For example, in the equatorial forests of Malaysia, there are tribal peoples and also laborers working in rubber plantations and tin mines. Though the environment is the same, the modes of life are different because the needs and aspirations of the people are quite different. Tribal people lead a semi-nomadic life moving from one part of the forest to another adopting shifting cultivation by clearing a patch of forest at a time. This is supplemented by food gathering and hunting. Their clothing needs are minimum and they live in shelters fashioned out of local bamboo or thatch. They live in adjustment with the environment.
When modern man introduced rubber plantations in Malaysia, he cleared the forest, planted the rubber trees over vast areas and brought in laborers from India and China. Such an enterprise is based on foreign capital and foreign laborers and the product is meant for foreign markets, which needed rubber. Transport was developed by roads and railway lines, port facilities were improved to handle the large volume of passenger and goods traffic. The people who were brought to work on these plantations needed better housing facilities, colonies had to be built with water supply and sanitary facilities. Food grains, clothing etc., needed by them had to be imported. Schools and hospitals had to be built for the laborers. They also demanded facilities for social interaction like places of worship, club, canteen or cultural centres. Thus these people bad different needs than those of the tribals living in the same natural region.
It is seen from the above example that one of the reasons for economic development of a region is external contact with people who had better technology. The local environment provided the climatic conditions suited for the growth of rubber trees. Everything else was imported from outside by the British who had colonized this region in the past. These developments had as their incentive the sudden increase in world demand for rubber with the introduction of automobiles. Similar developments took place in the case of tin mining. Chinese laborers were brought into Malaysia for work in tin mines. Factories were established for processing latex and refining the tin ores. The profits from these enterprises were sent to the British companies who invested the capital. The local residents did not take part in these developments in the early stages.
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