The reason why the government promoted the public to become literate is that of three reasons: economic growth, promotion of national pride and there needed to be some form of literacy as careers become more advanced.
When Kastle mentions, “In the nineteenth century”(Kastle), that made me wonder what was going on in that time frame. Two major events were ignited and that was the industrial revolution and with that came imperialism. The extortion of raw materials from colonized nations lead to the economy to exponentially rise. In reaction to this new jobs were fabricated which were in need of people who were literate. The chain reaction continues as these people need to be taught how to read and write, thus institutions and systematic organizations were created as well, such as schools.
As nations competed with each other in the 19th century for imperial control, there was not only a rapid fluctuation of economic growth but a sense of patriotism as well. People started taking great pride in their countries and looked down on those who were not as well off, this lead people to wanting to learn how to read and write better to uphold the status. An example of this would be some Africans, who were told day in and day out that they were not subhuman, wanted to become fluent in their oppressor’s language because they thought that would make them hold a higher status than those who can’t speak or understand the language.
