ABSTRACT

The initial core is conceived to comprise Western Europe, including Britain. The rest of the world is then categorized as either ‘periphery’ or ‘external arena’. The major European powers, the United States and, early in the twentieth century, Japan, vied with each other in the acquisition of colonies. An additional consideration, of great importance from the end of the nineteenth century until independence was achieved in the post-war period, is the manner in which the metropolitan powers organized their colonies. There is a school of thought which holds that underdevelopment is a modern phenomenon, created by the impact of the more advanced economies on the archaic structures of nations in the world’s periphery. As the nineteenth century wore on, the opening of temperate lands for European colonization with grain and livestock products among the major initial export staples, provided the basis for very rapid economic expansion in a number of peripheral countries.