colonial system. Formation of the colonial system and the world capitalist economy

Geographical discoveries of the XV-XVI centuries. changed the course of world history, marking the beginning of the expansion of the leading Western European countries in various regions the globe and the emergence of colonial empires.

The first colonial powers were Spain and Portugal. A year after the discovery of the islands of the West Indies by Christopher Columbus, the Spanish crown demanded confirmation by the Pope (1493) of its exclusive right to discover the New World. Having concluded the Tordesillas (1494) and Zaragoza (1529) treaties, the Spaniards and the Portuguese divided New World to spheres of influence. However, the agreement of 1494 on the division of spheres of influence along the 49th meridian seemed too close to both sides (the Portuguese, contrary to him, were able to take over Brazil), and after world travel Magellan has lost its meaning. All newly discovered lands in America, with the exception of Brazil, were recognized as the possessions of Spain, which, in addition, captured the Philippine Islands. Brazil and lands along the coast of Africa, India and Southeast Asia went to Portugal.

The colonial activity of France, England and Holland until the beginning of the 17th century. was reduced mainly to preliminary reconnaissance of the territories of the New World, not conquered by the Spaniards and the Portuguese.

Only the crushing of Spanish and Portuguese dominance on the seas at the end of the 16th century. created the prerequisites for the rapid expansion of new colonial powers. A struggle for colonies began, in which the state-bureaucratic system of Spain and Portugal was opposed by the private entrepreneurial initiative of the Dutch and British.

Colonies have become an inexhaustible source of enrichment for states Western Europe, but their merciless exploitation turned into disasters for the indigenous people. The natives were often subjected to wholesale destruction or forced out of the lands, used as cheap labor or slaves, and their introduction to the Christian civilization was accompanied by the barbaric extermination of the original local culture.

With all this, Western European colonialism has become a powerful lever for the development of the world economy. The colonies ensured the accumulation of capital in the mother countries, creating new markets for them. As a result of the unprecedented expansion of trade, a world market has developed; the center of economic life moved from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Port cities of the Old World, such as Lisbon in Portugal, Seville in Spain, Antwerp and the Netherlands, have become powerful centers of trade. Antwerp became the richest city in Europe, in which, thanks to the regime of complete freedom of transactions established there, large-scale international trade and credit operations were carried out.

33. Formation of the colonial system and modernization of the civilizations of the East in the XIX century.

The countries of Europe, having carried out modernization, received huge advantages in comparison with the rest of the world, which was based on the principles of traditionalism. This advantage also affected the military potential. Therefore, after the era of the Great geographical discoveries, connected mainly with reconnaissance expeditions, already in the 12th-13th centuries, the colonialist expansion to the East of the most developed countries of Europe began. Traditional civilizations, due to the backwardness of their development, were not able to resist this expansion and turned into easy prey for their stronger opponents.

At the first stage of the colonization of traditional societies, Spain and Portugal were in the lead. They managed to conquer most South America. In the middle of the XVIII century, Spain and Portugal began to lag behind in economic development and, as maritime powers, were relegated to the background. Leadership in the colonial conquests passed to England. Since 1757, the trading station

The Indian English company for almost a hundred years captured almost the whole of Hindustan. Since 1706, active colonization by the British began North America. In parallel, the development of Australia was going on, on the territory of which the British sent criminals convicted to hard labor. The Dutch East India Company took over Indonesia. France established colonial rule in the West Indies, as well as in the New World (Canada).

African continent in the 17th-18th centuries. Europeans settled only on the coast and was used mainly as a source of slaves. In the 19th century, Europeans moved far inland, and by the middle of the 19th century, Africa was almost completely colonized. The exceptions were two countries: Christian Ethiopia, which offered staunch resistance to Italy, and Liberia, created by former slaves, immigrants from the United States.

In Southeast Asia, the French captured most of the territory of Indochina. Only Siam (Thailand) retained relative independence, but a large territory was also taken away from it.

