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Colonial Encounters

1750-1914

Focused on Asia and Africa Several new players (Germany,

Italy, Belgium, US, Japan) Was not demographically

catastrophic like the first phase In general, Europeans preferred

informal control (Latin America, China, Ottoman)

2nd Wave of European Conquests

Original Euro military advantage lay in organization, drill, and command structure

19th C. enormous firepower advantage (repeating rifles and machine guns

Numerous wars of conquest: Westerners almost always won

Based on Military Force or Threat

India & Indonesia: grew from interaction with Euro trading firms

Most of Africa and SE Asia and Pacific Isl.: deliberate conquest

Australia/New Zealand: more like colonization of N. America

Taiwan/Korea: Japanese takeover was Euro-style US and Russia continued to expand Liberia: settled by freed US slaves Ethiopia/Siam: avoided colonization skillfully

Variety

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Under European Rule

European takeover was often traumatic for the colonized peoples; the loss of life and property could be devastating

Some groups and individuals cooperated willingly with their new masters

Employment in the armed forces Elite often kept much of their status and

privileges Governments and missionaries promoted

European education Growth of a small class with Western

education Governments relied on them increasingly

over time

Cooperation

Indian Rebellion (1857-1858), based on a series of grievances

Began as a mutiny among Indian troops Rebel leaders advocated revival of the

Mughal Empire Widened India’s racial divide; the British

were less tolerant of natives Let the British assume direct control

over India

Rebellion

Difference between rulers and ruled? RACE

Education for subjects was limited and emphasized practical matters, suitable for “primitive minds”

Even the best-educated natives rarely made it into the upper ranks of the civil service

Racism was especially pronounced in areas with a large number of European settlers (South Africa)

Colonial Empires w/a difference

Colonizers were fascinated with counting and classifying their new subjects

In India, appropriated an idealized caste system

In Africa, identified or invented distinct “tribes”

Racial Divide

Colonies were essentially dictatorships Colonies were the antithesis of “national

independence” Racial classifications were against

Christian and Enlightenment ideas of human equality

Many colonizers were against spreading of “modernization” to the colonies

In time, the visible contradictions in Euro behavior helped undermine the foundations of colonial rule

Contradictions

{Labor Systems

Comparing Colonial Economies

World economy increasingly demanded Asian and African raw materials

Subsistence farming diminished Need to sell goods for money to pay taxes Desire to buy new products

Artisans largely displaced by manufactured goods

Asian and African merchants were squeezed out by Europeans

Deep Impact on Work

Many colonial states demanded unpaid labor on public projects

Worst abuses in Congo Free State Personally governed by Leopold II of

Belgium Reign of terror killed millions with labor

demands Forced labor caused widespread

starvation Belgium finally stepped in and took

control of the Congo (1908) to stop abusesEconomies of Coercion- Forced Labor

Peasants had to devoted at least 20% of their land to cash crops to pay as taxes

The proceeds were sold for high profits, financed the Dutch economy

Enriched traditional authorities who enforced the system

Cultivation System- Netherlands East Indies

Many areas resisted the forced cultivation of cash crops

German East Africa: major rebellion in 1905 against forced cotton cultivation

Mozambique: peasant sabotage and smuggling kept the Portuguese from achieving their goals there

Resistance

Many people were happy to increase production for world markets

Considerable profit to small farmers in areas like the Irrawaddy Delta

In the southern Gold Coast (Ghana), African farmers took the initiative to develop export agriculture

Leading supplier of cocoa by 1911 Created by a hybrid peasant-capitalist society Labor shortages led to exploitation of former

slaves, men marrying women for their labor power, influx of migrants

Many colonies specialized in 1 or 2 crops- creating dependence

Cash Crop Economics

Wage labor in Euro enterprises was common

Hundreds of thousands of workers came to work on SE Asian plantations

Millions of Indians migrated to work elsewhere in the British Empire

Economics of Wage Labor

Especially in Africa, people moved to Euro farms/plantations because they had lost their own land

