17. The collapse of the colonial system. Developing countries and their role in international development

The system of colonialism. The term "colonialism" is commonly understood as the aggressive, predatory policy of the conquering powers (metropolis) in relation to the captured peoples and territories (colonies), which become their full property. Colonies and colonialism existed in the days of pre-monopoly capitalism and even long before capitalism, as exemplified by the pronounced colonial policy of the Roman Empire. A characteristic feature of colonialism from the end of the XIX century. It was the completion of the territorial division of the world between the major colonial powers, the leading industrial countries of the world, representing Western civilization: Great Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, the USA and some others. Japan, representing the countries of Eastern civilization, whose industrial development allowed it to make a rapid leap in military-economic development and actively intervene in the colonial division of the world in the South-East as early as the 19th century, can present a notable exception.

These countries have captured almost all of Africa and Polynesia, consolidated their positions in Asia and Latin America. The total territory of the colonial possessions in the last third of the XIX century. increased from 40 to 65 million square meters. km, and the number of colonial peoples exceeded 500 million people.

Thus, it can be stated that the colonial system has become a global phenomenon, and the role of colonies as a source of raw materials, cheap labor, a sales market and the sphere of capital investment has increased with the development of the world market.

However, it would be wrong to restrict the colonial system only to colonies in which the metropolis were the undivided masters. There were also various forms of semi-colonial dependence (for example, Persia, China, Turkey) and various forms of dependent countries that were politically formally independent, but entangled in such economic and military-political treaties that nullified their independence. As an example, Argentina, which Schulz-Gevernits (1864-1943), a researcher in British Imperialism and English Free Trade at the Beginning of the 20th Century, published in 1906, called "almost an English trading colony" can be cited.

The crisis of Western civilization, so clearly manifested in the beginning of XX century. as a result of the First World War and the profound sociopolitical changes in the world that followed, influenced the growth of the anti-colonial struggle. However, the victorious countries jointly managed to bring down the burning fire. Nevertheless, in the conditions of the growing crisis of civilization, Western countries were forced to gradually change their view of the place and future of the peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The latter were gradually drawn into market relations (for example, the trade policy of England in the colonies, beginning with the Great Crisis of 1929-1933), as a result of which private property was strengthened in dependent countries, elements of a new non-traditional social structure, Western culture, education, etc. .P. This was manifested in timid, inconsistent attempts to modernize the most outdated traditional relations in a number of semi-colonial countries on the Western model, which ultimately rested on the primary problem of gaining political independence, but the growth of totalitarian tendencies in the Western world was accompanied by an increase in the ideology and policies of racism in the interwar period, which It certainly increased the resistance of the metropolis to the anti-colonial movement in general. That is why only after the Second World War, with the victory of the forces of democracy over fascism, the emergence of a socialist system alternative to capitalism, which traditionally supported the anti-colonial struggle of oppressed peoples (for ideological and political reasons), favorable conditions emerged for the collapse and subsequent collapse of the colonial system.

Stages of the collapse of the colonial system. The question of the system of international custody (in other words, the colonial problem) in accordance with the agreement of the heads of government of England, the USSR and the USA was included in the agenda of the conference in San Francisco, which established the United Nations in 1945. The Soviet representatives insisted on the principle of independence for the colonial peoples, their opponents, and above all the British, representing the largest colonial empire at that time, sought to make the UN Charter only refer to the movement "towards self-government." As a result, a formula was adopted that was close to the one proposed by the Soviet delegation: the UN trusteeship system should lead the trust territories in the direction of “self-government and independence”.

In the ten years that followed, more than 1.2 billion people were freed from colonial and semi-colonial dependence. 15 sovereign states appeared on the world map, in which over 4/5 of the population of the former colonial possessions lived. The largest British colonies, India (1947) and Ceylon (1948), the French mandated territories Syria and Lebanon (1943, the withdrawal of troops — 1946) were liberated. Vietnam was liberated from Japanese colonial dependence during the eight-year war (1945-1954 ), defeated the socialist revolution in North Korea and China.

Since the mid 50s. began the collapse of the colonial system in its classical forms of direct subordination and dictate. In 1960, the United Nations General Assembly, at the initiative of the USSR, adopted a Declaration on the granting of independence to former colonial countries.

By the end of World War II, about 200 million people lived in 55 territories of the African continent and a number of adjacent islands. Formally, Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia and the dominion of Great Britain - the Union of South Africa, which had their own governments and administrations, were considered independent. A huge part of the territories of Africa was divided between England, France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Italy. 1960 went down in history as the “Year of Africa”. Then the independence of 17 countries of the central and western part of the continent was proclaimed. On the whole, the process of liberation of Africa was completed by 1975. By this time, 3.7% of the world's population lived in the remaining colonies in an area that was less than 1% of the globe.

