<P> In the case of India, Abhijit Banerjee and Lakshmi Iyer found divergent legacies of the British land tenure system in India . The areas where the property rights over the land were given to landlords registered lower productivity and agricultural investments in post-Colonial years compared to areas where land tenure was dominated by cultivators . The former areas also have lower levels of investment in health and education . </P> <P> Prominent Guyanese scholar and political activist Walter Rodney wrote at length about the economic exploitation of Africa by the colonial powers . In particular, he saw labourers as an especially abused group . While a capitalist system almost always employs some form of wage labour, the dynamic between labourers and colonial powers left the way open for extreme misconduct . According the Rodney, African workers were more exploited than Europeans because the colonial system produced a complete monopoly on political power and left the working class small and incapable of collective action . Combined with deep - seated racism, native workers were presented with impossible circumstances . The racism and superiority felt by the colonizers enabled them to justify the systematic underpayment of Africans even when they were working alongside European workers . Colonialists further defended their disparate incomes by claiming a higher cost of living . Rodney challenged this pretext and asserted the European quality of life and cost of living were only possible because of the exploitation of the colonies and African living standards were intentionally depressed in order to maximize revenue . In its wake, colonialism left Africa vastly underdeveloped and without a path forward . </P> <P> The colonial changes to ethnic identity have been explored from the political, sociological, and psychological perspectives . In his book The Wretched of the Earth, Afro - Caribbean psychiatrist and revolutionary Frantz Fanon claims the colonized must "ask themselves the question constantly:' who am I?"' Fanon uses this question to express his frustrations with fundamentally dehumanizing character of colonialism . Colonialism in all forms, was rarely an act of simple political control . Fanon argues the very act of colonial domination has the power to warp the personal and ethnic identities of natives because it operates under the assumption of perceived superiority . Natives are thus entirely divorced from their ethnic identities, which has been replaced by a desire to emulate their oppressors . </P> <P> Ethnic manipulation manifested itself beyond the personal and internal spheres . Scott Straus from the University of Wisconsin describes the ethnic identities that partially contributed to the Rwandan genocide . In April 1994, following the assassination of Rwanda's President Juvénal Habyarimana, Hutus of Rwanda turned on their Tutsi neighbors and slaughtered between 500,000 and 800,000 people in just 100 days . While politically this situation was incredibly complex, the influence ethnicity had on the violence cannot be ignored . Before the German colonization of Rwanda, the identities of Hutu and Tutsi were not fixed . Germany ruled Rwanda through the Tutsi dominated monarchy and the Belgians continued this following their takeover . Belgian rule reinforced the difference between Tutsi and Hutu . Tutsis were deemed superior and were propped up as a ruling minority supported by the Belgians, while the Hutu were systematically repressed . The country's power later dramatically shifted following the so - called Hutu Revolution, during which Rwanda gained independence from their colonizers and formed a new Hutu - dominated government . Deep - seated ethnic tensions did not leave with the Belgians . Instead, the new government reinforced the cleavage . </P>

What has been a lasting impact of european colonialism