Neocolonialism is the control by a state (usually, a former colonial power) over another nominally independent state (usually, a former colony) through indirect means. The term neocolonialism was first used after World War II to refer to the continuing dependence of former colonies on foreign countries, but its meaning soon broadened to apply, more generally, to places where the power of developed countries was used to produce a colonial-like exploitation.
63-761: Innovate BC (formally the BC Innovation Council or BCIC) is a Crown Agency of the Province of British Columbia , Canada, which funds entrepreneurial support programs in the province. Innovate BC focuses on the support of technology startups and entrepreneurs through programs, sponsorship and competitions that facilitate technology commercialization. Innovate BC is a provincially funded agency that emphasizes services to support company growth, resulting in jobs, increased revenue and economic development through technology and innovation. Note, Innovate BC and Innovate Vancouver are separate entities. Innovate BC
126-839: A "new version of colonialism". He later clarified that he did not refer to the Belt and Road Initiative or China with this. According to Mark Langan in 2017, China, Western actors, and other emerging powers pursue their own interests at the expense of African interests. Western actors depict China as a threat to Africa, while depicting European and American involvement in Africa as being virtuous. Russia currently occupies parts of neighboring states . These occupied territories are Transnistria (part of Moldova ); Abkhazia and South Ossetia (part of Georgia ); and five provinces of Ukraine , which it has illegally annexed. Russia has also established effective political domination over Belarus , through
189-511: A Russian state-funded private military company (PMC), has provided military support, security and protection for several autocratic regimes in Africa since 2017. In return, Russian and Wagner-linked companies have been given privileged access to those countries' natural resources, such as rights to gold and diamond mines, while the Russian military has been given access to strategic locations such as airbases and ports. This has been described as
252-467: A dangerous specialisation in raw materials, inherent in which is the threat of hunger for all our peoples. We, the "underdeveloped", are also those with the single crop, the single product, the single market. A single product whose uncertain sale depends on a single market imposing and fixing conditions. That is the great formula for imperialist economic domination. Dependency theory is the theoretical description of economic neocolonialism. It proposes that
315-464: A deal with a Massachusetts-based non-profit in 1999 that gave away rights to the domain name. Management of the domain name has since shifted to a Swedish organisation . The Niue government is currently fighting on two fronts to get back control on its domain name, including with the ICANN . Toke Talagi , the long-serving Premier of Niue who died in 2020, called it a form of neocolonialism. To ensure
378-553: A failed attempt to nationalise the mining industry in the 1960s, it was reopened to foreign investment. There is an ongoing debate about whether certain actions by the United States should be considered neocolonialism. Nayna J. Jhaveri, writing in Antipode , views the 2003 invasion of Iraq as a form of "petroimperialism", believing that the U.S. was motivated to go to war to attain vital oil reserves, rather than to pursue
441-446: A major part in prolonged anti-government protests that resulted in over a hundred deaths. This was a source of popular resentment that contributed to the fall of then-President Marc Ravalomanana . The new president, Andry Rajoelina , cancelled the deal. Tanzania later announced that South Korea was in talks to develop 100,000 hectares for food production and processing for 700 to 800 billion won . Scheduled to be completed in 2010, it
504-490: A neo-colonial and neo-imperialist kind of state capture , whereby Russia gains sway over countries by helping to keep the ruling regime in power and making them reliant on its protection, while generating economic and political benefits for Russia, without benefitting the local population. Russia has also gained geopolitical influence in Africa through election interference and spreading pro-Russian propaganda and anti-Western disinformation . Russian PMCs have been active in
567-581: A reliable, long-term supply of food, the South Korean government and powerful Korean multinationals bought farming rights to millions of hectares of agricultural land in under-developed countries. South Korea's RG Energy Resources Asset Management CEO Park Yong-soo stressed that "the nation does not produce a single drop of crude oil and other key industrial minerals. To power economic growth and support people's livelihoods, we cannot emphasise too much that securing natural resources in foreign countries
