Regressive Modernity?
Understanding the Role of the Caribbean in the Construction of the West
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36399/GroundingsUG.13.153Keywords:
Modernity, Colonialism, Slavery, Caribbean, DecolonisationAbstract
Modern: a byword for new, sleek, or desirable. This paper discusses the origins of Western modernity and argues that contemporary understanding frequently ignores the painful past which has allowed for a modern world to exist. This essay argues that what we consider the hallmarks of modernity and the capitalist economy originated not in Europe but in the plantations of the Caribbean, discussing and contextualising these oft-ignored colonial roots.
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