The Powerful West: Colonialism & Separation of Church and State

In this essay, I will discuss how the West emerged as the richest and most powerful region, how the free market and institutionalized property rights help the West, how did separation of church and state also aid the West, and how did the rest of the world react to the Western World becoming so powerful.

The Industrial Revolution and the emergence of global inequality changed European societies to become a flourishing nation, with the new wave of colonialism bought economic inequality. The Industrial Revolution resulted in good being produced faster and better than before, which increased productivity and improvement in the world. The economic growth created a wider gap between the poor and the rich (Kim 2011). Branko Milanovic an economist at the World Bank in D.C. explained that inequality isn’t a bad thing all the time. “Before the industrial revolution, you had most countries bunched around the same income levels; the Netherlands and England were the richest. The ratio between them and China, which was then the poorest, was 3 to 1” (Kim 2011). Looking at China now compared to then, the country remains the largest developing country in the world (Daye 2020). Europe became the West’s most powerful region. As the West was becoming developed, the developing nations were struck back down by the prices of commodities from the developing nations to drop, while the prices for the goods they were purchasing were rising. The declining terms of trade caused poverty and inequality within the developing nations to rise compared to already developed nations. In the 1950s and 1960s, many countries in Africa and Latin America began to experience economic growth, but this did not last long, by 1970, the economies began to drop once again and it would only get worse when prices of oil began to rise due to the nations that produce the oil merged with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The Organization not only affected the developing nations, but it also had an impact on the wealthier nation, though not as seriously. This eventually led to the debt crisis and reform policies that consisted of requirements for the countries that needed loans from the IMF (Shimko 2015).

During the late 1970s to the early 1980s, there was an emerging crisis in much of the developing world but there were also changes in the industrialized world. After World War II, the United States and Europe were influenced by John Maynard Keynes, a British economist. Keynes advocated for a substantial role for the government. The role of the government would include regulating the business cycle and the cycles high and lows through economic and monetary policy. An example of his idea from the text is when a government has a high level of unemployment and growth is low, the government should spend less to put more money into its economy, which would raise employment rates and promote economic growth (Shimko 2015). Keynes’s ideas became criticized by Milton Friedman, an economist who was influential for his views on pro-market policies and the reduction of roles for the government. A turning point for the Western World was the election of President Ronald Regan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, both who pushed for similar objectives, including, “tax cuts, lower government spending (or at least slower rates of growth), fewer regulations, scaled-back social welfare programs, and privatization) (Shimko 2015).

The free market gained more support after the failure of communism and socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. “The Soviet model of development appeared attractive to some in the developing world during the 1950s and 1960s because it held out the promise of rapid development” (Shimko 2015). However, by the 80s the attractiveness was long gone, instead, liberal democratic capitalism appeared. It became known as neoliberalism, a more modern version of economic liberalism, which stressed the importance of a limited government, reducing regulation, and the market economy (Shimko 2015). The IMF’s policies of structural agreement and those of Regan and Thatcher were similar to neoliberalism, for example, “Fiscal austerity, reductions in government subsidies to domestic industries, reduction of tariffs, quotas, and other barriers to imports, capital market liberalization, and privatization” (Shimko 2015). These policies became the Washington consensus, the liberal ideas of free trade, and limited government that acts as a guide to the IMF’s policies towards developing nations. The Washington consensus shows the role that the U.S. has in the policies of the IMF. According to Chappelow and Barnier, free markets use threats of force, which include taxation, mandates on specific terms with an exchange, regulations, and quotas on production. Free markets are more likely to thrive in a nation where property rights are protected, and capitalists can pursue the profits (Chappelow and Barnier 2020). Institutionalized property rights helped the West because it gives the nations the right to use their resources as they want and allows them to account for their products. Developing infrastructures such as roads, schools, and hospitals were able to contribute to economic growth. The rights allow for nations to have a higher standard of living, reducing poverty, and economic growth. For the West to grow they exploit the developing nations, according to Baran, “Economic development in underdeveloped countries is profoundly inimical to the dominant interests in advanced capitalist (Shimko 2015).

Separation of church and state-aided the West because nations who are underdeveloped face obstacles that developed nations do not face such as cultural and religious beliefs that hinder their initiative (Shimko 2015). The separation of church and state allows people to freely practice their faith in public without the fear of the government intervening. When religion is used in politics it makes the religion become a method of power instead of its original meaning. The separation between church and state aided the West because it removed any form of influence on someone’s religious or nonreligious beliefs, which stops disputes or wars based on religion (LII 2020).

As the West continued to grow and become powerful, countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan whose economies started to grow and eventually became some of the world’s wealthiest nations. The countries began to become developed by introducing infrastructures, education systems, and grow the number of exports and imports by using their location in a way that is best for them (Development & Globalization 2020). India introduced reforms to reduce the government's control and increase their global trade and investments, and Chile reduced its government spending and privatized their social security and was able to achieve economic growth (Shimko 2015). Other countries weren’t able to grow their economies, instead, they continue to struggle with issues within their governments and poverty remaining a major problem.

The Industrial Revolution and the emergence of global inequality changed European societies to become flourishing nation, with the new wave of colonialism bought economic inequality, leading to Europe becoming the most powerful region. Eventually, the West became the richest and powerful compared to the developing world. The free market and industrialized property rights helped reduced regulations and tariffs and limited the actions of the government. Also, gave nations the right to choose to purchase from countries that had products for a cheaper price, but this hurt developing countries and put them deeper into poverty and debt, the developed nations were exploiting the developing countries to gain more wealth and economic growth. Separation of church and state aided the West because it allowed people to practice their beliefs freely and stops potential wars from starting. As the West continued to grow and become powerful, countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan whose economies started to grow and eventually became some of the world’s wealthiest nations, however other countries weren’t able to grow their economy.