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Victoria Oon Shi En (S2L)

History
How far was the impact of colonialism similar in two countries you have studied?

Firstly, what is colonialism? Colonialism is the expansion of colonies in one territory by
people from another territory. In this essay, we will be focusing on British colonialism, which
took place in America and in Egypt. In this essay, I will compare and contrast the impact of
colonialism in America and Egypt, and will point out the key differences and similarities in
both these countries.

Let us first begin by examining how colonisation of America and Egypt occurred, and then
studying their path to independence. America was initially an extremely underdeveloped
country. However, in 1607, the British came and they decided to not only take over but also
to settle in, and the British colonies managed to expand to 13 different areas. The American
revolution began in April, 1775 and ended in September, 1783. The war was caused due to
the fact that Britain proceeded to press a series of acts on the colonies in response to the
Boston Tea Party, which the Colonists saw as a violation of their rights, hence the reason
why the Revolutionary War started. However, in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was
drafted and signed. However, the devastating war only completely stopped when they
signed Treaty of Paris. After the revolution and the eviction of the British, America managed
to establish its independence and became a very developed country. Egypt unlike America
was quite a developed country, but it had a very poor economy. One of the key reasons the
British colonised Egypt, was due to the fact that they wanted to control the Suez canal,
which was an essential part of one of their major trading routes. Egypt had a revolutionary
war which began on the 23rd of July, 1952. The aim of the revolution was supposed to be
aimed at overthrowing King Farouk. However, due to the political ambitions of the
Egyptians, they soon decided to get rid of the monarchy and aristocracy of Egypt and Sudan,
and subsequently managed to become a republic. Their path to independence was much
more peaceful as compared to America. However, unlike America, Egypt did not manage to

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recover from the war and in fact returned to the way it as before the British Colonisation-
went back to agriculture.

Following onto the first major similarity is the fact that there was significant economic and
infrastructural impact in both countries. As we know, there was a significant improvement
in both the American and Egyptian aspect of economy. After the British colonised America,
they set up Charter Companies which were groups of stockholders (usually merchants and
wealthy landowners) who sought personal economic gain and, perhaps, also wanted to
advance England's national goals. The British control was a significant benefit for the
wealthy landowners in Egypt. The fact that the British also colonised other countries as well
also helped the business of Egyptians. In fact, 90% of Egypt's large scale business firms came
from overseas. Also, the Egyptian infrastructure had a significant improvement during the
colonisation. For example, Cairo and Alexandria were transformed to European styled cities
- gas-lit boulevards, parks, public buildings, trams, rail-ways and even an Opera House.
America on the other hand, transformed from a uncivilised country to what it is now,
modernised.


The second major similarity was the impact on society and on religion. Before the British
colonisation, America had no religion (it was mainly inhabited by native Americans) and
after the colonisation, most of the people decided to become Christians or Catholics. In
fact, the Church of England (church of the state) gave the Americans the choice to follow
god or remain non-theist. In Egypt, before the colonisation, most of the people there were
Muslims. However, a large proportion of Muslims decided to convert to Christianity. Hence,
this caused friction between the Christians and the Muslims. Not only was there a major
economic impact on both the countries, there were also social impacts. Since colonisation in
America lasted longer than the colonisation in Egypt, America was more impacted in terms
of the social aspect. Why you may ask? Mainly because most of the cultures in America was
initially adopted from the British culture, also, it is the main reason why the first language of
almost all the Americans is English. Egypt on the other hand, had only 74 years of

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colonisation hence the reason why the society did not really change much and the society of
Egypt first language is Egyptian and very little people spoke English.

In conclusion, we can see that there were more similarities than differences even though
there were different reasons as to why the British colonised the two countries. In the
Americas, we could call these, settling colonies where British people actually went over
and lived there which is now known as the Americans. And in Egypt, they already had
ingenious people living there already. Through this, we can also see how America and Egypt
came to be.