Second Wave of European Conquest

While reading about the Second Wave of Europeans colonialism, I couldn’t help but wonder how did the Asian countries like China and India go from being the top traders in the first wave of Europeans colonialism to being controlled by British rule. In previous readings we read about how China and India were high up in rank. The Europeans were the ones struggling to keep up with the trades because they didn’t have goods that the Chinese and Indians were interested in. But in this second wave of colonialism, the Europeans had more control. They didn’t use as much violence in this second round of colonialism but they did try and use military force to scare people into doing what they wanted them to do.

            As I got further into the reading I noticed that the citizens in Africa didn’t try and rebel. They may not have like what was happening to their countries but they didn’t try and fight back. I would think after the Haiti war the citizens of Africa, who were close in population to the Europeans, might have wanted to fight for their own land and freedom. It amazes me even after seeing other countries suffer; some countries don’t have the strength to fight for their freedom. I understand that the citizens of Arica may fear for their lives and their lives of their families, but Strayer mentioned that if the colonies didn’t meet their quota for the goods, often time their village would be killed and burned down too. The way I see it is the African citizens had a lose-lose situation. If they didn’t try and fight back then they were stuck in working under harsh conditions for the Europeans often time leading to their death, if they did try and fight back they could either be killed or they may even be successful.

            The images in this reading were really harsh this time. On page 600 there is an image of two young boys, each missing their hands. Due to harsh working conditions and the cruelty of the Europeans, people of all ages were suffering. Its heart breaking to see kids, who should be in school, working so hard. It’s sickening to see that some people don’t bother to think about the consequences of putting kids at work. If they needed labor that badly they should at least wait until the kids could grow into men. Kids don’t have the strength of an adult to work so hard. Their bodies are not meant to go through such harsh labors. It is crazy to think about how the colonies in the United States were fighting for their own labor rights around the time of the Second European colonialism. It’s true that it takes one change to bring on another form of change. Although the kids in Africa may have been suffering, eventually child labor will be combated. It may not be fully gone but it’s good to know that people are aware of it now.