Economic Benefits from Colonization

By

Yonlada Nawilaijaroen

(Mai) 11-9
Economic Benefits from Colonization Yonlada Nawilaijaroen (Mai) 11-9

Economic Benefits from Colonization

Introduction

How does colonization benefit a country? Colonization, the action of establishing control

over the local people of an area or country, brings modernization to underdeveloped areas and

makes what they are today. There are some countries in ASEAN that gained economic benefits

from being colonized by powerful countries. The study of colonization plays a significant role in

understanding the roots of present economic processes and developing practical solutions which

can bring more advancements to the countries. Due to the fact that the colony spontaneously

obtains the wealth and technologies form its colonizer, the economy in Singapore was mainly

affected by the British because of their use as a trading post. As a result, Singapore, a former

British colony has more prosperously developed its economy when compare to Thailand due to

the experience of being colonized.

Singapores trade net work

Singapore, a country with a good trade net work which was affected by the colonization,

has developed its economic prosperously. It has experienced a rapid economics development

which is largely influenced by British colonization because it uses Singapore as a trading post.

As stated by the PSA or Port of Singapore Authority website entitled PSA Singapore Terminals

(n.d.), Singapore is the world's busiest port by the sheer amount of shipping. In 2016, PSA

Singapore Terminals handled 30.59 million TEUs of containers. It is also one of the World's

Largest Refrigerated Container (Reefer) Ports more than 9,000 reefer points; handled almost

1.8 million TEUs of reefers in 2016. PSA is world's busiest transshipment hub which accounting

for almost one-seventh of the world's total container transshipment. Moreover, it is an excellent

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connectivity due to the fact that it connects with 600 major ports around the world and has daily

sailing to almost every ports. When Singapore was under British colony, it uses Singapore as a

free port market to trade with other European nations. Consequently, as the British left Singapore

to be an independent country, it subsequently became the center of European goods and ranked

one of the worlds most prosperous international trading links. In addition to its superb trade

network, according to historical account, the major inventions and technologies in Singapore are

all the by-product of British colonization. British invented telegraph and the steam ship in

Singapore during the colonization period, which increases trade around the world. Those major

inventions help Singapore to develop its own country as well as increase the chance of trading

with other nations and this is another of example that Singapore benefited from being colonized.

As a result, being a trading post and having a lot of major inventions that was the by-product

from British colonization extremely help the economics development in Singapore.

Thailands slow economic growth

Thailand who never had experience of colonization faces a slow economic growth due to

the political turmoil and language skilled labor shortages. Thailand faced several political

turmoils including military coup in 2005 and 2014 due to the fact that two big political parties

had a severe conflict with each other and both have protested for a long time. The political

agitations and shortages of skilled workers affect the economic development to grow poorly.

According to the political impact of colonialism research by University of Zurich (2013), it

concludes that being colonized by other countries brings centralization to the its own nation.

One positive impact of colonialism is the political centralization of territories by having one

central government or, where centralization already existed, the foreign take-over or domination

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of pre-colonial central government (The Political Impact of Colonialism, 2013). By this, the

country which is centralized gains benefits by not having much conflicts between different

groups and not affect its economic growth. On the contrary, Thailand is the only country in

Southeast Asia who was never colonized by European nations. Therefore, the political structure

wasnt well-centralized. This leads to several small political parties who have different

perspectives. Those parties frequently protest to ask for their own power of governing the

country. Several political turmoils influence Thailands economic to develop unsuccessfully.

Apart from political unrest, incidentally, the world fact book from Central Intelligence Agency

website has stated about the skilled labor shortages, another factor that slows down growth of

Thailands economy. Thailand faces skilled labor shortages, and has attracted an estimated 2-4

million migrant workers from neighboring countries (East and Southeast Asia: Thailand, n.d.).

In the view of fact that most of Thais can speak only one language which is difficult to

communicate with the foreign businesses because they having no experience of colonization.

Hence, the skilled workers who can speak many languages are on demand. Lacking language

skilled labor forces results in producing substandard goods and services. When the products

dont standardize, people avoid to spend their money for those low-quality things. The economic

is directly affect by decreasing of purchasing rate. Not being colonized results in several of

political turmoils and lacking of language skilled labors. As a result, these lead to negative

impact on economic development of Thailand.

