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Old 02-27-2014, 09:12 AM
 
Location: Melbourne, Australia
9,572 posts, read 20,755,654 times
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I think the former colonies of the world can be divided into different 'levels of influence' in terms of cultural influence of their colonial ruling power.

The MOST influenced would be the settler colonies: those countries where a majority of the population were from the colonising country in Europe, or from elsewhere in the world, who largely migrated there because of policies of the colonial government.

The United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America, much of the Caribbean and parts of South Africa would fit into this category. The Falkland Islands might be another example. Ireland would be a special case in that although it's population wasn't displaced much (maybe a bit in Northern Ireland) it was significantly Anglicised. In these nations English, French, Spanish, Portuguese (or whatever the language) is almost universally spoken, and the culture shows more similarities to the colonial ruler than the native culture.

Second would be those where most of the population remained native or a significant portion remained native but there was significant cultural influence in things like religion, language, cultural norms, and sometimes cuisine. I would say much of Central America, Bolivia, Paraguay and possibly Mexico would just fit into this category, followed by the Pacific Islands like Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, New Caledonia, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia would fit the bill. Morocco and Zimbabwe might possibly be included into this category.

The third would be countries where language had a moderate impact, but was not as pervasive among the general population (as in most people speaking/knowing it). It was mostly rerstricted to an elite or to some things like governance, politics, some trade. Religion may have had some influence (or little), although in most ways the culture remained indigenous. Much of Africa would fit into this category as well as the Indian sub-continent, Egypt, South-East Asia like Indochina, Myanmar, Indonesia and Hong Kong.
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