Introduction Colonialism is a system in which a state claims sovereignty over territory and people outside its own boundaries ; or a system of rule which assumes the right of one people to impose their will upon another (Brett, 1973). During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, rich, powerful states, including Britain and other European countries, owned third world colonies. ?Third world? originally referred to countries that did not belong to the democratic, industrialised countries of the West (the First World) or the state-socialist, industrialising, Soviet Bloc countries (the Second World) (Chilton, 2004). This essay uses specific third world examples to summarise the main impacts of nineteenth and twentieth century colonialism, when colonial powers reached their peak. It focuses on European colonialism in Africa and India. One view of development is that, at the level of the individual, it implies increased skill and capacity, greater freedom, creativity, self-discipline, responsibility and bacterial vaginosis material well being (Rodney, 1972), which European colonial powers achieved through economic growth, by exploiting the natural and human resources of their colonies. Europe and Africa confronted each other in respective states of development and underdevelopment, the latter term being defined by Europeans in relation to the lack of African progress in the techniques required to sustain an advanced materialistic culture (Brett, 1973). It can be argued that colonialism had some positive effects. For example, the British instigated irrigation networks in India: by the 1890s nearly 44,000 miles of canals and distributaries irrigated a quarter of India?s total crop area, increasing agricultural output. But this too had some negative effects, including waterlogging and salination of the canals and greater prevalence of malaria with more mosquito breeding areas (Arnold, 1996). Colonialism was also supposedly beneficial because it provided infrastructure for economic development and some social services.