630-600: A significant role in large-scale unemployment and migration of people across the region. This violates the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea , which recognises the importance of fishing to local communities and insists that government fishing agreements with foreign companies should target only surplus stocks. Oxfam 's 2024 report "Inequality, Inc" concludes that multinational corporations located in
693-482: A single Ministry. In the United Kingdom, the term is sometimes used to refer to Crown bodies : public bodies which have Crown status, meaning that material which they produce is subject to Crown copyright protection. Neocolonial Neocolonialism takes the form of economic imperialism , globalization , cultural imperialism and conditional aid to influence or control a developing country instead of
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#1732787580838756-852: A type of foreign intervention in countries belonging to the Pan-Africanist movement, as well as the Asian–African Conference of Bandung (1955), which led to the Non-Aligned Movement (1961). Neocolonialism was formally defined by the All-African Peoples' Conference (AAPC) and published in the Resolution on Neo-colonialism . At both the Tunis conference (1960) and the Cairo conference (1961), AAPC described
819-751: A unique opportunity in Iran's dominance in the Muslim world. Iran is able to use these African communities to circumvent economic sanctions and move arms, man power, and nuclear technology. Iran exerts its influence through humanitarian initiatives, such as those seen in Ghana. Through the building of hospitals, schools, and agricultural projects Iran uses "soft power" to assert its influence in Western Africa. The government of Niue has been trying to get back access to its domain name, .nu . The country signed
882-582: A virtual monopoly over government retail supply within the colonies of the British Empire . The crown agencies also became financial institutions, supplying capital, routes for investment, and pensions to all public works and government in British dependent colonies (excluding such Dominions as Canada or Australia). Crown Agencies were the bodies responsible for all large projects such as railway or harbour construction throughout British Africa, India, and
945-844: A vision of " Iraq as a colony ". David Vine, author of Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Overseas Harm America and the World (2015), said the US had bases in 45 "less-than-democratic" countries and territories. He quotes political scientist Kent Calder : "The United States tends to support dictators [and other undemocratic regimes] in nations where it enjoys basing facilities". The People's Republic of China has built increasingly strong ties with some African, Asian, European and Latin American nations which has led to accusations of colonialism, As of August 2007, an estimated 750,000 Chinese nationals were working or living for extended periods in Africa. In
1008-473: A way as to impoverish the less developed. The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside. In 1961, regarding the economic mechanism of neocolonial control, in the speech Cuba: Historical Exception or Vanguard in
1071-555: Is a must for our future survival." The head of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Jacques Diouf , stated that the rise in land deals could create a form of "neocolonialism", with poor states producing food for the rich at the expense of their own hungry people. In 2008, South Korean multinational Daewoo Logistics secured 1.3 million hectares of farmland in Madagascar to grow maize and crops for biofuels . Roughly half of
1134-569: Is a policy that functions on one hand through granting political independence and, when necessary, creating artificial states that have no chance of sovereignty, and on the other hand, through providing 'assistance' accompanied by promises of achieving prosperity, though its bases are in fact outside the African continent." Mehdi Ben Barka , The Revolutionary Option in Morocco (May 1962) Kwame Nkrumah , president of Ghana from 1960 to 1966,
1197-756: Is a term used by the Russian government and Russian nationalists for territories and communities with a historical, cultural, or spiritual tie to Russia. The Kremlin meanwhile refers to the Russian diaspora and Russian-speakers in other countries as "Russian compatriots". In her book Beyond Crimea: The New Russian Empire (2016), Agnia Grigas highlights how ideas like the "Russian world" and "Russian compatriots" have become an "instrument of Russian neo-imperial aims". The Kremlin has sought influence over its "compatriots" by offering them Russian citizenship and passports ( passportization ), and in some cases eventually calling for their military protection. Grigas writes that
1260-655: Is credited with coining the term, which appeared in the 1963 preamble of the Organisation of African Unity Charter, and was the title of his 1965 book, Neo-Colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism . In his book the President of Ghana exposes the workings of International monopoly capitalism in Africa. For him Neo-colonialism, insidious and complex, is even more dangerous than the old colonialism and shows how meaningless political freedom can be without economic independence. Nkrumah theoretically developed and extended to
