Answer To: Write ontwoof the following, one from Section A and one from Section B. 3-4 pages max...
Taruna answered on Nov 06 2021
Section A
As per the observation of the pre-colonial century in Africa, some important points about the transformative state of society can be mentioned. The economic arguments for the abolition of slavery are based on the system not being as successful as the British economy used to be. The leading scholars of the decline study, Boahen and Reader, argued that the abolition of slavery happened because the slavery system no longer had the importance it used to have for the British economy.
This is evident from the declining exports of Britain to its colonies in West India in the years leading up to emancipation. British exports to its West Indian colonies fell by a fifth from 1821 to 1832, the year before the emancipation act. This resulted in the importance of the West Indian colonies to Britain declining (Boahen, 21). The abolition of slavery in the empire was made easier by this diminishing importance. With particular reference to Boahen here, his key theory is that, considering the economic and political dominance of the colonial powers, the colonial powers should have contributed more to the growth of Africa; and that in African history, the colonial period would be remembered for its unreached potential, the brutal exploitation of the natural resources of Africa, and the net underdevelopment and humiliation of the African people (Boahen, 22).
The Exploitation on Economical Grounds
At first, it is noteworthy here that the two authors unanimously agree to the point that the emancipation was not something that Africans wanted to achieve; it was more like an implied action that British rule took because the region was no longer good for profits. A long course of exploitation of the rich natural resources was already done and it had consumed the African regions to a large extent. Of the economic variables, its decreasing profitability was the key reason for the abolition of slavery (Boahen, 31). Output was either stagnant or declining in the British West Indies just prior to emancipation. There is ample evidence which shows that production was indeed in decline in the industries where the slaves were the labor force. In the years between 1815 and 1833, for example, rum and cotton production in the British West Indies declined by 25 and 88 per cent , respectively. Also the most influential anti-decline theorist, Seymour Dresher, noted that British colonial sugar production dropped in the first half of the nineteenth century. In the British West Indies, the biggest employer of Negro slaves, sugar production, was no longer lucrative. Like Wilberforce, despite abolishing the slave trade, the British leadership was also not able to take further steps towards emancipation. In the newly acquired British colonies, British Prime Minister William Pitt did not try to stop the slave trade and allowed the planters to collect slaves as a protection against...