Social sciences
Grade 6
Trade and development
Module 11
Reasons for wealth/poverty
A. Reasons for Wealth / Poverty
1. The Influence of the Spice Trade
- When the spices of the Far East were discovered, the Arabs were the first merchants to transport and sell these sought-after products. They traded with merchants from the wealthy Roman Empire at first, and later sold their precious goods to all who could afford them. It was regarded as a symbol of wealth to have spices on one’s table. Venice, a very prosperous Italian city with a powerful naval base, saw a gap in the market and through their participation in the Crusades forced all spice merchants to move through the Venetian ports. Later Venice controlled every aspect of the spice trade, fixed the prices and became very rich. Spices became so expensive that it was almost impossible to buy them, with the result that the other European countries decided to make an effort to find another sea route to the East, so that they could buy their own spices directly from the original merchants.
- The Portuguese, with their excellent naval skills, took the lead and as early as 1497 they sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa on their way to the East. Wherever they found spices they simply seized them, and instantly killed any of the local inhabitants who offered any resistance.
2. Colonisation
- Other European countries also set out on voyages of discovery with the main aim of discovering and occupying new territory. Countries such as Britain, the Netherlands and Belgium simply claimed territory for themselves without taking the indigenous population into account. The occupiers then proclaimed these occupied territories as their own “colonies”.
- In this way the Dutch established themselves here in South Africa with the main objective of providing fresh fruit and vegetables for the passing ships. The greatest part of Africa, as well as the Americas, India, New Zealand and Australia were gradually taken over and colonised in this way.
The settlers from Europe simply appropriated (took for their own use) all the raw materials that were to be found in the colonies without compensating the indigenous people. In this way gold, diamonds, silver, timber and spices were taken to European countries from the colonies. Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony, is a very good example of what happened in that era. For 500 years, from 1505 to 1975 when Mozambique was a Portuguese colony, most of its resources were exploited by other countries.
- When the colonies became independent during the middle of the twentieth century, the new, independent states were not properly developed at all. In general, the people were not really highly literate and skills were not properly developed. The transport infrastructure was poor or non-existent. The colonists left behind them depilated mines, instead of developed industries. No attention had been given to the training of local managers for companies, banks, schools, mines or even administration. The companies that had been founded in the colonies had enriched the European countries, but had not brought any financial gains for the indigenous people. The colonists (foreigners who had occupied the country) had seen to it that there were good schools for their own children, but they had given no attention to the education and training of the local populace.
- Today most of the former colonies are still extremely badly off. Their economies are very poorly developed. They have been forced to build up their impoverished countries, which had been robbed of their raw materials, without the skills and the money of the colonists.