In total, after World War II, more than 2 billion people were freed from the colonial yoke. The collapse of the colonial system is undoubtedly a progressive phenomenon in the modern history of mankind, since for a huge mass of the population of the planet opened the possibility of independent choice of the path, national expression, access to the achievements of civilization.

Third World countries

Third World countries. At the same time, a number of the most serious problems of the developing countries , called developing countries, or third world countries . These problems are not only regional, but also global, and therefore can only be solved with the active participation of all countries of the world community.

In accordance with a sufficiently mobile UN classification, it is common to refer the majority of countries of the world to developing countries, with the exception of developed industrial countries.

Despite the huge diversity of economic life, the countries of the Third World have similar characteristics that allow them to be combined into this category. The main one is the colonial past, the consequences of which can be found in the economy, politics and culture of these countries. They have one way of forming the existing structure of industry - the widespread predominance of manual production in the colonial period and the program of transition to industrial production methods after independence. Therefore, in developing countries, the pre-industrial and industrial types of production, as well as production, based on the latest achievements of the scientific and technological revolution, are closely neighbors. But mostly dominated by the first two types. The economy of all the countries of the Third World is characterized by a lack of harmony in the development of branches of the national economy, which is also explained by the fact that they did not fully pass through the successive phases of economic development, as are the leading countries.

For most developing countries, a policy of statism is characteristic , i.e. direct government intervention in the economy in order to accelerate its growth. The lack of sufficient private investment and foreign investment forces the state to assume the functions of an investor. True, in recent years, in many developing countries, a policy of privatization of enterprises has begun to be implemented - privatization, supported by measures to stimulate the private sector: preferential taxation, import liberalization and protectionism for the most important privately-owned enterprises.

Despite the important general characteristics that unite developing countries, they can be divided into several groups of the same type. It is necessary to be guided by such criteria as: the structure of the country's economy, exports and imports, the degree of openness of the country and its involvement in the world economy, some features of the state economic policy.

The name of the developed countries. The least developed countries include the soils of the states of Tropical Africa (Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Chad, Togo, Tanzania, Somalia, Western Sahara), Asia (Kampuchea, Laos), Latin America (Tahiti, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, etc.). These countries are characterized by low or even negative growth rates. In the structure of the economy of these countries, the agrarian sector dominates (up to 80-90%), although it is not able to provide domestic needs for food and raw materials. The low profitability of the main sector of the economy makes it impossible to rely on domestic sources of accumulation for much-needed investments in the development of production, the training of skilled labor, the improvement of technology, etc.

The least developed countries are characterized by a weak development of the market mechanism. This is due to the routine state of agriculture (on average, 80% of the economically active population, creating only 42% of the gross domestic product, underdevelopment of industry, low purchasing level of the population) are employed. National capital for the most part, however, is concentrated in the commercial sphere. However, he prefers to occupy the niche of trade in imported goods and not to invest in national production due to the high degree of risk.

The economy of this group of countries is characterized by underdeveloped production, auxiliary infrastructure, transport network, electric power industry, communication system, banking, which does not at all contribute to attracting foreign investment and hinders economic development based on poor domestic savings. Moreover, the 80-90-ies. there was a tendency to reduce the inflow of foreign investment in their economies, which thus becomes less open.

Does not contribute to the openness of the economy and the structure of foreign trade. All countries of this group are at the same time exporters of agricultural products, the prices of which are most subject to fluctuations in the foreign market, and the largest importers of industrial products.

The demographic situation has a negative impact on the economic development of these countries. High rates of population growth contribute to maintaining a low level of income, restrain the growth of purchasing power. And low agricultural productivity, coupled with population growth, leads to food shortages and famine.

In the world economy, the least developed countries occupy the place of the periphery, acting as suppliers of raw materials and cheap labor.

Countries with an average level of development. Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Algeria, the Philippines, Indonesia, Peru, Colombia and others form a large group of developing countries with an average level of economic development . The structure of the economy of these countries is characterized by a greater share of industry compared with the agrarian sector and more developed domestic and foreign trade. . This group of countries has great potential for development due to the presence of internal sources of accumulation. These countries are not so acutely faced with the problem of poverty and hunger. Their place in the world economy is determined by a significant technological gap with developed countries and large external debt.

Oil producing countries. Significant specifics of the economy are oil-producing countries: Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and others, which previously bore characteristic features of lagging states. The world's largest oil reserves, actively exploited in these countries, allowed them to quickly become one of the richest (in terms of annual per capita income) states in the world. However, the structure of the economy as a whole is characterized by extreme one-sidedness, imbalance, and therefore potential vulnerability. Along with the high development of the mining industry, the rest of the industry does not really play a significant role in the economy. In the system of the world economy, these countries firmly occupy the place of the largest exporters of oil. Largely due to this, this group of countries is becoming the largest international banking center.