1323-526: Is often followed by increases in unemployment, poverty and a decline in per-capita income. In the West African nations of Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Mauritania, fishing was historically central to the economy. Beginning in 1979, the European Union began negotiating contracts with governments for fishing off the coast of West Africa. Unsustainable commercial over-fishing by foreign fleets played
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#17327875808381386-537: Is when researchers from wealthier countries go to a developing country , collect information, travel back to their country, analyze the data and samples, and publish the results with no or little involvement of local researchers. A 2003 study by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences found that 70% of articles in a random sample of publications about least-developed countries did not include a local research co-author. Frequently, during this kind of research,
1449-592: The Global North are "perpetuating a colonial style 'extractivist' model" across the Global South as the economies of the latter "are locked into exporting primary commodities, from copper to coffee" to these multinationals. American economist Jeffrey Sachs recommended that the entire African debt (c. US$ 200 billion) be dismissed, and recommended that African nations not repay either the World Bank or
1512-559: The Government of Angola The legal category of crown agencies still exists in some nations of the former British Empire. In most places, these have been replaced by government agencies, state-controlled companies , and (in parts of the Commonwealth) Crown Corporations . Canada and New Zealand maintain the category of government managed or government owned entities called Crown Agencies that report to
1575-508: The International Monetary Fund (IMF): The time has come to end this charade. The debts are unaffordable. If they won't cancel the debts, I would suggest obstruction; you do it, yourselves. Africa should say: "Thank you very much, but we need this money to meet the needs of children who are dying, right now, so, we will put the debt-servicing payments into urgent social investment in health, education, drinking water,
1638-752: The Office of the Crown Agents in London, thereafter named the Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administration . Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations Ltd became a private limited company providing development services in 1996. Today the term is also used to refer to state-controlled companies in some states of the British Commonwealth . Crown agencies nominally reported directly to (and were wholly owned by)
1701-568: The Union State . Historian Timothy Snyder defines Russia's war against Ukraine as "a colonial war, in the sense that Russia meant to conquer, dominate, displace and exploit" the country and its people. Russia has been accused of colonialism in Crimea , which it annexed in 2014, by enforced Russification , passportization , and by settling Russian citizens on the peninsula and forcing out Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars . The Wagner Group ,
1764-927: The 1980s and 90s, China continued to purchase natural resources— petroleum and minerals—from Africa to fuel the Chinese economy and to finance international business enterprises. In 2006, trade had increased to $ 50 billion expanding to $ 500 billion by 2016. In Africa, China has loaned $ 95.5 billion to various countries between 2000 and 2015, the majority being spent on power generation and infrastructure. Cases in which this has ended with China acquiring foreign land have led to accusations of " debt-trap diplomacy ". Other analysts say that China's activities "are goodwill for later investment opportunities or an effort to stockpile international support for contentious political issues". In 2018, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad cancelled two China-funded projects. He also talked about fears of Malaysia becoming "indebted" and of
1827-497: The Anti-colonial Struggle? , Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara said: We, politely referred to as "underdeveloped", in truth, are colonial , semi-colonial or dependent countries. We are countries whose economies have been distorted by imperialism, which has abnormally developed those branches of industry or agriculture needed to complement its complex economy. "Underdevelopment", or distorted development, brings
1890-609: The Central African Republic , Sudan , Libya , Mali , Burkina Faso , Niger and Mozambique , among other countries. They have been accused of human rights abuses and killing civilians. In 2024, the Wagner Group in Africa was merged into a new 'Africa Corps' under the direct control of Russia's Ministry of Defense. Analysts for the Russian government have privately acknowledged the neo-colonial nature of Russia's policy towards Africa. The " Russian world "
