A Comparison of the Impact of Colonial Heritage on the Development of Former Western and Soviet Union Colonies
Abstract
How successful were countries colonized by the West in developing compared to countries colonized by the Soviet Union. This paper presented three hypotheses: Former Soviet colonies will be more economically developed than former Western colonies, Former Soviet colonies will be more politically developed than former Western colonies, Former Soviet colonies will be more socially developed than former Western colonies. These hypotheses are derived from the theory that the types of colonialism that the Soviet Union and Western countries practiced were different, meaning that Western European nations created colonies to extract resources from them, rather than to form permanent bonds. This is in direct contrast to the Soviet Union who colonized other nations to become one large nation, focusing more on combining culture and power. At this end of this paper, it is shown that there is no statistical support for former Soviet colonies being more economically developed, but there is strong statistical support for them being more politically developed, and moderate statistical support for them being more socially developed. This implies that the idea of the West always being superior to the east might be an unfounded assumption and supports the theory that former Soviet colonies are more developed than former Western colonies due to the type of colonialism they practiced.
Faculty Sponsors
Dr. Ransford Edwards
Project Type
Event
Location
Alvin Sherman Library
Start Date
4-3-2024 12:30 PM
End Date
4-4-2024 1:30 PM
A Comparison of the Impact of Colonial Heritage on the Development of Former Western and Soviet Union Colonies
Alvin Sherman Library
How successful were countries colonized by the West in developing compared to countries colonized by the Soviet Union. This paper presented three hypotheses: Former Soviet colonies will be more economically developed than former Western colonies, Former Soviet colonies will be more politically developed than former Western colonies, Former Soviet colonies will be more socially developed than former Western colonies. These hypotheses are derived from the theory that the types of colonialism that the Soviet Union and Western countries practiced were different, meaning that Western European nations created colonies to extract resources from them, rather than to form permanent bonds. This is in direct contrast to the Soviet Union who colonized other nations to become one large nation, focusing more on combining culture and power. At this end of this paper, it is shown that there is no statistical support for former Soviet colonies being more economically developed, but there is strong statistical support for them being more politically developed, and moderate statistical support for them being more socially developed. This implies that the idea of the West always being superior to the east might be an unfounded assumption and supports the theory that former Soviet colonies are more developed than former Western colonies due to the type of colonialism they practiced.
