For this blog about imperialism and colonization, I am using a text from an AP world book because we are learning about this topic right now in class. The definition of colonialism, as defined in AP achiever, is "not just the sending of colonists to new lands, but the exportation of social, political, economic, and cultural structures which come to dominate the subject lands and seek to supplant similar indigenous or traditional structures". This fits along very well with the colonization that happened in Nectar In A Sieve. Not only did the colonists arrive in the Indian village, but they changed structures as well. The social structure was changed because the new white men played a dominant and powerful role in society which revamped social statuses. Economic structures were dramatically changed, because of inflation that happened and new competition among other vendors in the marketplace. Cultural structures were also changed because of new values and ideals brought with the colonizers. This type of thing happens all throughout history. The chapter i'm reading about is specifically about British imperialism spread to India. They were originally drawn there because of available ports along the coast for the British East India company. It is interesting to be able to make connections from AP world class and our english book.
Grupe, Dixie and Reynolds, Sigrid. AP Achiever: World History. McGraw Hill, 2007.