1953-519: The Congo ), Idriss Déby ( Chad ), and Hamani Diori ( Niger ). Belgium's approach to Belgian Congo has been characterized as a quintessential example of neocolonialism, as the Belgians embraced rapid decolonization of the Congo with the expectation that the newly independent state would become dependent on Belgium. This dependence would allow the Belgians to exert control over Congo, even though Congo
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2016-598: The Crown Agency Office as a government-mandated corporation tied to the Minister of Overseas Development , called the Crown Agents for Overseas Governments and Administration . In 1997, the Crown Agency Office was privatised. As a private limited company , the CAOGA has a number of contracts to provide governmental or para-governmental services throughout the world, such as providing the customs services of
2079-586: The Crown, but in practice, reported to the Crown Agency Office in London, thus independent of the Colonial Office . This office became, in the late 19th century, the sole official British commercial and financial agent of all British protectorates and Crown colonies . The Colonial Office enforced a policy of sole usage of crown agencies for all purchases of goods for government use, creating
2142-714: The Cuban Tricontinental Conference (Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America) recognised and supported the validity of revolutionary anti-colonialism as a means for colonised peoples of the Third World to achieve self-determination, a policy which angered the U.S. and France. Moreover, Chairman Barka headed the Commission on Neocolonialism, which dealt with
2205-515: The Kremlin uses the existence of these "compatriots" to "gain influence over and challenge the sovereignty of foreign states and at times even take over territories". The Iranian government has been called an example of neocolonialism. The motivation for Iran is not economic, but religious. After its establishment in 1979, Iran sought to export Shia Islam globally and position itself as a force in world political structures. Africa's Muslims present
2268-835: The U.S. government's official rationale for the Iraq War . Noam Chomsky has been a prominent critic of " American imperialism "; he believes that the basic principle of the foreign policy of the United States is the establishment of "open societies" that are economically and politically controlled by the United States and where U.S.-based businesses can prosper. He argues that the U.S. seeks to suppress any movements within these countries that are not compliant with U.S. interests and to ensure that U.S.-friendly governments are placed in power. He believes that official accounts of U.S. operations abroad have consistently whitewashed U.S. actions in order to present them as having benevolent motives in spreading democracy. Examples he regularly cites are
2331-618: The West Indies. Crown agencies trace their founding to the time of the British Empire and in 1833 the British government, hived off from the Colonial Office as a financing, stores, transport, and development (to use a modern term) office. Historians have argued that crown agencies, whose organisations operated across the British Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, were the de facto administrators of British colonies. Crown agencies welded governmental powers through
2394-620: The actions of the French Community of independent states, organised by France, as neocolonial. The politician Jacques Foccart , the principal adviser for African matters to French presidents Charles de Gaulle (1958–1969) and Georges Pompidou (1969–1974), was the principal proponent of Françafrique . The works of Verschave and Beti reported a forty-year, post-independence relationship with France's former colonial peoples, which featured colonial garrisons in situ and monopolies by French multinational corporations , usually for
2457-689: The actions of the United States in Vietnam, the Philippines, Latin America, and the Middle East. Chalmers Johnson argued in 2004 that America's version of the colony is the military base. Johnson wrote numerous books, including three examinations of the consequences of what he called the " American Empire ". Chip Pitts argued similarly in 2006 that enduring United States bases in Iraq suggested
2520-756: The aftermath of Second World War . At the 1962 National Union of Popular Forces conference, Mehdi Ben Barka , the Moroccan political organizer and later chair of the Tricontinental Conference 1966 , used the term al-isti'mar al-jadid ( Arabic : الاستعمار الجديد "the new colonialism") to describe the political trends in Africa in the early sixties. الاستعمار الجديد عبارة عن سياسة تعمل من جهة على منح الاستقلال السياسي، وعند الاقتضاء إنشاء دول مصطنعة لا حظ لها في وجود ذاتي، ومن جهة أخرى، تعمل على تقديم مساعدات مصحوبة بوعود تحقيق رفاهية تكون قواعدها في الحقيقة خارج القارة الإفريقية. "Neo-colonialism
2583-417: The careers of local scientists. This form of "colonial" science has reverberations of 19th century scientific practices of treating non-Western participants as "others" in order to advance colonialism —and critics call for the end of these extractivist practices in order to decolonize knowledge . The representative example of European neocolonialism is Françafrique , the "French Africa" constituted by
