Editing Colonialism (section)

=== Economy, trade and commerce ===
Economic expansion, sometimes described as the [[colonial surplus]], has accompanied imperial expansion since ancient times.{{citation needed|date=November 2012}} Greek trade networks spread throughout the Mediterranean region while Roman trade expanded with the primary goal of directing tribute from the colonised areas towards the Roman metropole. According to [[Strabo]], by the time of emperor [[Augustus]], up to 120 Roman ships would set sail every year from [[Myos Hormos]] in [[Roman Egypt]] to India.<ref>"[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2E1*.html Strabo's Geography Book II Chapter 5 ]"</ref> With the development of trade routes under the [[Ottoman Empire]],

{{blockquote|[[Gujari]] Hindus, Syrian Muslims, Jews, Armenians, Christians from south and central Europe operated trading routes that supplied Persian and Arab horses to the armies of all three empires, Mocha coffee to [[Delhi]] and [[Belgrade]], Persian silk to India and [[Istanbul]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Peoples and Empires |last=Pagden |first=Anthony |publisher=Modern Library |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8129-6761-6 |location=New York |page=45}}</ref>
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[[File:16th century Portuguese Spanish trade routes.png|thumb|upright=1.5|[[Portuguese discoveries|Portuguese trade routes]] (blue) and the rival [[Manila galleon|Manila-Acapulco galleons]] trade routes (white) established in 1568]]
[[Aztec civilisation]] developed into an extensive empire that, much like the Roman Empire, had the goal of exacting tribute from the conquered colonial areas. For the Aztecs, a significant tribute was the acquisition of sacrificial victims for their religious rituals.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Peoples and Empires |last=Pagden |publisher= |year=2003 |isbn= |location= |page=5}}</ref>

On the other hand, European colonial empires sometimes attempted to channel, restrict and impede trade involving their colonies, funneling activity through the metropole and taxing accordingly.

Despite the general trend of economic expansion, the economic performance of former European colonies varies significantly. In "Institutions as a Fundamental Cause of Long-run Growth", economists [[Daron Acemoglu]], [[Simon Johnson (economist)|Simon Johnson]] and [[James A. Robinson (Harvard University)|James A. Robinson]] compare the economic influences of the European colonists on different colonies and study what could explain the huge discrepancies in previous European colonies, for example, between West African colonies like [[Sierra Leone]] and [[Hong Kong]] and [[Singapore]].<ref name="Institutions">{{Cite book|doi = 10.1016/S1574-0684(05)01006-3|chapter = Institutions as a Fundamental Cause of Long-Run Growth|volume = 1A|pages = 385–472|title = Handbook of Economic Growth|year = 2005|last1 = Acemoglu|first1 = Daron|last2 = Johnson|first2 = Simon|last3 = Robinson|first3 = James A.|isbn = 9780444520418|chapter-url = http://economics.mit.edu/files/4469|access-date = 15 February 2016|archive-date = 5 February 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160205223556/http://economics.mit.edu/files/4469|url-status = dead}}</ref>

According to the paper, economic institutions are the determinant of the colonial success because they determine their financial performance and order for the distribution of resources. At the same time, these institutions are also consequences of political institutions – especially how [[de facto]] and [[de jure]] political power is allocated. To explain the different colonial cases, we thus need to look first into the political institutions that shaped the economic institutions.<ref name="Institutions" />
[[File:A Castro, Lorenzo - A Dutch East-Indiaman off Hoorn - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|[[Dutch East India Company]] was the first-ever [[multinational corporation]], financed by shares that established the [[Amsterdam Stock Exchange|first modern stock exchange]].]]
For example, one interesting observation is "the Reversal of Fortune"{{snd}}the less developed civilisations in 1500, like North America, Australia, and New Zealand, are now much richer than those countries who used to be in the prosperous civilisations in 1500 before the colonists came, like the Mughals in India and the Incas in the Americas. One explanation offered by the paper focuses on the political institutions of the various colonies: it was less likely for European colonists to introduce economic institutions where they could benefit quickly from the extraction of resources in the area. Therefore, given a more developed civilisation and denser population, European colonists would rather keep the existing economic systems than introduce an entirely new system; while in places with little to extract, European colonists would rather establish new economic institutions to protect their interests. Political institutions thus gave rise to different types of economic systems, which determined the colonial economic performance.<ref name="Institutions" />

European colonisation and development also changed gendered systems of power already in place around the world. In many pre-colonialist areas, women maintained power, prestige, or authority through reproductive or agricultural control. For example, in certain parts of [[Sub-Saharan Africa]] women maintained farmland in which they had usage rights. While men would make political and communal decisions for a community, the women would control the village's food supply or their individual family's land. This allowed women to achieve power and autonomy, even in patrilineal and patriarchal societies.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/noturningbackhis00free/page/25 |title=No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and The Future of Women |last=Freedman |first=Estelle |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-345-45053-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/noturningbackhis00free/page/25 25–26]}}</ref>

Through the rise of European colonialism came a large push for development and industrialisation of most economic systems. When working to improve productivity, Europeans focused mostly on male workers. Foreign aid arrived in the form of loans, land, credit, and tools to speed up development, but were only allocated to men. In a more European fashion, women were expected to serve on a more domestic level. The result was a technologic, economic, and class-based gender gap that widened over time.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/noturningbackhis00free/page/113 |title=No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and The Future of Women |last=Freedman |publisher= Ballantine Books|year=2002 |isbn= 978-0-345-45053-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/noturningbackhis00free/page/113 113]}}</ref>

Within a colony, the presence of extractive colonial institutions in a given area has been found have effects on the modern day economic development, institutions and infrastructure of these areas.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi=10.1093/restud/rdz017 | title=The Development Effects of the Extractive Colonial Economy: The Dutch Cultivation System in Java| journal=The Review of Economic Studies| volume=87| pages=164–203| year=2020| last1=Dell| first1=Melissa| last2=Olken| first2=Benjamin A.|url=https://scholar.harvard.edu/dell/publications/development-effects-extractive-colonial-economy-dutch-cultivation-system-java| doi-access=free| hdl=1721.1/136437| hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | doi=10.1177/0010414015600465 | title= Colonial Legacies and State Institutions in China: Evidence From a Natural Experiment| journal=Comparative Political Studies| volume=50| issue=4| pages=434–463| year=2017| last1=Mattingly| first1=Daniel C.| s2cid= 156822667|url=http://daniel-mattingly.com/s/Mattingly_CPS_Preprint.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160714115343/http://daniel-mattingly.com/s/Mattingly_CPS_Preprint.pdf |archive-date=14 July 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>