast China, which is why New China took the lead in developing industries in Northeast China after the founding of New China. So some countries and regions still benefit from it, but the industries they develop are generally relatively primary industries, and it is difficult to have high-level industrial development. Therefore, being a colony for a long time is unfavorable to the long-term economic development, and it will hinder the local economic and technological progress and the improvement of people's living standards, leading to the stagnation of the development of the whole region.
The third and most tragic producer of primary raw materials. The most tragic thing is the origin of cash crops, representing countries in black Africa. The reason why sub-Saharan Africa is so poor is largely due to the colonial behavior of Britain, France and Belgium in black African countries. They turned the area into a cash crop planting area, developed a single cash crop planting, with a single industry, no industrial output, self-sufficiency in food and a serious shortage of materials, which led to widespread poverty among residents. However, after independence, these countries developed cash crops for a long time, lacking industrial base and crop planting experience, which led to difficulties in economic development. It can be said that the colonial behavior of Britain and France in black Africa led to the persistent poverty of African countries at that time and in the following decades. This influence continues to this day, and it is also the biggest evil result of colonial behavior. But unfortunately, most colonies did.
For the colonial sovereign state, too big a colony will also drag down the development of the country, and the typical representative is Britain. The decline of Britain at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century was also due to the instability of its colonies. Britain spent a lot of manpower and material resources to stabilize the colony and supplement its materials. At the same time, the virtues of fewer colonies have risen rapidly, which shows that colonies will slow down the development of the whole country to a certain extent.