The institutions of imperialism and colonialism have shaped the face of growth and development of the social, political, and economic forces in Africa. As outlined by Boahen, the extent of the influence that these institutions asserted varies and has both positive and negative aspects. Several of these aspects that exists in Africa are mirrored in Latin America, while others differ quite extremely.An important observation that can be made immediately, is that each positive has a related negative. It is not as if the positive aspects stem from one source while the negatives stem from another, but rather it is as if they both stem from the same related source. Each of the colonial impacts on both Africa and Latin America has both a good and a bad. Therefore, instead of assessing the positives and negatives as separate entities, one must explore them in context of the underlying colonial impact, and from that derive the benefits and detriments.Political development in both Africa and Latin America relys quite heavily on the institutions introduced by imperialists. Boahen claims that the introduction of a new beauracracy and a new judicial system into Africa as a beneficial social impact. The republican form of government adopted in Latin America are similar to the bureaucracies adopted in Africa in the sense that both have been adopted from similar western political systems which were put forth to assert imperial rule in the respective continents. On both continents, the political structure that was established by the imperialialists remained much the same after independence. Another political development which bears similarities between the two regions is the emergence of nationalism. This onset of a group mentality has both positive and negative consequences. On one hand, it acted as a binding force between intra-cultural ethnic groups and provided a sense of identity within African colonial states. Much the same way, the e...