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2646-484: The context of African countries undergoing decolonisation in the 1960s. Neocolonialism is also discussed in the works of Western thinkers such as Sartre ( Colonialism and Neocolonialism , 1964) and Noam Chomsky ( The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism , 1979). When first proposed, the neocolonialism was applied to European countries' continued economic and cultural relationships with their former colonies, those African countries that had been liberated in
2709-407: The continued close relationships between France and its former African colonies. In 1955, the initial usage of the term "French Africa", by President Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Ivory Coast , denoted positive social, cultural and economic Franco–African relations. It was later applied by neocolonialism critics to describe an imbalanced international relation. Neocolonialism was used to describe
2772-525: The control of AIDS, and other needs". Wallerstein, and separately Frank, claim that the modern conservation movement , as practiced by international organisations such as the World Wide Fund for Nature , inadvertently developed a neocolonial relationship with underdeveloped nations. Neo-colonial research or neo-colonial science , frequently described as helicopter research, parachute science or research, parasitic research, or safari study,
2835-420: The country's arable land, as well as rainforests were to be converted into palm and corn monocultures , producing food for export from a country where a third of the population and 50 percent of children under five are malnourished , using South African workers instead of locals. Local residents were not consulted or informed, despite being dependent on the land for food and income. The controversial deal played
2898-538: The decolonised countries. Cuba, the Warsaw Pact bloc , Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser (1956–1970) et al. accused the U.S. of sponsoring anti-democratic governments whose regimes did not represent the interests of their people and of overthrowing elected governments (African, Asian, Latin American) that did not support U.S. geopolitical interests. In the 1960s, under the leadership of Chairman Mehdi Ben Barka ,
2961-455: The dissolution of the British Empire, many of these agencies reverted to control by their respective governments, became parts of the British government, or became non-governmental organisations . The central Crown Agency Office became involved in the secondary banking sector, but the secondary banking crisis of 1973–1975 drove the office into a debt of over £2 million and the office filed for bankruptcy in 1974. The British government at
3024-497: The exploitation of mineral resources. It was argued that the African leaders with close ties to France—especially during the Soviet–American Cold War (1945–1992)—acted more as agents of French business and geopolitical interests than as the national leaders of sovereign states. Cited examples are Omar Bongo ( Gabon ), Félix Houphouët-Boigny (Ivory Coast), Gnassingbé Eyadéma ( Togo ), Denis Sassou-Nguesso ( Republic of
3087-410: The gap between the rich and the poor countries of the world. The struggle against neo-colonialism is not aimed at excluding the capital of the developed world from operating in less developed countries. It is also dubious in consideration of the name given being strongly related to the concept of colonialism itself. It is aimed at preventing the financial power of the developed countries being used in such
3150-507: The global economic system comprises wealthy countries at the centre, and poor countries at the periphery. Economic neocolonialism extracts the human and natural resources of a poor country to flow to the economies of the wealthy countries. It claims that the poverty of the peripheral countries is the result of how they are integrated in the global economic system. Dependency theory derives from the Marxist analysis of economic inequalities within
3213-582: The global economic system. Proponents of dependency theory, such as Venezuelan historian Federico Brito Figueroa , who investigated the socioeconomic bases of neocolonial dependency, influenced the thinking of the former President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez . During the mid-to-late 20th century, in the course of the ideological conflict between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., each country and its satellite states accused each other of practising neocolonialism in their imperial and hegemonic pursuits. The struggle included proxy wars , fought by client states in
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#17327875808383276-409: The local colleagues might be used to provide logistics support as fixers but are not engaged for their expertise or given credit for their participation in the research . Scientific publications resulting from parachute science frequently only contribute to the career of the scientists from rich countries, thus limiting the development of local science capacity (such as funded research centers ) and
