Developed countries, particularly in the West, through interconnected banks, multinational corporations, global institutions, and powerful lobbying circles, actively work to prevent the economic and technological progress of developing nations. The West is exploiting Global South. These developed countries use a variety of methods. These include financial manipulation, trade imbalances, technological suppression, and geopolitical interference. But also environmental policies. All of this is because they need to maintain global dominance while keeping the Global South perpetually dependent. This paints a picture of an intricate web of control that ensures the profits of global trade, resources, and innovation continue to flow to the West. Meanwhile, developing countries are left in cycles of poverty, exploitation, and underdevelopment.
Financial institutions, such as the Federal Reserve (Fed), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Bank, are interconnected through shared shareholders and board members. These institutions, coordinated to serve Western interests, create global economic policies that disproportionately benefit developed nations while hindering the growth of developing countries. Through their vast financial power, they dictate economic strategies, and impose austerity measures. And enforce loan conditions that serve corporate interests at the expense of local economies in the Global South. Additionally, the Western financial elite is accused of using multinational corporations, trade agreements, technology monopolies, and geopolitical sanctions to suppress the ambitions of developing nations.
Global currency dominance: the U.S. dollar as a tool of control
The U.S. dollar’s role as the global reserve currency is managed by the Federal Reserve. Developing nations rely heavily on the U.S. dollar for international trade, especially for commodities like oil and minerals. The Federal Reserve’s decisions on interest rates and monetary policy affect these countries disproportionately, given their reliance on dollar-denominated transactions.
When the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to combat inflation or manage U.S. economic growth, developing countries that hold dollar-denominated debt find themselves in financial distress.
The cost of servicing their debt increases dramatically. This forces these nations to divert funds away from development projects, social services, and infrastructure investment to make interest payments.
This dynamic creates a vicious cycle of dependency on Western financial institutions. When interest rates rise, developing countries are often forced to borrow more from the IMF or World Bank to cover their debt repayments, pushing them deeper into economic dependency. The terms of these loans frequently require structural adjustments that open up local markets to foreign investment and deregulation. This further embeds Western financial interests in the economies of these nations. In effect, the dominance of the U.S. dollar and the policies of the Federal Reserve allow developed countries to control the financial stability of the Global South. This ensures that wealth continues to flow from the developing world to the West.
Debt as a weapon: the cycle of economic dependency
Debt is one of the most powerful tools used by developed nations to control the economies of developing countries. The IMF, World Bank, and Western banks offer loans to developing nations, but these loans come with strings attached.
Conditions often include the implementation of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), which demand the privatization of state-owned industries, deregulation of markets, and austerity measures that cut public spending on social services like healthcare and education. These policies open up local economies to foreign corporations and investors, allowing Western companies to extract profits from these markets with minimal restrictions.
Another example of how West is exploiting Global South: the loans provided by these institutions are structured to create a cycle of debt dependency. Developing countries must take on new loans to pay off old debts. It traps them in a perpetual state of financial reliance on Western banks. This debt trap ensures that third-world countries remain economically subservient to developed nations. The repayment of these loans flows back into Western financial institutions, enriching them while further impoverishing the Global South. At the same time, the austerity measures imposed as part of these loan agreements often lead to social unrest and economic stagnation in developing countries. This further reinforces the power imbalance between the West and the rest of the world.
West is exploiting Global South: exploitation of natural resources: profiting from the Global South’s wealth
The exploitation of natural resources occurs in developing countries by Western multinational corporations, which are often financed by interconnected Western banks. Countries in the Global South are often rich in valuable natural resources such as oil, minerals, and agricultural products. However, these resources are frequently extracted and controlled by Western corporations that reap the majority of the profits. The profits flow back to Western financial centers. This leaves resource-rich developing countries impoverished and unable to benefit from their own wealth.
The process begins with trade agreements or contracts that allow Western companies to extract resources at low costs. The local governments, often heavily indebted and under pressure from international financial institutions, have little leverage to negotiate better terms. As a result, the extraction of resources benefits foreign companies and their shareholders, while the host countries receive only a fraction of the value. This situation, known as the “resource curse,” leaves resource-rich countries trapped in poverty and reliant on foreign aid and loans. Furthermore, the environmental degradation caused by unregulated resource extraction, such as deforestation, soil erosion, and water pollution, creates additional economic burdens for these nations, further entrenching their dependence on the West.
West is exploiting Global South: trade imbalances: unfair global trade relationships
Developed countries also use trade policies to maintain their economic dominance over developing nations. Through their control of global trade organizations like the World Trade Organization (WTO), developed nations shape trade rules to benefit their own industries. Developing countries, however, are keeping locked into roles as exporters of low-value goods. These agreements often require developing countries to open their markets to foreign goods. However, they face significant tariffs and barriers when trying to export higher-value products to Western markets.
This results in a trade imbalance that keeps developing nations dependent on exporting raw materials and low-cost manufactured goods to the West. Meanwhile, developed countries dominate high-value industries such as technology, pharmaceuticals, and advanced manufacturing. The wealth generated from global trade overwhelmingly flows to the West. While third-world countries remain trapped in low-wage industries that do little to foster sustainable economic growth. This trade dependency forces developing countries to borrow more from Western financial institutions, perpetuating the cycle of debt and economic dependency.