By the middle of the 19th century, the developed countries of Europe were under strong pressure Ottoman Empire. The countries of the Levant (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine), which were officially considered part of the Ottoman Empire during this period, became a zone of active penetration of Western powers - France, England, Germany. During the same period, Iran lost not only economic but also political independence. AT late XIX century, its territory was divided into spheres of influence between England and Russia. Thus, in the 19th century, practically all the countries of the East fell into one form or another of dependence on the most powerful capitalist countries, turning into colonies or semi-colonies. For Western countries, the colonies were a source of raw materials, financial resources, labor, as well as markets. The exploitation of the colonies by the Western metropolises was of the most cruel, predatory character. At the price of merciless exploitation and robbery, the wealth of the western metropolises was created, maintained relatively high level the lives of their population.

Initially, European countries did not bring their own political culture and socio-economic relations to the colonies. Faced with the ancient civilizations of the East, which had long developed their own traditions of culture and statehood, the conquerors sought, first of all, their economic subjugation. In territories where statehood did not exist at all, or was at a fairly low level (for example, in North America or Australia), they were forced to create certain state structures, to some extent borrowed from the experience of the metropolitan countries, but with greater national specifics. In North America, for example, power was concentrated in the hands of governors who were appointed by the British government. The governors had advisers, as a rule, from among the colonists, who defended the interests of the local population. Self-government bodies played an important role: an assembly of representatives of the colonies and legislative bodies - legislatures.

In India, the British did not particularly interfere in political life and sought to influence local rulers through economic means of influence (bondage loans), as well as military aid in internecine struggle.

Economic policy in various European colonies! was largely similar. Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, England initially transferred feudal structures to their colonial possessions. At the same time, plantation farming was widely used. Of course, these were not classical slave plantations, as, say, in ancient Rome. They represented a large capitalist economy working for the market, but with the use of crude forms of non-economic coercion and dependence.

Many of the effects of colonization were negative. There was a robbery of national wealth, merciless exploitation of the local population and poor colonists. Trading companies brought stale goods of mass demand to the occupied territories and sold them at high prices. On the contrary, valuable raw materials, gold and silver, were exported from the colonial countries. Under the onslaught of goods from the metropolises, the traditional oriental craft withered, the traditional forms life, value systems.

However, eastern civilizations more and more drawn into the new system of world relations and fell under the influence of Western civilization. Gradually there was an assimilation of Western ideas and political institutions, the creation of capitalist; some economic infrastructure. Under the influence of these processes, the traditional eastern civilizations are being reformed.

A vivid example of the change in traditional structures under the influence of colonial policy is provided by the history of India. After the liquidation of the East India Trading Company in 1858, India became part of the British Empire. In 1861, a law was passed creating legislative advisory bodies, the Indian Councils, and in 1880, a law on local government. Thus, the beginning of a new phenomenon for Indian civilization was laid - the elected bodies of representation. Although it should be noted that only about 1% of the population of India had the right to take part in these elections.

The British made significant financial investments in the Indian economy. The colonial administration, resorting to loans from English bankers, built railways, irrigation facilities, enterprises. In addition, private capital also grew in India, which played a large role in the development of the cotton and jute industries, in the production of tea, coffee and sugar. The owners of the enterprises were not only the British, but also the Indians. 1/3 of the share capital was in the hands of the national bourgeoisie.

Since the 40s of the 19th century, the British authorities began to actively work on the formation of a national "Indian" intelligentsia in terms of blood and skin color, tastes, morals and mindset. Such an intelligentsia was formed in the colleges and universities of Calcutta, Madras, Bombay and other cities.

In the 19th century, the process of modernization also took place in the countries of the East, which did not directly fall into colonial dependence. In the 40s of the XIX century, reforms began in the Ottoman Empire. The administrative system and the court were transformed, secular schools were created. Non-Muslim communities (Jewish, Greek, Armenian) were officially recognized, and their members received admission to public service. In 1876, a bicameral parliament was created, which somewhat limited the power of the Sultan, the constitution proclaimed the basic rights and freedoms of citizens. However, the democratization of the eastern despotism turned out to be very fragile, and in 1878, after the defeat of Turkey in the war with Russia, a rollback to its original positions occurs. After the coup d'état, despotism again reigned in the empire, the parliament was dissolved, and the democratic rights of citizens were significantly curtailed.

In addition to Turkey, in the Islamic civilization, only two states began to master the European standards of life: Egypt and Iran. The rest of the vast Islamic world remained subject to the traditional way of life until the middle of the 20th century.