Euro communities obtained vast amounts of land

S Africa 1913: 88% of land belonged to whites

Much of highland Kenya was taken over by 4,000 white farmers

Many former famers were sent to “native reserves”

Wage Labor in Africa

Malaysian tin mines attracted millions of Chinese workers

South African diamond mines created a huge pattern of worker migration

Wage Labor in Mines

Seen as centers of opportunity Segregated, unsanitary, overcrowded Created a place for a native, Western-

educated middle class Created an enormous class of urban poor

that could barely live and couldn’t raise families

Colonial Cities

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Women in the Colonial Economy

An African Case Study

Pre-colonial Africa: women usually active farmers, had some economic autonomy

Colonial economy: women’s lives diverged even more from men

Men tended to dominate the lucrative export crops

Women were left with almost all of the subsistence work

Large numbers of men migrated to work elsewhere

Women left at home to cope, including supplying food to men in the cities

Changes for Women

Small trade and marketing Sometimes women’s crops came to have

greater cash value Some women escaped the patriarchy of

husbands or fathers Led to greater fear of witchcraft and

efforts to restrict female travel and sexuality

Opportunities for Women

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Assessing Colonial Development

Different measures

Defenders: it jump-started modern growth

Critics: long record of exploitation and limited, uneven growth

Colonial rule did help integrate Asian and African economies into a global exchange networkOverall Economic

Impact of Colonial Rule

Administrative and bureaucratic structures

Communication and transportation infrastructure

Schools Health care Breakthroughs to modern industrial

societies

Modernizing Elements

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Believing and Belonging

Identity and Cultural Change in the Colonial Era

Getting a Western education created a new identity for many

The almost magical power of literacy Escape from obligations like forced labor Access to better jobs Social motility and elite status

Education

Many who embraced Euro culture created a cultural divide between them and the fast majority of the population

Many of the Western-educated elite saw colonial rule as the path to a better future, at least at first

In India, they organized reform societies to renew Indian culture

Hopes for a renewal through colonial rule were disappointed

Embracing Euro Culture

widespread conversion to Christianity in New Zealand, the Pacific islands, and non-Muslim Africa

around 10,000 missionaries had gone to Africa by 1910

by the 1960s, some 50 million Africans were Christian

Religion

military defeat shook belief in the old gods

Christianity was associated with modern education

Christianity gave opportunities to the young, the poor, and many women

Christianity spread mostly through native Africans

Christianity Attractive

continuing use of charms, medicine men some simply demonized their old gods wide array of “independent churches”

was established

Christianity Africanized

but it led intellectuals and reformers to define Hinduism

Hindu leaders looked to offer spiritual support to the spiritually sick Western world

new definition of Hinduism helped a clearer sense of Muslims as a distinct community to emerge

Christianity- not in India

notions of race and ethnicity were central to new ways of belonging

by 1900, some African thinkers began to define an “African identity”

united for the first time by the experience of colonial oppression

some argued that African culture and history had the characteristics valued by Europeans (complex political systems, etc.)

some praised the differences between Africa and Europe

“Race” and “Tribe”

in the twentieth century, such ideas reached a broader public

hundreds of thousands of Africans took part in World War I

some Africans traveled widely for most Africans, the most important

new sense of belonging was the idea of “tribe” or ethnic identity

ethnic groups were defined much more clearly, thanks to Europeans

Africans found ethnic identity useful

“Race” and “Tribe”

How could Europeans, many of them from the middle or upper classes and nearly all of them professing Christianity, have perpetrated horrors like King Leopold’s genocidal control of the Congo?

Which was worse- the first or second wave of European colonialism?

Questions

Why were Asian and African societies incorporated into European colonial empires later than those of the Americas? How would you compare their colonial experiences?

In what ways did colonial rule rest upon violence and coercion, and in what ways did it elicit voluntary cooperation or generate benefits for some people?

Questions

In what respects were colonized people more than victims of colonial conquest and rule? To what extent could they act in their own interests within the colonial situation?

Was colonial rule a transforming, even a revolutionary, experience, or did it serve to freeze or preserve existing social and economic patterns? What evidence can you find to support both sides of this argument?

Questions