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Colonization together with advantageous geographic location

Some countries in ASEAN did not experience economic growth after colonization.

Although, there are some countries in ASEAN who were once colonized by powerful countries,

their economy remain to develop poorly and slowly. For example, in term of Laos economic, the

significant factor that affects its slow economic growth is not the experience of colonization but

instead, it is the geographical disadvantages. As stated by the global facilitation partnership for

transportation and trade website (n.d.), Laos faces plenty economic disadvantages of being a

landlocked country. There are 31 landlocked developing countries and Laos is one of them. Due

to its remoteness, landlocked country is dependent on neighboring transit countries for its

external trade and suffer from high trade transaction costs. Huge transport costs, inadequate

infrastructure and bottlenecks associated with importation and exportation requirements can be a

serious stumbling block to its integration into the global economy (Misovicova, n.d.). That is to

say Laos was once being under Frenchs control which it could gain economic befits from this

powerful country as same as Singapore did to British. However, its geographic location plays

more important role in Laos economic growth. Laos is one of the 31 landlocked countries.

Therefore, it costs more expensive and laborious to build the trade networks and international

connections between other nations. This inconvenient factor largely influences the developing of

economy in Laos and results in remaining one of the poorest countries in Asia-Pacific

(Parthynaikooo, 2007). However, Thailand is different from Laos in the term of geographic

location. Correspondingly, as can be seen in The Government Public Relations Department

website, it reports that Thailand has a geographical advantage from its location in the heart of

ASEAN which gives benefits to its own country. With such geographic advantages, Thailand is

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ideal for rice cultivation. Its ubiquitous network of streams, swamps, canals, and basins provides

a constant source of freshwater fish for the locals and sustains Thailands agricultural economy

by supporting rice cultivation and providing waterways for transportation (Thailand: Kitchen of

the World, n.d.). Unlike Laos, this country is located at an advantageous spot. Its geographic

location supports the trade. Additionally, it is more similar to Singapores location as it has more

chances to access to the international trade connections. However, Thailand never being

colonized by powerful countries so its economic isnt as much developed as Singapores that has

both experience of colonization and takes full advantages of its geographic location. Altogether,

not only being colonized by powerful countries but also the advantageous geographic location

that can help the colonies to develop their own economic prosperously.

Conclusion
In conclusion, Singapores economic is more developed than Thailand because it was

colonized. The statistic provided by the Port of Singapore Authority Singapore stated that

Singapore has a good trade network which is the by-products of being colonized so that its

economic is more developed when compares to Thailand. Research from Zurich university said

that not being colonized brings political problems to the its own nation and the world fact book

also confirmed that Thailand faces skilled labor shortages so it faces a slow economic growth.

Finally, the report from the Government Public Relations Department website argued that

Singapore with its geographic advantages from being colonized benefits its own economy more

than Thailand which also has some geographic benefits but didnt experience colonization.

Acknowledgement of the benefits in colonization helps the individuals to understand the roots of

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present economic processes and develop practical solutions which can bring more advancements

to the countries. Finally, it can make our country to be a better place.

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Reference

Misovicova, M. (n.d.). The problems of landlocked countries. Retrieved February 16, 2017 from

http://www.gfptt.org/node/44

Parthynaikooo, S. (2007). Landlocked To Land-linked: The Case Of Economic Liberalization

and Integration Of Laos. Retrieved February 16, 2017 from http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/

download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=1320816&fileOId=1320817

PSA Singapore Terminals. (n.d.). Retrieved January 28, 2017 from https://

www.singaporepsa.com/about-us

Thailand: Kitchen of the World. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2017, from http://

thailand.prd.go.th/ebook2/kitchen/ch1.html

The high cost of stability. (2014, October 08). Retrieved February 9, 2017, from http://

www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2014/10/thailands-economy

The Political Impact of Colonialism. (2013, November 27). Retrieved February 10, 2017, from

http://www.worlddevelopment.uzh.ch/en/research/impa/polim.html

The Singapore Advantage. (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2017 from https://www.iesingapore.

gov.sg/~/media/IE%20Singapore/Files/Publications/Brochures% 20Foreign%

20CompaniesThe%20Singapore%20AdvantageIEThe20Singapore

20AdvantageJul2014.pdf

The World Factbook. (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2017 from https://www.cia.gov/library/

publications/the-world-factbook/geos/print_th.html

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