Ivory Coast

(1) History

• Population

: 18 million people

: 25 per cent of them in Abidjan (the size of Toronto)

• for the first 20 years after independence,

: Ivory Coast - the envy of Africa, with its economy growing, eight per cent a year.

• France

: its initial contact with Ivory Coast in 1637

: Ivory Coast - a source of slaves

• Ivory Coast

: a French colony in 1893

: in 1958, an autonomous republic within the French community

(2) Politics• Ivory Coast: political stability from its independence

until late 1999.

• but, potential instabilities from a country whose ethnic unity is fragile: the northerners - mainly Muslim : the southerners - mainly Christian: Christian southerners prevailed against the

mainly Muslim northerners : constructed by the colonialists without regard to the

local people

• the more than 5 million - non-Ivorian Africans

: one-third from Burkina Faso

: the rest from Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Benin, Senegal, Liberia, and Mauritania.

: the northerners and immigrants - the backbone of plantation labor force

: a civil war between the northerners and the southerners

(3) Economics

• the Ivorian economy

: the agricultural sector

: Ivory Coast produces 40% of the world's cocoa crop

: almost 70% of the Ivorian people - agricultural activity

: reliance on raw cocoa and coffee exports, which account for 40% of total exports

: the economy performed poorly in the 1980s and early 1990s

- falling world market prices of Cote d'Ivoire's primary export crops of cocoa and coffee

- a steady fall in living standards

- recession

- an important cause of the political instability

Some Definitions

• Global South: less-developed countries primarily in the Southern Hemisphere

• Global North: wealthy industrialized countries primarily in the Northern Hemisphere

- Global South: “developing countries,” the “have-not,” “underdeveloped,” “less-developed,” “nonindustrialized,” “Third World,” “Other World.”

- most of the countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

- more than three-quarters of the world’s population

Characterizing Global South

1. Dependence on Western powers

2. Population explosion

3. Delayed modernization

4. Unequal Distribution of Wealth

Global Imperialism, 1914

1. Dependence on Western Powers/Colonialism

• most of Global South: historically colonies of major Western powers.

• their economic, educational, religious, and political system

: heavily influenced by their histories

(1) The first wave of European Colonialism (15C –18C)• late 1400s: Europe used transportation and military technology to

conquer colonies

(2) The Second Wave of European Colonialism (1870s – the outbreak of WWI)

• the portion of the globe that European controlled: one-third in 1800, two-thirds by 1878, and four-fifths by 1914

• 1880s: final burst colonizes most of Africa• all of the Far East and the Pacific except: China, Japan, Siam

(Thailand) • Great Britain: one-fifth of the earth’s land, one-fourth of its

population

(3) Decolonization from 1947-1960s

• the British relinquished India and Pakistan (1947)

• the French gave up Indochina, Algeria (1950s and 1960s)

• Yet, neocolonialism: continued domination of the Global South by the Global North through economic means

Global Imperialism, 1914

Colonialism

(1) Supporters of empire• the colonialism brought the benefits: education,

science, the rule of law, and efficient administration.

• “The act is virtuous, the exercise invigorating, and the result often extremely profitable.” - Winston Churchill

• President William McKinley justified the annexation of the Philippines: “the United States would bring Christianity to the

islands”

(2) Critics of colonialism

• “the colonizers justified their empires with the claim that they were bringing the benefits of Western civilization to a backward world.”

• “almost all the imbalances that now cripple the economies, societies, and politics of Global South had their origins in colonialism.”

The Colonial Origins of the Global South’s Plight

• both dependency theory and world system theory

: the poverty facing Global South is partly a product of imperial pasts

: the European powers exploited their overseas territories

The Legacy of Colonialism

• the history of colonial rule

: the bloody wars of conquest

: the suppression of rebellion

: the murder of local rulers

: the massacre and enslavement of entire populations

: the expropriation of land

• traditional authority and status system: undermined.

• the colonialists

: wiped out indigenous industry

- the self-sufficiency of the Global South

: transformed it into a source of raw materials for western industry.

: the introduction of western technology and techniques.

- initiated the technological dependence in industry.

• the economies of the colony

: became permanently dependent upon those of European and North America.

• the colonialists

: introduction of western styles of education which unfitted people in their own rural societies.

: the elites they handed over power to were schooled in western ways.

• instead of pursuing indigenous models, almost all of them

: imitation western societies.

• many of the historical artifacts and treasures were lost.

- Egyptians artifacts and mummies

: more abundant in European and American museums.

2. Population Growth

• 6.2 billion people

• the Global South: 80 percent of global population

• The U.S.: less than 5 percent of the world population

- One-fifth: Chinese

- 17 percent: Indian

Population

Source: From WORLD DEVELOPMENT REPORT 1999/2000: by World Bank, copyright 2000 by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank. Used by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.

• all the population growth occurs in the Global South - 95% of total added population (77 million)

: were appended in the Global South

- Sub-Saharan Africa: one of rapid population growth

- the surge in the Global South’ population: a combination of high birthrates and relatively low death

rates

• often unable to deal with social, economic and environmental problems of larger population

• the larger families, the lower incomes

3. Delayed Modernization

• high rates of illiteracy and a shortage of skilled teachers, and technicians etc.

