So I was recently reading an article about the British in India, and someone had a really interesting opinion basically saying "The British were not good for India and colonialism is bad, but if colonialism was inevitable the British were the best", now this has me a bit confused mainly by the vagueness of the word "Best", I know that colonialism had many pros and many many cons, but how did the British compare to other nations colonialism?
I know that colonialism had many pros and many many cons, but how did the British compare to other nations colonialism?
Keep in mind that I'm talking about comparative colonialism, not colonialism (which is a complex and hotly debated topic).
In general the levels of violence were lower in British colonies and upon independence British colonies experienced a "gradual and orderly transfer of adminstration more often than others" [1]. Having said that, a British colonial legacy is associated with ethnic conflict (after controlling for several factors that may or may not have been impacted by the British) [2].
Primary education enrollment was significantly higher in British African colonies relative French and Portuguese ones [3]. Compared to Spanish colonialism, British colonialism had comparatively positive effects and "reversed the fortunes" of the "underdeveloped" regions it colonised (the intensity of British colonialism was strongly associated with HDI & social development) [4].
Former British colonies are generally more prosperous - either due to culture or institutions inherited from the British [5]. Davis and Huttenback have a seminal study in which they showe that the British public subsided the defence of colonies [6]. In contrast French West Africa was burdened by the metropole [7].
The West African nation of Cameroon includes regions colonized by both Britain and France (indeed, this caused a lingustical divide that persists to this day). The British regions of Cameroon fare better than their French counterparts when measured in terms of wealth, local public provision of piped water [8], amount of people completing highschool or attending university and the amount of men in skilled occupations [9].
Finally the duration of British colonialism is associated with democracy [10] however this effect is diminishing [11].
I hope this helps!
[1] http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/jwsr/article/view/683 Ziltener, P., Künzler, D., & Walter, A. (2017). Research Note: Measuring the Impacts of Colonialism: A New Data Set for the Countries of Africa and Asia. Journal of World-Systems Research, 23(1), 156-190.
[2] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022343301038004005 Blanton, Robert et al. (2001) Colonial style and post colonial ethnic conflict in Africa, Journal of Peace Research
[3] http://eh.net/eha/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Gardner.pdf Gardner, L (2013). Was independence really better than colonial rule? A comparative study of Liberia and Sierra Leone
[4] https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/499510?mobileUi=0&journalCode=ajs Lange, M., Mahoney, J., & Vom Hau, M. (2006). Colonialism and development: A comparative analysis of Spanish and British colonies. American Journal of Sociology, 111(5), 1412-1462.
[5] Landes, David S. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998.; North, Douglass C. “Institutions and Economic Growth: An Historical Introduction.” World Development 17, no. 9 (1989): 1319–32. La Porta, Rafael, Silanes, Florencio Lopez-de, Shleifer, Andrei, et al. “Law and Finance.” Journal of Political Economy 106, no. 6 (1998): 1113–55. and Porta, La, Rafael, Florencio Silanes, Lopez-de, Shleifer, Andrei, et al. “The Quality of Government.” Journal of Law, Economics and Organization 15, no. 1 (1999): 222–79.
[6] Lance E. Davis & Robert A. Huttenback, Mammon and the Pursuit of Empire: The Political Economy of British Imperialism, 1860-1912, (Cambridge University Press, 1986).
[7] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46444215_The_Black_Man's_Burden_The_Cost_of_Colonization_of_French_West_Africa Elise Huillery. The Black Man’s Burden -The cost of colonization of French West Africa for French taxpayers. PSE Working Papers n°2009-22. 2009.
[8] http://www.rochester.edu/college/faculty/alexander_lee/wpcontent/uploads/2014/07/lee-schultz-2012.pdf Alexander Lee and Kenneth A. Schultz (2012), "Comparing British and French Colonial Legacies: A Discontinuity Analysis of Cameroon", Quarterly Journal of Political Science: Vol. 7: No. 4, pp 365-410.
[9] http://www.rochester.edu/college/faculty/alexander_lee/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/lee-schultz-2012.pdf FC Dupraz, Y. (2019). French and British Colonial Legacies in Education: Evidence from the Partition of Cameroon. The Journal of Economic History, 79(3), 628-668.
[10] https://econpapers.repec.org/article/eeejcecon/v_3a37_3ay_3a2009_3ai_3a4_3ap_3a534-551.htm O Olsson, On the democratic legacy of colonialism, Journal of Comparative Economics, Volume 37, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 534-551,
[11] http://www.rochester.edu/college/faculty/alexander_lee/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Lee-and-Paine-Britain-and-democracy.pdf Lee, Alexander & Paine, Jack. (2019). British colonialism and democracy: Divergent inheritances and diminishing legacies. Journal of Comparative Economics. 47.