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Title Colonizers and Modernizers: An investigation of colonialism and post colonial nation building in Indonesian and Somalia
Date 2012
Author(s) Hansen, Jens Køpke
Abstract Abstract <br/><br/>The following paper will investigate the relationship between colonialism and post colonial nation states. This will be done by analyzing the colonial and post colonial history of two case countries, an Asian and an African country, the one being Indonesia the other Somalia. The purpose of the paper will be to answer the question of how the colonial experiences have influenced the post colonial attempts at nation building in the two case countries, as well as to answer the question of what role colonialism played in their relative success and failure as states. <br/><br/>The paper will be based on a theoretical frame work of social constructivism, especially the work of Benedict Anderson and his theory of nations as imagined communities; this will be supplemented by the work of José Itzigsohn, and Matthias vom Hau and their concepts of nationalism and nations as part Ideology part Cultural script, which will be used to attempt to reach an answer to question that the paper pose. <br/><br/>The analytical part of this paper will be in two parts. One will examined the history of each case country in order to find tendencies and examples of nation building in their respective histories. The second part of the analysis will consist of a comparison of the two cases in order to sum up and highlight the difference and similarities in their nation building processes and colonial experiences. The point of the analysis is mainly to look for continuities or discontinuities policies and practises between the colonial regimes and their post colonial successors. The historical chapter on Indonesia is longer than the chapter on Somalia, this is the case because the colonial history of Indonesia is significantly longer than the colonial history of Somalia, and it is described here in its full length in order to conceptualise the case of Indonesia. <br/><br/>The paper will mainly be making use of secondary sources in the form of general historical works in order to present the histories of the two case countries, these will how ever be supplemented by scholars who have taken a more specific and offend critical view of these histories. <br/>This paper will not be giving any direct answers to the general question of why so many African countries 'Fail' and so many Asian countries 'succeeds' in terms of development, but will stick to the two cases in question, but there is of course perspectives for further investigations in this field. <br/>
Subject(s) Nationalism, colonialism
Coverage 73 pages
Language eng
Relation Udvikling og Internationale Relationer, Kandidat; Development and International Relations, Master; 4. semester; 4. term; http://vbn.aau.dk/ws/files/71861103/Colonizers_and_Modernizers.doc
Type of publication MASTERTHESIS
Format application/msword
Repository Aalborg - Aalborg University
Added to C-A: 2016-09-22;13:12:15