• a lack of capital and technology

• only one-third of the Global South

: access to adequate sanitation of food, water, and environment

: in India, less than 10% of population has toilets

4. Unequal Distribution of Wealth

• the Global South live at a subsistence level• 1.1 billion people’s (one-fifth of the world population)

annual incomes: less than $370 (the U.S.: $38,000)

• conditions in Africa: its share of the world’s poor doubled from 16% to 32%

in the last decade• civil wars in Liberia, Angola, Namibia, Mozambique,

Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan• over 43% of the population south of the Sahara

: in poverty in 2000

Why Global South did not develop

• all three continents of what is now Global South: the home of civilizations: mathematics, astronomy, and medicine were highly

developed: in an intellectual, moral and spiritual sense, several

of them were in advance of the West• Europe was able to be ahead of them because of

: development of material respects: breakthroughs in the technology of war and of sea travel: evolution of industrial revolution

Summer Palace

Emperor’s Residence Hall

Asia: Oriental despots

• China - more advanced than Europe in technical respects until the 16th century

: the Great Wall - stretches for more than 4,000

miles, the Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 206 BC).

: many of the preconditions for industrialization

existed

- automatic water-driven machines

- large concentration of capital in the hands of merchants

- banks with branches all over China

Automatic Water-Driven machine

Merchants in Hong Kong

• The impediment to the emergence of industrialization

- the institution of oriental despotism

- the despot : suppressed all sources of power and wealth independent of himself.

: appealed to straightforward power lust.

: lived in luxury.

: took the agricultural surplus

- little motivation for private enterprise.

• the people

: invested their ambitions in passing exams rather than expanding enterprises

Zheng He (1405 – 1433)

• General Zheng He

: several famous naval expedition during the early Ming dynasty.

: in 1405 his fleet of 300 ships and 27,000 men

- visited Vietnam, Siam, Java, Ceylon, and the West coast of India.

: six more such voyages in the following 24 years

- sailing all the way to Arabia and Egypt.

• no interest in oversea expansion: Middle Kingdom: the Chinese saw no use for anything foreign

• all outlying countries : barbarians who were permitted to pay tribute to the

emperor

• expeditions brought back the news : “there wasn’t anything worthwhile beyond the seas”

• for centuries, China remained a stay-at-home country

Why Europe did develop: free cities and bourgeois merchants

• The essential elements

1. a healthy agricultural surplus by innovation

: provided the basis on which cities and industry could grow

2. Western cities

: evolved as market centers for the exchange of agricultural surplus

3. a class of merchants and entrepreneurs free to pursue wealth.

: more freedom to act independently of their rulers.

: their eye for profits

- motivated the voyages of discovery

: the merchants

- massive profits from their trade with the other world by the unfair terms of trade.

- it made possible the accumulation of capital to finance larger manufacturing enterprise.

- the tainted profits of conquest and of slavery in colonies added to the pile of capital.

4. the development of a practical science: based on mathematics, experiment and mechanics.

5. the availability of markets in the colonies: encouraged the rapid development of machine

production.6. the final key to Europe’s world hegemony

: her military superiority on land as well as at sea.

“Without exploitation, the West would never have industrialized in the first place.” - Harrison

A. Modernization Theory

• modernization theory: dominant in the 1950s and 1960s.

• the underdevelopment: posed by the Global South’ own internal characteristics

• after independence, many advocates of economic development: the former colonies

- emulate the Global North : a central belief

- all societies go through similar stages of development. (1) underdevelopment (2) take-off, and (3) modernity

• “Washington consensus”: free markets

- bring about economic growth and wealth: create conditions for efficient production, free

enterprise, and free trade: pass through stages of development and reach “take off”: everyone would enjoy the benefits: the gap between the rich and the poor is reduced: the Global South

- similar to the Global North

• Western Europe and the U.S.: models of development for the rest of the world

• critics: ignore specific problems and conditions in Global

South: disregard these areas’ historical, cultural, economic,

and political differences: tend to treat African, Asian, and Latin American

societies as a monolithic group

The Great Divide in the Global Village

• critics

: historical conditions that allowed the North to do this in the 19th century do not exist now

• per capita incomes between 1970 – 1995

: in the richest one-third of countries rose by annual 1.9 %

: in the middle third went up by 0.7 %

: the bottom third no increase

• foreign direct investment rose sevenfold between 1980 and 1997

: but little has gone to the poorest countries

: 70% between rich countries

: 8 Global South received 20%

: 100 poor nations received only 10%

• free markets offer opportunities for all

: but opportunities do not guarantee results

• most of poor countries

: not able to take advantage of free market access

• the traditional advantage of the Global South

: in primary commodities (agriculture and minerals)

- they have shrunk from 70 % of world trade in 1900 to 20% in 1990s

B. Dependency Theory and World System Theory• based on Marxism

: capitalism is a cause of inequality• Latin America• the relationship between the advanced

capitalism (the core) and the Global South (the periphery): exploitative

• underdevelopment: a product of the Global South’ structural

position / colonialism

• Andre Gunder Frank • the study of chronic underdevelopment in

Latin America• dependency

: a condition of retarded economic growth - results from the Global South’

subordination - structural exploitation by the Global

North

a. Dependency theory

• Dominance-dependence relationship between North and South

• dependent countries

: vulnerable to penetration by outside forces (MNCs, IMF, World Bank)

• Global North keeps Global South poor through

: terms of free trade and finance (international market, IMF’s loans)

: exploitation by multinational corporations (Exxon Mobil, GM etc.)

: foreign direct investment

• share dependency theorist’s view

• Wallerstein

• core

: advanced capitalist states

: specializes in producing “advanced goods”

• periphery

: developing states

: specializes in producing commodities and low-technology goods

• semiperiphery

: states either advancing toward core (Asian Tigers) or descending to periphery

b. World System Theory

• the relationship between the core and the periphery

: established by colonialism.

• Global South continue to be

: suppliers of raw materials

: importers of manufactured products from rich industrial countries.