New industrial countries . Another group of countries with high rates of economic growth are the new industrial countries, which include South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, India, etc. These countries ’public policies include a focus on attracting private (domestic and foreign capital, reducing the public sector by expanding private business. National measures include raising the level of education of the population, spreading computer literacy. They are characterized by the intensive development of industry, including high-tech export-oriented industries. Their industrial production largely corresponds to the level of world standards. These countries are increasingly strengthening their position in the world market, as evidenced by the numerous modern industries that have emerged and are dynamically developing in these countries with the participation of foreign capital and transnational corporations. The so-called new transnationals, competing with US TNCs, appeared in countries such as South Korea, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil, and others.

Newly industrialized countries are developing through skillful borrowing, selection of indisputable achievements of Western civilization and their skillful application to national traditions and way of life.

It should be noted that such an assessment or a European vision of the development prospects of the newly-free countries (whether they relate to the Arab-Islamic, Indo-Buddhist or Chinese-Confucian worlds) are also characteristic of the Marxist school. So, the majority of Soviet scientists believed (as well as a significant part of bourgeois researchers) that after the liberation of the Third World, they would begin to rapidly catch up with the developed countries. The only difference in this approach was a different, and more specifically, a polar assessment of the merits of the capitalist and socialist models of choice, able to ensure the pace and ultimate success of development. And this difference in approach was to a certain extent justified by the fact that after liberation, the developing countries seemed to be entering the orbit of one or another political camp: socialist or capitalist.

It is known that after the victory of the liberation movements (in the interpretation of Soviet researchers - the people's democratic revolutions) a number of developing countries embarked on the path of socialist construction (Vietnam, Laos, North Korea, China). About 20 other developing countries, including Algeria, Guinea, Ethiopia, Benin, Congo, Tanzania, Burma, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Mozambique, Angola and others, have chosen the path of socialist orientation (or non-capitalist development). The total territory of this group of states to the beginning of the 80s. was 17 million square meters. km, and the population - about 220 million people.

However, the majority of the liberated countries sought to strengthen their political and economic positions on the road to capitalist modernization, which began in the colonial period. And in the 60-80-ies. a number of these countries and achieved serious success. These are Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, “countries of the oil elite”, new industrial countries and some others.

However, neither the orientation towards the West nor socialism provided the vast majority of the liberated countries with such development rates that would allow them to catch up with the developed countries. Более того, многие страны Третьего мира не только не догоняют передовые, но даже отстают от них еще больше. Сегодня стало очевидным, что многие развивающиеся страны и не желают, и не в состоянии повторить универсальный путь развития, будь то западный, капиталистический вариант или социалистическая модель. Понимание этой истины огромным большинством стран Третьего мира привело к возникновению (еще в 1961 г.) и консолидации Движения неприсоединения, которое в 1986 г. объединило 100 государств с совокупным населением 1,5 млрд. человек.

По всей видимости, иллюзии по отношению к потенциальным возможностям стран Третьего мира изживаются и в Европе. Это происходит по мере выхода западной цивилизации из кризиса первой половины XX в. и возвращения ее к гуманистическим ценностям в постиндустриальную эпоху.

Иными словами, зреет понимание того, что единственно возможным вариантом развития мировой цивилизации является равноправный диалог, сотрудничество на основе синтеза ценностей, накопленных Западом и Востоком (под Востоком подразумеваются различные типы цивилизаций, к которым относятся страны Третьего мира). А также понимание того, что западный вариант развития привел к возникновению глобальных проблем, угрожающих существованию человечества, в то время как восточный вариант сохранил ценности, способные оказать неоценимую помощь в решении этих проблем. Однако еще раз следует подчеркнуть, что этот диалог возможен на основе полного отказа Запада от рецидивов политики неоколониализма. И по всей видимости, только на этом пути возможны прогресс и выживание как западной цивилизации, так и решение проблем отставания, бедности, нищеты, голода и т.п. в странах Третьего мира.

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In the world-historical process of the XX century. was the epoch when at its beginning the territorial division of the world between the leading powers was completed, and at the end the disintegration of the colonial system occurred. The Soviet Union played an important role in granting independence to the colonial countries.

For the same historical period of time, only new industrial and oil-producing countries have achieved certain success in economic development. Countries that developed after liberation along the path of a socialist orientation remain among the least developed.

For most Third World countries, the problems of hunger, poverty, employment, lack of qualified personnel, illiteracy, and external debt remain acute. Thus, the problems of the Third World countries, where about 2 billion people live, are a global problem of our time.

Questions for self-test

1. 1. What can you say about the colonies? When the colonial system was formed, what stages did it go through in its development?

2. 2. When did the colonial system break up? What role did the USSR play in this process? What variants of socio-economic development were possible for the liberated countries?

3. 3. Tell us about the results achieved by developing countries after independence. What explains their differences?