Blank Space - Imperialists Love the Game

Good evening everyone!

For my blog post, I'll be touching base around the imperialist mentality that Heart of Darkness explores in this quote:  

"America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration. At that time there were many blank spaces on the O ne earth, and when I saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map (but they all look that) I would put my finger on it and say, 'When I grow up I will go there.'…But there was one yet - the biggest, the most blank, so to speak - that I had a hankering after."
 
I recall back in World History in high school when we played a game during the imperialism unit. The purpose and goal for the game was to role play as the imperialist nation and we would have to give presentations and take quizzes on the nation's history. Our teacher would score us on how well we did every week. The top group would have the chance to pick first where on the map we'd want to colonize. This game was incredibly competitive as the history teachers hyped up which class/small group would formulate the best colonized map of the world. The irony was we were given the British Empire aka "the empire where the sun never sets".

Fueling my competitive mentality, my group got to pick first three weeks in a row, choosing:
Egypt - Crucial point on the way to India, especially with the construction of the canal
Australia - Crucial point in the South Pacific with plenty of Aboriginal/native labor supply
Philippines - Crucial point in the Pacific whether it is to reach Japan or Indochina for trade; also had a lot of raw goods

With these countries taken over first (we also later grabbed Panama), the history teachers deemed my small group the winners. One thing I took away was how competitive other people during the game and the colonial mentality we all had to have in order to win the game. I thought like an imperialist, figuring out which parts of the world made sense to take over. I was adamant doing my research regarding which potential colonies would be strategic points of war and which ones could economically be exploited support my main country. Looking back, it is crazy how the teachers had us play this game, how deep I was into it, and how we don't really learn the history of Africa and the other colonized nations.

Now with my current research, there actually is an old Windows 95 strategy game called Imperialism. This game has many features for an outdated game having diplomacy options and stocking up raw materials. Once again, a history of exploitation, rape, and violence has made into simulation where is a declared "winner". It goes to show how profits can be made off this history.

Bringing it back to Heart of Darkness, some maybe dispute that the imperialists were playing a game trying to split up Africa. One thing is for sure that the people of these colonized nations did not reap the supposed rewards they were producing. The estranged labor on top of the exploitation and violence proves that the space is anything but blank, but more stained with the blood of the violence that occurs during the scramble.

Here is the link for Imperialism game (it's free but I had to download the Windows converter on the Windows site to run it): http://www.freegameempire.com/games/Imperialism

Thank you for reading!