Western Guilt and Third World Development: Part 1

Abstract

The issue of Western guilt has enjoyed much attention after the independence of most colonized countries in the Third World (developing countries). Western guilt is defined here as the feeling that the West (developed countries) is responsible for the poverty of the Third World. For sometimes now, both the West and the developing countries have had some kind of agreement on the subject. But there has been an emergence of a new ideology championed mainly by Peter Bauer who has argued sternly against Western guilt. This ideology has caused many to sit up to reconsider the subject. The main of this paper is to provide the final verdict on this issue and bring the subject to a close. To do this, the paper identified four main factors of the proponents of Western guilt which includes Colonialism, Neo-colonialism, Slave trade and Trade Barriers. Part one of this work argued in favour of Western guilt using these four thematic areas. It was concluded that the West have been a major contributor of Third World poverty. Part two of this work will consider the otherwise of the situation and a verdict will be provided