Developing Countries: Threats to Their Security

Most developing countries in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean were, until recently, colonies of one or other Western power. The nations of Central and South America too were under the colonial rule of Spain and Portugal. But these Western powers had to vacate their Latin American colonies partly because of pressures by United States and partly because of indigenous freedom movements. In contrast, Asian and African people enslaved by European powers regained their freedom only when the latter had to retreat to their home countries after the Second World War. The United States had then also played its part in facilitating this retreat by Western powers. Colonial rule extending over centuries had effectively reduced the local inhabitants of colonial Asia and Africa to the status of serfs in their own countries impoverishing them and stifling their initiative. This was inevitable considering that the objectives of colonial rulers were to exploit the natural resources of their colonies and utilise the latter's geo-strategic locations to serve their own imperial interests.