Motivations Behind Colonialism

If an impartial third party were to visit Earth and to evaluate the history of white colonization, they would likely reach a very strong conclusion about its purpose and goals in our past. We usually assume that the primary motivations behind colonialism stemmed from various European nations attempting to establish trade in far-away parts of the world, areas rich in natural resources and goods that didn’t exist in Europe. Webster’s Dictionary even defines the word Colonialism as this; “the policy or practice of acquiring control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically”.

But can we really say confidently that money was the main factor driving colonialism during the 18th and 19th centuries? In nearly every example of conquest during that time period, we can see the native people being exploited by the European settlers. This is not limited to a mere exploitation of economic divides and the technological advances inherent in the Europeans, but there were also countless acts of terror carried out against the natives, motivated by racial prejudice and ignorance rather than economic factors. People were practically enslaved, ripped off, physically harmed, and even murdered and killed off. The motivations behind such despicable acts were often to “civilize” people they saw as “savages” or beings that were less then human. Rather than accept the differences in culture that existed, colonists sought to wipe out those other culture under the premise that that white Europeans were superior and entitled to control the world. These motivations drive many of the characters in Heart of Darkness (one example can be seen right off the bat in the aunt), but they were in many ways universal to the time period. Not only is it possible that anyone looking at our history for the first time would cite this racism and prejudice as the primary factors driving white imperial conquest, but it is entirely possible that our culture will, over time, begin to universally accept this, rather than money, as the true motivation behind colonialism.