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They portray the choice to grant or to refuse granting loans, especially by international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, as a decisive form of control. They argue that in order to qualify for these loans (as well as other forms of economic aid), weaker nations are forced to take steps favourable to the financial interests of the IMF/WB, but detrimental to their own economies, increasing rather than alleviating their poverty.
Neocolonial thinkers also attempt to demonstrate that investment by multinational corporations enriches few in underdeveloped countries, and causes humanitarian (as well as environmental and ecological) devastation to the populations which inhabit 'neocolonies.' This, it is argued, results in unsustainable development and perpetual underdevelopment; a dependency which cultivates those countries as reservoirs of cheap labor and raw materials, while restricting their access to advanced production techniques to develop their own economies.
By contrast, critics of the concept of neocolonialism argue that, while the First World does profit from cheap labour and raw materials in underdeveloped nations, ultimately, it does serve as a positive modernizing force for development in the Third World.
The term neocolonialism first saw widespread use, particularly in reference to Africa, soon after the post-WWII process of decolonizationDecolonization generally refers to a movement following the Second World War in which the various European colonies of the world were granted independence. In other words, it is the process of emancipation of colonies. One could say that the process has s which followed a struggle by many national independence movements in the colonies. Upon gaining independence, some national leaders and opposition groups argued that their countries were being subjected to a new form of colonialism, waged by the former colonial powers and other developed nations. In Africa, the French played a prominent role in charges of conducting a neocolonialist policy, and that French troops in Africa were (and it is argued, still are) often involved in coups resulting in a regime acting in the interests of France but against its country's own interests.
Denunciations of necolonialism also became popular with some national independence movements while they were still waging anti-colonial armed struggle. During the 1970s, in the Portuguese colonies of MozambiqueMozambique is a country in Southern Africa, bordering South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Malawi and Zimbabwe. It is a member of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries and the Commonwealth of Nations. Its capital and largest city is Maputo, located and AngolaThis article is about the nation, for the prison see Angola Prison Angola is a country in southwestern Africa bordering Namibia, Congo-Kinshasa, Congo-Brazzaville and Zambia and with a west coast along the Atlantic Ocean. A former Portuguese colony, it ha, for example, the rhetoric espoused by the Marxist movements FRELIMO and MPLA (respectively), which were to eventually assume power upon those nations' independence, rejected both old colonialism and neocolonialism.