At what point if any did former European colonies become economically independent of foreign interest?

Question

Trade by definition I agree has roots going back to ancient times. I know the ingombe ilede find in Zambia showed this as the items found in a landlocked country were from other continents. However, my interest is in former colonies such as Commonwealth countries. I feel enlightened by the links. Thanks.

Answer 1

No country is ever economically independent of foreign interests and those who persist in trying to become so are doomed to death.

Trade, even what we now think of as international trade, has been an essential element of economic activity for millennia - and those that haven't participated are the "lost tribes" as in the deepest parts of the Amazon forest.

Otherwise, archaeologists have found tools made from obsidian that originated hundreds of miles from where the tools were found. Ditto for glass and other materials:

http://www.archatlas.org/ObsidianRoutes/...

http://www.jstor.org/pss/530487

http://www.scienceblog.com/community/old...

http://www.onlinenevada.org/prehistoric_...

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/nigl/Trade_tech.htm

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v26...

More recently, Japan tried to keep out foreign trade and found itself powerless in the face of U.S. gunboats:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakumatsu

Then, at the start of the depression, the U.S. passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, raising tariffs and stifling trade.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot-Hawle...

Many feel this is what turned a stock-market collapse into the Great Depression.

International trade is essential, which means that no country can survive independent of foreign interests, whether they former colonies or countries that have were never colonies.

(BTW, this is also why the idea of "energy independence" is worse than joke - it is a nightmare in the making)

In addition to the trade elements, there are other elements as well. The bursting of the sub-prime mortgage bubble in the U.S. has clearly affected the rest of the world, showing how the U.S. relies on the investment by other countries in the American economy. Other countries also depend on outside investment.

Knowledge is a critical factor in modern economies. Without international trade in knowledge, both in the form of books and journals, and in the form of people moving around to schools, international conferences, etc. everyone's economy would suffer.