How damaging was imperialism for Indian economic development? Or was it damaging?
First, I assume you mean the country India in Asia, not Native Americans, as they did not have any large organized economy. British imperialism had a large effect on India and its economy. The British were not interested in governance over India, but rather its value as an economic powerhouse for exotic products and cheap labor. Directly, British presence acted as a siphon: taking Indian products and produce away from the country back to Britain. The money generated by this mostly stayed with the British in the country, not the native Indians. This provided more jobs for the populace, but decreased the average wealth in the country. One slight benefit that became important later was the building up of infrastructure by the British (through Indian labor). This benefited native Indians after the British had left and they controlled their own economy again. Remember to pick a best answer. Thanks!
Firstly, whose imperialism? India was hugely prosperous for the time in the 1st millennium CE. Its economy declined a lot, relatively, during the Moghul Empire. During the Raj, India was poor. Gandhi would have you believe that Britain reduced India’s prosperity by e.g. in the 18th century importing cotton and exporting cotton goods. To an economist, this politically very effective propaganda is of dubious value. Imperial, later Commonwealth, preference undoubtedly helped India in the 20th century by stimulating export trade and connecting her economy to the world. Imperialism left two very damaging legacies (for India’s economy). One was a huge and over-precision-minded bureaucracy that interfered in economic decision making and seriously hampered the growth of capitalist enterprise among her naturally enterprising people. The other was an education system skewed towards academic excellence and abstract thinking skills and skewed away from economically useful learning like agriculture