Manipulation of global commodity prices
In addition to trade imbalances, the manipulation of global commodity prices by Western financial institutions plays a key role in maintaining the economic subordination of developing nations. Major Western banks, such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Barclays, control the trading of essential commodities like oil, metals, and agricultural products through their dominance of commodity exchanges like the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and the London Metal Exchange (LME). Through speculative trading and price manipulation, these institutions can artificially inflate or deflate the prices of these commodities, depending on what serves their interests.
For resource-dependent developing nations, this manipulation can have devastating effects. When commodity prices drop, countries that rely on exporting resources such as oil or minerals see their revenues plummet, leading to economic crises. To stabilize their economies, they force these countries to take out more loans from Western financial institutions. Further deepening their debt dependency. Meanwhile, when prices are inflated, Western investors and banks profit from the volatility. Thus, leaving developing nations to bear the brunt of economic instability.
Technological suppression: keeping developing nations dependent
Western control over global technology is another crucial aspect. Through intellectual property (IP) laws and patent systems, developed countries ensure that key technologies remain concentrated in the West.
Western corporations, backed by powerful financial institutions, hold patents on critical technologies in fields like pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and renewable energy. All of this is preventing developing countries from accessing these technologies at affordable prices or developing them independently.
As a result, developing nations are forced to import expensive technologies from Western firms, deepening their economic dependency on the West. Third-world countries attempt to build their own industries and innovate. They often face legal challenges, trade sanctions, and even industrial sabotage.
This technological suppression keeps developing nations locked into roles as consumers rather than producers of technology. This is further widening the economic divide between the Global South and the West.
Capital flight: draining the wealth of developing countries
Another tool used by the interconnected Western financial system is capital flight, where wealth is transferred out of developing countries into Western financial institutions. Wealthy elites and corporations in the Global South often move their money to offshore accounts or Western banks to avoid local taxes and political instability. This practice drains developing nations of much-needed capital, leaving them with fewer resources to invest in infrastructure, social services, and economic development.
In addition to capital flight, developed countries are accused of using asset seizures as a way to punish countries that challenge their economic dominance. When a developing country’s leadership opposes Western policies, its foreign assets may be frozen or confiscated by Western governments or financial institutions. This deprives the country of access to critical financial resources, further weakening its economy and forcing it to rely on Western loans and aid.
Environmental policies as a means of economic sabotage
You may not believe but West is exploiting Global South even in this way. Environmental policies and international climate agreements are used by developed countries to limit the industrial growth of developing nations. While framed as efforts to combat global warming, these agreements often place stringent carbon emission limits on developing countries, requiring costly investments in renewable energy technologies. For many developing nations, these requirements are financially burdensome. This forces them to buy expensive green technologies from Western companies that dominate the renewable energy market.
At the same time, the environmental degradation caused by industries controlled by Western corporations – such as mining, oil drilling, and deforestation -disproportionately affects developing countries. These nations are left to deal with the environmental fallout while lacking the financial resources to invest in sustainable development. This dynamic creates a form of “green colonialism,” where developing countries are forced to adopt environmentally friendly policies that benefit Western companies while limiting their own economic growth.
Dependence: geopolitical manipulation through economic sanctions
Developed countries also use economic sanctions as a geopolitical tool to control the economies of developing nations. Countries like Iran, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe have faced crippling sanctions that prevent them from accessing global markets, securing foreign investment, or participating in the international financial system. These sanctions, often justified on political or human rights grounds, are viewed as a way to weaken the economic independence of these nations and ensure that they remain dependent on Western-controlled financial systems.
When sanctioned countries are cut off from the global financial network, they lose access to the SWIFT international banking system, making it nearly impossible for them to engage in international trade or finance. This isolation forces these nations to rely on Western financial institutions for survival, deepening their economic dependency and ensuring that they remain subservient to Western interests.
Monopolization of the digital economy: West is exploiting Global South
As the global economy becomes increasingly digital, developed countries, particularly in the West, are accused of monopolizing the digital economy to maintain their dominance. Western tech giants like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook, backed by major Western financial institutions, control much of the world’s digital infrastructure, including internet platforms, data management, and e-commerce. This concentration of power ensures that developing countries remain consumers of digital technologies rather than producers, limiting their ability to build their own digital industries.
The vast resources and technological expertise of these companies create insurmountable barriers for local tech industries in developing nations, further entrenching the technological and economic divide between the Global South and the West. As these tech giants continue to expand their global reach, the profits from the digital economy flow back to the West, while developing countries remain economically marginalized.
Conclusion: the engineered economic imbalance
In sum, this is a detailed view of how developed countries, particularly those in the West, use an interconnected system of financial institutions, multinational corporations, global trade organizations, and technological monopolies to suppress the economic and technological progress of developing nations. Through a combination of debt dependency, trade imbalances, technological suppression, capital flight, environmental policies, and geopolitical sanctions, developed nations are said to maintain their global dominance while keeping the Global South trapped in cycles of poverty and exploitation.
The developed world deliberately manipulates the global economic system to ensure that the profits from trade, natural resources, and technological innovation flow back to Western financial centers, leaving developing countries with little hope of achieving true economic independence.
There is a point that the Western democracies can be sustained by this. This means if autocratic countries don’t rule the world, democracy prevails. They can avert wars with totalitarian regimes or flawed democracies while they are economically, scientifically, and militarily advanced.
However, this system is twisted and has an enormous influence on the quality of life, GDP, health care, mortality and morbidity, and so on in the Global South.
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