China has also made certain efforts to modernize the country. In the 60s of the 19th century, the policy of self-reinforcement gained wide popularity here. In China, industrial enterprises, shipyards, arsenals for the rearmament of the army began to be actively created. But this process has not received sufficient impetus. Further attempts to develop in this direction with great

reboyas resumed in the 20th century.

Japan advanced further than all of the countries of the East in the second half of the 19th century. The peculiarity of Japanese modernization is that in this country the reforms were carried out quite quickly and most consistently. Using the experience of advanced European countries, the Japanese modernized industry, introduced a new system of legal relations, changed the political structure, the education system, expanded civil rights and freedoms.

After the 1868 coup d'état in Japan, a series of radical reforms were carried out, known as the Meiji Restoration. As a result of these reforms, feudalism was ended in Japan. The government abolished feudal allotments and hereditary privileges, princes-daimyo, turning them into officials who headed the provinces and prefectures. Titles were preserved, but class distinctions were abolished. This means that, with the exception of the highest dignitaries, in terms of class, princes and samurai were equated with other classes.

Land for ransom became the property of the peasants and this opened the way for the development of capitalism. The prosperous peasantry, exempted from the tax - rent in favor of the princes, got the opportunity to work for the market. Small landowners became impoverished, sold their plots and either turned into farm laborers or went to work in the city.

The state undertook the construction of industrial facilities: shipyards, metallurgical plants, etc. It actively encouraged merchant capital, giving it social and legal guarantees. In 1889, a constitution was adopted in Japan, according to which a constitutional monarchy was established with great rights for the emperor.

As a result of all these reforms, Japan has changed dramatically in a short time. At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, Japanese capitalism turned out to be quite competitive in relation to the capitalism of the largest Western countries, and the Japanese state has become a powerful state.

World history contains great amount events, names, dates, which are placed in several tens or even hundreds of different textbooks. Different authors have different views on certain circumstances, but they are united by facts that must be told one way or another. In world history, phenomena are known that appeared once and for a long time, and others that appeared several times, but on short periods. One such phenomenon is the colonial system. In the article we will tell you what it is, where it was distributed and how it has become a thing of the past.

What is a colonial system?

The world colonial system, or colonialism, is a situation where industrially, culturally, economically developed countries dominate the rest of the world (less developed countries, or third world countries).

Dominance was usually established after armed attacks and subjugation of the state. It was expressed in the imposition of economic and political principles and rules of existence.

When it was?

The beginnings of the colonial system appeared in the 15th century during the Age of Discovery along with the discovery of India and America. Then the indigenous peoples of the open territories had to recognize the technological superiority of foreigners. The first real colonies were formed by Spain in the 17th century. Gradually, Great Britain, France, Portugal, and the Netherlands began to seize and spread their influence. Later, the United States and Japan joined them.

By the end of the 19th century, most of the world was divided among the great powers. Russia did not actively participate in the colonization, but also subjugated some neighboring territories.

Who belonged to whom?

Belonging to a particular country determined the course of development of the colony. How widespread the colonial system was, the table below will tell you best.

There were also smaller colonies, but the table shows that only Antarctica and Antarctica were not influenced by anyone, because they did not have raw materials and a platform for the development of industry, the economy, and life in general. The colonies were governed through governors appointed by the ruler of the metropolitan country or through constant visits to the colonies by him.

Characteristic features of the period

The period of colonialism has its own characteristic features:

• All actions are aimed at establishing a monopoly in trade with colonial territories, i.e., the metropolitan countries wanted the colonies to establish trade relations only with them and with no one else,
• armed attacks and plunder of entire states, and then subjugation of them,
• the use of feudal and slave-owning forms of exploitation of the population of the colonial countries, which turned them almost into slaves.

Thanks to this policy, the countries that owned the colonies quickly developed a stock of capital, which allowed them to take a leading position on the world stage. So, it was thanks to the colonies and their financial resources that England became the most developed country of that time.

How did it break up?

The colonial did not disintegrate immediately, at once. This process took place gradually. The main period of loss of influence over the colonial countries came at the end of World War II (1941-1945), because people believed that it was possible to live without oppression and control from another country.

