Imperialism in the Bahamas

Imperialism

Imperialism is the cause and or the secondary reason for many confrontational periods in the history of not only America but the world. Imperialism is when a country forcefully takes control of another nation whether it is through a territorial takeover or by extending political, economic, and religious practices and policies. Imperialism can also be a strong influence on another nation. This aspect of Imperialism is called Neo-Imperialism/Neo-Colonialism. This is where a country that is well developed controls another less developed countries in non direct ways.

Imperialism is caused by many things such as nations wanting the raw materials that the country they are invading can provide, to spread ideals government and or religious, for the point of expansion to gain land, Nationalism(an extreme loyalty or devotion to a nation), the need for new transportation routes, and the spread of christianity. Imperialism can be seen in very many ways as it can be very good in developing new technology for expansion and discovering new crops to cultivate but it can also lead to violence, conflict with the people that reside within that territory , and it can also lead to slavery as we have seen in history before. These all depend on who is taking over the area.

The Bahamas

The Bahamas was first discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492. He landed on San Salvador and it immediately became a location of interest because of the shipping possibilities but the spanish made no attempts to settle the island. In the late 1600s this Bahamas became a place of piracy because the oceans were so busy during the time. The pirates caused the area to become very unsafe and was seen as an dangerous place so the Spanish destroyed one of the places located in The Bahamas (Nassau) and Nassau was rebuilt after with reinforcements. The first sight of interest to settle in the Bahamas were by Great Britain in 1629 but they made no effort to settle or colonize the area and other various islands located near the Bahamas. In 1644 the first signs of true British colonization were for the sake of religious freedom by captain williams Sayle.

They sent two ships but one didn't end up making it through the full journey. They named the island they landed on Eleuthera. As the years passed the settled area began to progress. They created a constitution and along with that constitution they gained access to the natural resources and the ability to vote. Their population also increased from the 70 settlers they arrived with to around one thousand settlers at the time. Majority of the population were white people while the rest were the indigenous people who had become slaves. They didn't proceed without any trouble though . At this time The Bahamas became plagued with absurd piracy to the point where they were not trading with other places because cargo ships were being sieged constantly when they were trying to exchange with and then In 1720 Spain tried to invade Nassau for war advantage but were unsuccessful.

Then In 1729 is when the area started to progress economically even though they can't grow crops Because of weather problems. one of the first major acts of imperialism in the Bahamas was during the American revolution. During the revolution the Americans raised the British controlled Nassau. America raided and gained control of Nassau because they were holding a large amount of gunpowder because they in desperate need as they were in a shortage during a time of war. After this event a few years later they were taken over again by the spanish during another war in 1781-1782. The island was returned to Britain as a part of the treaty of versailles.

One of the many reasons why the Bahamas was such a target during the time is because they had salt. Salt is a very valuable resource. The Bahamas was mostly captured during a time of war and salt is one of the components needed to make gunpowder. The Bahamas has produced cotton and large quantities of it. They had large plantations with slaves where the shipped out a large quantity of bales. They also of course an amazing area for trade and food considering they are surrounded by nothing but water. This was also another reason why they took over the area. They Bahamas overall was taking over for purely economic benefit of whatever country had possession of them at the time.

The Bahamas were definitely struck in many different ways by imperialism. They lost a lot of economic value after the abolition of slavery because no one was available to manage all the cotton fields. The years before the bahamas gained their independence in 1973 is when they economically started to boom. Britain started to used the bahamas as a tourist attraction in the 1940s. So after they were no longer a british colony they already had business and by the 1980s they were using tourism as their biggest attraction. This turned the Bahamas into a majority market type economy. Britain kick started the economy of The Bahamas.

After the separation from Britain The Bahamas went from a monarchy and became a parliamentary democracy. They also kept the british monarch (Queen Elizabeth the 2nd) as their head of state. The Queen is now represented by a Governor. They joined CommonWealth( an association made up of former territories controlled by the the british empire) this association promotes peace and provides several benefits such as the commonwealth games which bring increase the tourism rates every 4 years. Britain still has political influence on the bahamas because they both have the same head.

They also developed their own political parties such as the P.L.P( Progressive Liberal Party) they played a vital part on the process of gaining independence. They also formed the F.P.L.P( Free Progressive Liberal Party) which was the opposite of the F.L.P. The F.P.L.P then merged with United Bahamian Party to form the F.N.M(Free National Movement) and the party proceeded to take over.

