Bret Stephens: Haiti, Sudan, Côte d'Ivoire: Who Cares?
[Mr. Stephens writes the Journal's "Global View" column on foreign affairs.]
Once upon a time in West Africa, two kings named Acqua and Bell made a memorable request of British Prime Minister William Gladstone.
"We are tired of governing the country ourselves," they wrote in a letter dated Nov. 6, 1881. "Every dispute leads to war, and often to great loss of life, so we think it is the best thing to give up the country to you British men who no doubt will bring peace, civilization and Christianity in the country. Do for mercy's sake please lay our request before the queen. . . . We are quite willing to abolish all our heathen customs."
The kings' offer (which Gladstone declined) makes for interesting reading as one postcolonial state—Sudan—votes this week to split in two, with uncertain consequences. Another state—Côte d'Ivoire—stands on a razor's edge between outright dictatorship and civil war. And a third—Haiti, a de facto American colony from 1915 to 1934—has proved unable to pick itself even inches off the ground since last year's devastating earthquake. What, if anything, does it all mean?
It means that we've come full circle. It means that colonialism, for which the West has spent the past five decades in nonstop atonement, was far from the worst thing to befall much of the colonized world. It means, also, that some new version of colonialism may be the best thing that could happen to at least some countries in the postcolonial world.
Take Haiti...
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Once upon a time in West Africa, two kings named Acqua and Bell made a memorable request of British Prime Minister William Gladstone.
"We are tired of governing the country ourselves," they wrote in a letter dated Nov. 6, 1881. "Every dispute leads to war, and often to great loss of life, so we think it is the best thing to give up the country to you British men who no doubt will bring peace, civilization and Christianity in the country. Do for mercy's sake please lay our request before the queen. . . . We are quite willing to abolish all our heathen customs."
The kings' offer (which Gladstone declined) makes for interesting reading as one postcolonial state—Sudan—votes this week to split in two, with uncertain consequences. Another state—Côte d'Ivoire—stands on a razor's edge between outright dictatorship and civil war. And a third—Haiti, a de facto American colony from 1915 to 1934—has proved unable to pick itself even inches off the ground since last year's devastating earthquake. What, if anything, does it all mean?
It means that we've come full circle. It means that colonialism, for which the West has spent the past five decades in nonstop atonement, was far from the worst thing to befall much of the colonized world. It means, also, that some new version of colonialism may be the best thing that could happen to at least some countries in the postcolonial world.
Take Haiti...