Somewhere out of influence took place peacefully, with the help of agreements and the signing of agreements, and somewhere through military and insurgent actions. Some countries in Africa and Oceania are still under the rule of the United States, but they no longer experience such oppression as they did in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Consequences of the colonial system

The colonial system can hardly be called an unambiguously positive or negative phenomenon in the life of the world community. She had both positive and negative sides for both metropolitan states and colonies. The collapse of the colonial system led to certain consequences.

For metropolitan areas they were as follows:

• drop your own production capacity due to the possession of the markets and resources of the colonies and, therefore, the lack of incentives,
• investment in colonies to the detriment of the mother country,
• lagging behind in competition and development from other countries due to increased care for the colonies.

For colonies:

• destruction and loss of traditional culture and way of life, complete extermination of some nationalities;
• devastation of natural and cultural reserves;
• a decrease in the size of the local population of the colonies due to the attacks of the mother countries, epidemics, famine, etc.;
• the emergence of its own industry and intelligentsia;
• the emergence of foundations for the future independent development of the country.

The countries of Europe, having carried out modernization, received huge advantages in comparison with the rest of the world, which was based on the principles of traditionalism. This advantage also affected the military potential. Therefore, following the era of great geographical discoveries, associated mainly with reconnaissance expeditions, already in the 17th-18th centuries. colonial expansion to the East of the most developed countries of Europe began. Traditional civilizations, due to the backwardness of their development, were not able to resist this expansion and turned into easy prey for their stronger opponents. The prerequisites for colonialism originated in the era of the great geographical discoveries, namely in the 15th century, when Vasco da Gama opened the way to India, and Columbus reached the shores of America. In a collision with peoples of other cultures, Europeans demonstrated their technological superiority (ocean sailing ships and firearms). The first colonies were founded in the New World by the Spaniards. The robbery of the states of the American Indians contributed to the development of the European banking system, the growth of financial investments in science and stimulated the development of industry, which, in turn, required new raw materials.

The colonial policy of the period of primitive accumulation of capital is characterized by: the desire to establish a monopoly in trade with conquered territories, the seizure and plunder of entire countries, the use or imposition of predatory feudal and slave-owning forms of exploitation of the local population. This policy played a huge role in the process of primitive accumulation. It led to the concentration of large capital in the countries of Europe on the basis of the robbery of the colonies and the slave trade, which especially developed from the 2nd half of the 17th century and served as one of the levers for turning England into the most developed country that time.

In the enslaved countries, the colonial policy caused the destruction of the productive forces, delayed the economic and political development these countries, led to the plunder of vast areas and the extermination of entire peoples. Military confiscation methods played leading role in the operation of the colonies during that period.

At the first stage of the colonization of traditional societies, Spain and Portugal were in the lead. They managed to conquer most of South America.

Colonialism in modern times. As the transition from manufactory to large-scale factory industry, significant changes took place in colonial policy. The colonies are economically more closely associated with the metropolises, turning into their agricultural and raw material appendages with a monocultural direction of development. Agriculture, to markets industrial products and sources of raw materials for the growing capitalist industry of the mother countries. Thus, for example, the export of British cotton fabrics to India from 1814 to 1835 increased 65 times.

The spread of new methods of exploitation, the need to create special organs of colonial administration that could consolidate dominance over local peoples, as well as the rivalry of various sections of the bourgeoisie in the metropolises, led to the liquidation of monopoly colonial trading companies and the transition of the occupied countries and territories under public administration metropolises.

The change in the forms and methods of exploitation of the colonies was not accompanied by a decrease in its intensity. Huge wealth was exported from the colonies. Their use led to the acceleration of socio-economic development in Europe and North America.
With the advent of the industrial age, Great Britain became the largest colonial power. Having defeated France in the course of a long struggle in the 18th and 19th centuries, she increased her possessions at her expense, as well as at the expense of the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. Great Britain subjugated India. In 1840-42, and together with France in 1856-60, she waged the so-called Opium Wars against China, as a result of which she imposed favorable treaties on China. She took possession of Xianggang (Hong Kong), tried to subjugate Afghanistan, captured strongholds in Persian Gulf, Aden. The colonial monopoly, together with the industrial monopoly, ensured Great Britain the position of the most powerful power throughout almost the entire 19th century. Colonial expansion was also carried out by other powers. France subjugated Algeria (1830-48), Vietnam (50-80s of the 19th century), established its protectorate over Cambodia (1863), Laos (1893). In 1885, the Congo became the possession of the Belgian King Leopold II, and a system of forced labor was established in the country.

