Colonialism: A Critical Overview

Abstract

The Enlightenment had a central role in articulating the superior, civilized nature of modern empires. The ‘reformulation' of empire with the Enlightenment and modernity signified an important, if imperfect, change in Western European political and cultural thought (Pagden, 1995). Commerce was now preferred to conquest in expanding European powers. The ‘serious business' of bringing' the ‘far-flung civilizations' they had discovered into the orbit of western trade and commerce, and exploiting their wealth, land and labour and natural resources for European development had become a major enterprise. Europe began to imprint its culture and customs on the new worlds. The colonies became the ‘jewels in the crown' of the new European empires (Hall, 1992: 287).