Colonial Legacies of Economic Growth

A Comparative Analysis of Hong Kong and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Abstract

This paper asserts that divergent methods of colonial governance, as exemplified by Britain’s liberal imperialism in Hong Kong and Belgium’s extractive imperialism in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have ultimately led to contrasting cases of economic growth. In Hong Kong, the British style of rule fostered good governance through the essence of democracy and upheld a successful blend of laissez-faire and intervention-when-necessary market conditions. In turn, from 1960 to 1995, Hong Kong’s average annual GDP per capita grew at a rate of approximately 6.3%. On the other hand, Belgium’s rule of the DRC only sought the complete control of the colony’s people and natural resources for the purpose of financial gain. This resulted in Congo’s average annual income per capita declining at a rate of -2.6% from 1953 to 1997. I will ultimately determine the economic impacts of these two colonial histories through a consideration of various models of economic growth.