The main language spoken being english is also an effect Britain because they should either speak their indigenous language that they created themselves before Christopher Columbus came to the islands or they should speak italian or spanish because those are the two languages he spoke and they would also be the first language the indigenous people were exposed to at the time.

The education in the Bahamas began to become better after they gained independence because they wanted citizens to be able to perform in the new nation. Education became one of the largest shares of the national budget after they seperated. Them seperating from Britain gave them a push to become better. In 1974 They got rid of entrance exams so that all students could go to college and they also opened the college of The Bahamas next to 4 other post-secondary institutions .

They also started to provide tertiary school which is just basically college all over the nation and not in just select areas. The Bahamas also started to look for funding for their education development. The Bahamas ministry of Education were sent representatives from commonwealth to help them come up with ideas for making the education system better overall.

They also came up with several policies to ensure school material was mastered such as the no social promotion policy and how graduations will always be linked to the academic performance of a student and not based on their participation. They introduced new studies such as tourism studies in post-secondary school(college). They introduced a new curriculum over all of the Bahamas that was created solely by the teachers of the Bahamas.

This was all done over a span of 25 years. They changed all these things and even changed their whole education system because of imperialism. Great Britain was not deeply involved with the education in the Bahamas while they were under their control so after they were freed they basically had to play catch up to compete with other nations that already had good education systems. Britain only helped through a commonwealth representative after they separated from each other.

Things were also starting to change in less major ways such as religion and other things. Majority of people lived in the city and the main religion at the time was christianity but there were still people who had other beliefs but the christianity stayed from the people who came to the islands for religious freedom. The ethnic groups in The Bahamas were mixed they had people of slave descendent and british descendent. They als had people who are asian that ended of migrating to the area. They also introduced a national flag. The cultural quickly became associated with Africa, More specifically West Africa. The African heritage comes from the african slaves that were brought to the Bahamas by the British as a slaves and the traditions were passed down to the descendants to the keep the culture alive.

InterCultural Understanding

Intercultural understanding is destroyed by imperialism because it completely gets rid of the opposing culture of the land you are invading. You are immediately pushing your culture upon them without trying to figure out how the opposing cultures works or the morals that come along with it so you also end up mistreating or being extremely disrespectful towards them. You can understand something unless you take the time out to actually sit down and learn it.

Imperialism is basically destroying culture. The whole point of cultural imperialism is to convert and or change the way people do things such as the way the speak or religion. That is basically what European expansion is. The objective is to destroy native culture and replace it with your own. The problem with imperialism is that there is no coexisting. Imperialism not only ruins intercultural understanding but it also ruins cultural diversity because they are trying to change everyone to their culture.

The thing about cultural imperialism is that it doesn't actually truly work the way it is expected to work by the nations that attempt it because people aren't letting there cultural slip away from them completely. Just like in the Bahamas how their prominent religion is Christianity and how they were shown those European customs during the time they were being controlled. They still ended up keeping pieces of heritage through the cultural that they kept alive slightly by telling stories and passing important cultural things down from generation to generation.
In conclusion, imperialism isn't necessarily bad idea.

It just isn't good for the place that is being invaded because they lose their culture slightly but on the other had the nation that's taking over culture will start to thrive as the culture is being vastly expanded because it is being exposed to brand new people and who is to say that these people wont prefer this culture over their current one but it is all based on the perspective you have of the situation and how the situation is handled.

Works Cited

Our History. The Official Site of The Bahamas, www.bahamas.com/our-history.
Bahamas Colony. The British Empire, www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/bahamas.htm.
The Bahamas, countrystudies.us/caribbean-islands/116.htm.
Bahamians - History and Cultural Relations. Countries and Their Cultures, www.everyculture.com/Middle-America-Caribbean/Bahamians-History-and-Cultural-Relations.html.
Saunders, Gail, and David Russell Harris. The Bahamas. Encyclop?dia Britannica, Encyclop?dia Britannica, Inc., 25 July 2018, www.britannica.com/place/The-Bahamas/Government-and-society.
miller_bethel, www.educoas.org/Portal/bdigital/contenido/interamer/BkIACD/Interamer/Interamerhtml/Millerhtml/mil_beth.htm.
Bahamas.", "The. The Bahamas. Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations, Encyclopedia.com, 2018, www.encyclopedia.com/places/latin-america-and-caribbean/caribbean-political-geography/bahamas#POLITICAL_PARTIES.
Bahama Islands. Countries and Their Cultures, www.everyculture.com/A-Bo/Bahama-Islands.html.

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