The colonial powers who brought the pre­capitalist societies and nations under their net acted as clever conquerors.

They did not impose all their demands at one go. This was because they acted as per the requirements of their country. This can be exemplified by examining it in context of the three stages of colonialism.

In the initial stage of colonialism referred to as the mercantilist phase, the requirement of the colonial power was in having a favourable balance of trade and in prevenenting the outflow of bullion from their country. So, they wanted to gain control with acquiring monopoly over the trade of the colony and in direct appropriation of the revenue of the colony. Thus, the British ousted all the rival companies and established their monopoly. Also they got the control of the power of Bengal by acquiring Diwani rights.

Then in the subsequent free trade phase, when the needs of the mother country changed, the conquerors imposed another set of regulations on the colonies. The colonies were to be suppliers of raw materials and were to act as market for manufactured products from the mother country.

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Thus India was converted into supplier of raw-material and receiver of finished goods from Britain. Moreover, the colonial powers also introduced some halting steps to modernize colonies again to serve their interests.

Finally, when sufficient capital got generated in the mother country, another set of demands were imposed on the colonies in the Finance Colonialism stage. The colonial powers invested the unused surplus capital in colonies and received guaranteed interest on the invested capital.

Once the colonies attained sufficient level of awareness and organization, they felt the cleverness of conquerors and uprooted them through national movements.