Rice Industry in Burma during Colonialism Essay - 1

Rice Industry in Burma during Colonialism - Essay Example Private merchant companies served as the instrument of expansion – these were the English East-Indian company (1600) and the Dutch East-Indian company (1602), having gained monopolistic rights from their governments to have trade relations with Asian countries. By the middle of the 16th century, Portuguese have been almost pushed away from their Asian possessions, while the English and the Dutch became masters of the biggest territory of Southern and Eastern Asia. (Wilson) 'Asian countries have always been known as the main producers and exporters of rice and during the colonial era Burma became the main world center of cultivation and exporting rice.' (Frank, 2002, p. 261) At the beginning of the 19th century Burma attracted the English not only by its strategic location, but by its raw materials, and the abundance of rice and teak. After the second English – Burma war of 1852-53, the English gained the control on the Lower Burma, which was hardly populated at the time, and only 5% of the land, suitable for cultivation, was used for agriculture. This very region was going to become the new granary of the whole Burma, and thus, a big economic center. (Frank, 2002, p. 259)