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Colonial Encounters

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). 2 nd Wave of European Conquests.

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Colonial Encounters

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  1. Colonial Encounters 1750-1914

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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

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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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

  9. 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

  10. 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

  11. Labor Systems Comparing Colonial Economies

  12. 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

  13. 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 abuses Economies of Coercion- Forced Labor

  14. 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

  15. 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

  16. 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

  17. 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

  18. 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

  19. Malaysian tin mines attracted millions of Chinese workers • South African diamond mines created a huge pattern of worker migration Wage Labor in Mines

  20. 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

  21. Women in the Colonial Economy An African Case Study

  22. 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

  23. 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

  24. Assessing Colonial Development Different measures

  25. 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 network Overall Economic Impact of Colonial Rule

  26. Administrative and bureaucratic structures • Communication and transportation infrastructure • Schools • Health care • Breakthroughs to modern industrial societies Modernizing Elements

  27. Believing and Belonging Identity and Cultural Change in the Colonial Era

  28. 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

  29. 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

  30. 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

  31. 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

  32. continuing use of charms, medicine men • some simply demonized their old gods • wide array of “independent churches” was established Christianity Africanized

  33. 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

  34. 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”

  35. 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”

  36. 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

  37. 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

  38. 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

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