In the middle of the XVIII century. Spain and Portugal began to fall behind in economic development and how maritime powers were relegated to the background. Leadership in the colonial conquests passed to England. Beginning in 1757, the trading English East India Company for almost a hundred years captured almost the entire Hindustan. Since 1706, the active colonization of North America by the British began.

African continent in the XVII-XVIII centuries. Europeans settled only on the coast and was used mainly as a source of slaves. In the 19th century Europeans moved far into the interior of the continent and by the middle of the 19th century. Africa was almost completely colonized. The exceptions were two countries: Christian Ethiopia, which offered staunch resistance to Italy, and Liberia, created by former slaves, immigrants from the United States.

In Southeast Asia, the French captured most of the territory of Indochina. Only Siam (Thailand) retained relative independence, but a large territory was also taken away from it.

Thus, in the XIX century. practically all the countries of the East fell into one form or another of dependence on the most powerful capitalist countries, turning into colonies or semi-colonies. For Western countries, the colonies were a source of raw materials, financial resources, labor, as well as markets. The exploitation of the colonies by the Western metropolises was of the most cruel, predatory character. At the cost of ruthless exploitation and robbery, the wealth of the western metropolises was created, a relatively high standard of living of their population was maintained.

Colony types:

According to the type of management, settlement and economic development in the history of colonialism, three main types of colonies were distinguished: Resettlement colonies. Raw colonies (or exploited colonies). Mixed (resettlement-raw material colonies).

Migration colonialism is a type of colonization management, the main purpose of which was to expand the living space of the titular ethnos of the metropolis to the detriment of the autochthonous peoples. The local population is suppressed, forced out, and often physically destroyed. An example of a modern resettlement colony is Israel.

The key points in the creation of resettlement colonies are two conditions: low density of the autochthonous population with a relative abundance of land and other natural resources. Naturally, migrant colonialism leads to a deep structural restructuring of the life and ecology of the region in comparison with resource (raw material colonialism), which, as a rule, ends with decolonization sooner or later.
The first examples of a resettlement colony mixed type became colonies of Spain (Mexico, Peru) and Portugal (Brazil).
As time passed, the migrant colonies turned into new nations. This is how Argentines, Peruvians, Mexicans, Canadians, Brazilians, US Americans, Guiana Creoles, New Caledonian Caldoches, Breyons, French-Acadians, Cajuns and French-Canadians (Quebecs) arose. They continue to be connected with the former metropolis by language, religion and common culture.

Features of colony management.

Colonial dominance was administratively expressed either in the form of a "dominion" (direct control of the colony through a viceroy, captain-general or governor-general), or in the form of a "protectorate". The ideological substantiation of colonialism proceeded through the need to spread culture (culturism, modernization, westernization - this is the spread of Western values ​​around the world) - "the burden of the white man."

The Spanish version of colonization meant the expansion of Catholicism, Spanish through the encomienda system. Encomienda is a form of dependence of the population of the Spanish colonies on the colonizers. Dutch colonization South Africa meant apartheid, the expulsion of the local population and its imprisonment in reservations or bantustans. The colonists formed communities completely independent of the local population, which were recruited from people of various classes, including criminals and adventurers. Religious communities were also widespread. The power of the colonial administration was exercised according to the principle of "divide and conquer" by pitting local religious communities (Hindus and Muslims in British India) or hostile tribes (in colonial Africa), as well as through apartheid (racial
discrimination). Often the colonial administration supported the oppressed groups to fight their enemies and created armed groups from.

Initially, European countries did not bring their own political culture and socio-economic relations to the colonies. Faced with the ancient civilizations of the East, which had long developed their own traditions of culture and statehood, the conquerors sought, first of all, their economic subjugation. In territories where statehood did not exist at all, or was at a fairly low level, they were forced to create certain state structures, to some extent borrowed from the experience of metropolitan countries, but with greater national specifics. In North America, for example, power was concentrated in the hands of governors who were appointed by the British government. The governors had advisers, as a rule, from among the colonists, who defended the interests of the local population. Big role self-government bodies played: an assembly of representatives of the colonies and legislative bodies - legislatures.

