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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