3339-408: The main instrument of imperialism, we have today neo-colonialism ... [which] like colonialism, is an attempt to export the social conflicts of the capitalist countries. ... The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment, under neo-colonialism, increases, rather than decreases,
3402-543: The maze of British, territories, protectorates, dependencies, mandates, and Crown colonies which de jure made up the British Empire of the late 19th century. From 1833 to 1880, they also operated in areas with Dominion status. After this, their mandate was reduced to "dependent" colonies (most of British Africa, India, and the West Indies), but they were given near monopoly rights over finance and supply of non-local manufactures for any public or government use. With
3465-578: The post–World War II 20th century the socio-economic and political arguments presented by Lenin in the pamphlet Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917). The pamphlet frames 19th-century imperialism as the logical extension of geopolitical power, to meet the financial investment needs of the political economy of capitalism . In Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism , Kwame Nkrumah wrote: In place of colonialism, as
3528-470: The previous colonial methods of direct military control or indirect political control ( hegemony ). Neocolonialism differs from standard globalisation and development aid in that it typically results in a relationship of dependence, subservience, or financial obligation towards the neocolonialist nation. Coined by the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in 1956, it was first used by Kwame Nkrumah in
3591-501: The sovereign governments in the countries where they operate. In Canada, the term "crown agency" may refer to any government agency, created by statute, which does not report to a government ministry. CN Rail and the Ontario Heritage Foundation are examples under Canadian law of crown agencies. The term is also used under New Zealand law to designate state owned enterprises which do not report directly to
3654-619: The time found the office useful for overseas development and, argues one writer, enabled aid to be channelled to British goods, while providing cover for unsavoury expenditures such as arms sales. This last function was carried out by what was originally a wholly owned subsidiary of the Crown Agency Office, Millbank Technical Services (1967–79, when it was transferred to the Ministry of Defence and renamed), which has since been accused of Neocolonial involvement in former British colonies and covert arms sales. The British government incorporated
3717-820: The work to resolve the neocolonial involvement of colonial powers in decolonised counties; and said that the U.S., as the leading capitalist country of the world, was, in practise, the principal neocolonialist political actor. Critics of the practice of neocolonialism also argue that investment by multinational corporations enriches few in underdeveloped countries and causes humanitarian , environmental and ecological damage to their populations. They argue that this results in unsustainable development and perpetual underdevelopment. These countries remain reservoirs of cheap labor and raw materials, while restricting access to advanced production techniques to develop their own economies. In some countries, monopolization of natural resources, while initially leading to an influx of investment,
3780-458: The world's system of economies, thus, under-development of the periphery is a direct result of development in the centre. It includes the concept of the late 19th century semi-colony . It contrasts the Marxist perspective of the theory of colonial dependency with capitalist economics. The latter proposes that poverty is a development stage in the poor country's progress towards full integration in
3843-684: Was first formed in 2004 after a merging of the Advanced Science Institute BC and the Innovation and Science Council of British Columbia. In 2018, they were renamed Innovate BC. Crown Agency A crown agency was an administrative body of the British Empire , distinct from the Civil Service Commission of Great Britain or the government administration of the national entity in which it operated. These enterprises were overseen from 1833 to 1974 by
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#17327875808383906-647: Was formally independent. After the decolonisation of Belgian Congo , Belgium continued to control, through the Société Générale de Belgique , an estimated 70% of the Congolese economy following the decolonisation process. The most contested part was in the province of Katanga where the Union Minière du Haut Katanga , part of the Société , controlled the mineral-resource-rich province. After
3969-419: Was to be the largest single piece of overseas South Korean agricultural infrastructure ever built. In 2009, Hyundai Heavy Industries acquired a majority stake in a company cultivating 10,000 hectares of farmland in the Russian Far East and a South Korean provincial government secured 95,000 hectares of farmland in Oriental Mindoro , central Philippines , to grow corn . The South Jeolla province became
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