In India, the British did not interfere much in political life and sought to influence local rulers through economic means of influence (bondage loans), as well as providing military assistance in internecine struggle.

The economic policy in the various European colonies was largely similar. Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, England initially transferred feudal structures to their colonial possessions. At the same time, plantation farming was widely used.
Many of the effects of colonization were negative. There was a robbery of national wealth, merciless exploitation of the local population and poor colonists. Trading companies brought stale goods of mass demand to the occupied territories and sold them at high prices. On the contrary, valuable raw materials, gold and silver, were exported from the colonial countries. Under the onslaught of goods from the metropolises, the traditional oriental craft withered, traditional forms of life and value systems were destroyed.

At the same time, Eastern civilizations were increasingly drawn into the new system of world relations and fell under the influence of Western civilization. Gradually there was an assimilation of Western ideas and political institutions, the creation of a capitalist economic infrastructure. Under the influence of these processes, the traditional eastern civilizations are being reformed.

Colonies in modern meaning appeared in the era of the Great Geographers. Discoveries, as a result of which the colonial system begins to take shape. And this stage in the development of colonialism is associated with the formation of capitalist relations, therefore the concepts of "colonialism" and "capitalism" are inextricably linked, and capitalism becomes the dominant socio-economic system, and the colonies accelerate this process.

Stage 1 of the formation of colonialism is the colonialism of the era of primitive capital accumulation (PNK) and manufacturing capitalism. Here the main processes were colonial robbery and colonial trade, which were the main sources of PNK.

At this stage, as a result of the VGO, vast colonial possessions began to form, primarily Spain and Portugal, between which in 1494 an Agreement was concluded on the division of the world by 30 degree meridian in Atlantic Ocean, along which all the lands to the West from this line were colonies of Spain, and to the East - all the lands of Portugal. This was the beginning of the formation of the colonial system.

The first period of colonialism also affects the manufacturing period. Later, in the 60s of the 16th century, the Dutch merchants and bourgeois began to overtake Spain and Portugal in terms of the accumulation of wealth. Holland ousts the Portuguese from Ceylon, creates its strongholds in South Malaysia, Indonesia.

Almost simultaneously with the Portuguese, England begins its expansion in West Africa (in the countries of Gambia, Ghana), and from the beginning of the 17th century - in India.

Stage 2 of colonialism coincides with the era of industrial capitalism (i.e., stage 2 of the development of capitalism). A new stage in the development of capitalism applied new methods of exploiting the colonies. Thus, for further colonial conquests, it was necessary to unite large merchants and industrialists of the metropolitan countries.

At this stage in the development of the colonial system, the industrial revolution takes place (this is the transition from manufactories to factories and plants), which begins in the last third of the 18th century. and ends in developed European countries around the middle of the 19th century. At this stage, the period of commodity exchange begins, with the help of which the colonial countries are drawn into world commodity circulation. Thus, the non-economic methods of exploitation (that is, violence) are replaced by other economic methods (this is the exchange of goods between the colonies and mother countries), as a result, the mother countries turn the colonies into their agricultural appendages for the needs of their industry.

Stage 3 - this is the stage of monopoly capitalism, corresponds to the last third of the 19th century. and before the First World War (until 1914). During this period, the forms of exploitation of the colonies change, they are drawn into the world capitalist market, and through it into the production of goods. And by the beginning of the First World War, the colonial system was fully formed, i.e. at this stage, the territorial division of the world was completed, when the colonial possessions of 3 European powers were formed: England, Germany, France.

The collapse of the colonial system

Stage 1 of the collapse of the colonial system dates back to the end of the 18th century. - the first quarter of the 19th century, when, as a result of the wars of independence from Spanish and Portuguese rule, countries gained freedom: in North America - the United States (a former English colony) and many countries Latin America(Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia).

Stage 2 of the collapse is associated with the crisis of the colonial system, which began in the early 20th century. During the period of imperialism, the preconditions for the collapse of the colonial system are created, these are:

1) the creation of entrepreneurship in the colonies created an opportunity further development only with national independence;

2) the revolution in Russia in 1905-07, which predetermined the trend of the national liberation movement in the colonies;

3) the crisis of Western civilization associated with the First World War and the profound socio-political changes that followed it in the world, which influenced the anti-colonial struggle (i.e., the collapse of the colonial system).