Wars, occupations, and colonisation have long been driven by the struggle for the earth’s resources. History shows us that the Roman Empire invaded Egypt primarily to seize its abundant grain. Centuries later, the patterns remain the same: powerful nations continue to dominate weaker ones to exploit their resources. What has changed are the methods.
While colonisation in the 18th and 19th centuries required a physical presence, the 21st century has seen the rise of financial, diplomatic, trade-based, and technological forms of colonisation. The 20th century witnessed decolonisation, but the legacy persisted in the form of organisations like the Commonwealth and has lately been exercised through institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Another significant game changer in the whole process was the American involvement as a neo-coloniser to establish and implement a new world order in a unipolar world.
The global competition for resources is intensified by declining traditional fuel reserves and worsening environmental crises.
The result is devastatingly consistent: colonised countries are stripped of their natural wealth and locked into cycles of poverty. Few formerly colonised nations have been able to fully recover and rebuild. Africa is perhaps the most striking example. Despite being one of the richest continents in terms of minerals and resources, it remains mired in poverty. Centuries of exploitation by colonial powers destroyed local structures of wealth and independence.
Even today, hunger, disease, and conflict are symptoms of the legacies of colonisation. The Indian subcontinent tells a similar story. Once prosperous and self-reliant, it was systematically impoverished by British colonisation, which dismantled local industries and diverted resources to Britain. The lasting consequence has been widespread poverty and ongoing struggles against hunger and inequality.
In modern times, this process has simply evolved into neocolonialism. Today’s imperial powers focus on critical resources such as rare earth minerals essential for electric vehicles, digital technologies, and advanced warfare. The Russia-Ukraine war illustrates this dynamic: behind the conflict lies a fierce struggle for control of Ukraine’s mineral wealth. American foreign policy also reflects this resource-driven agenda, using trade and strategic partnerships, such as with Pakistan, to secure access to valuable reserves.
Similarly, China’s rise as a global power is marked by its efforts to build alliances with resource-rich nations. The tragedy is that these resource-rich nations often lack the technology and infrastructure to process their own wealth. As a result, they export raw materials at low prices, only to import finished products made from those same resources at high costs. This dynamic deepens their dependence, weakens their economies, and perpetuates poverty.
Neocolonialism is thus nothing more than an extension of traditional colonisation. The motives are the same-control over precious resources-though the strategies are more subtle and technologically advanced. The global competition for resources is intensified by declining traditional fuel reserves and worsening environmental crises. Meanwhile, the cycle of exploitation ensures that wealthy nations grow wealthier while poor nations fall further behind.
Escaping this cycle will not be easy. Neocolonial powers possess military, economic, and technological advantages that make resistance difficult. Still, resource-rich nations must demand fairer terms: technology transfers, royalties from resource extraction, and the establishment of local industries that can provide jobs and foster long-term development. Without such measures, exploitation will only intensify, and the gap between the rich and poor nations will continue to widen.
Ultimately, the struggle against modern colonisation requires extraordinary effort, unity, and vision from the Global South. Only then can they hope to reclaim their rightful share of the world’s resources and break the cycle of poverty imposed by centuries of imperialism. Given the fact that avoiding modern and neo modes colonization is beyond possibility because of the advancement in technology and the power and force acquired by the neo colonist regimes, especially in the matters of war fair, if at all the colonized countries wish to save themselves, they must demand the transfer of much needed modern technologies and a fair share of royalties in the extraction of these metals from their part of the world.
And they must force the coloniser to establish factories and industries in their territories and train their people in poverty reduction measures and extensions of employment, so that a little balance can be achieved in the control of mineral resources of the world. But it would need an extraordinary effort on the part of the nations that would undergo mineral control colonisation to keep their share of riches from these minerals because the imperialist forces would not tolerate any resistance in this exploitation of the 21st century.
The writer is a professor of English at Government Emerson University, Multan. He can be reached at zeadogar@ hotmail.com and Tweets @Profzee