Colonialism and Imperialism

1. Colonialism and Imperialism End of Empires?

2. Age of Exploitation • Late 1400s Europeans started exploring (Age of Exploration). • Christopher Columbus • After the explorers came the conquerors • Pizarro • Cortez • Europeans saw it as natural and justified to take over any territory not fully utilised by the locals (Eurocentrism)

3. Colonisation • Starting in the 1600s, Europeans solved population crisis by sending excess people overseas – colonies • Served to replicate European culture in the host country • Success depended on indigenous resistance • North America – less • India - some • Imperial China – more • Major players: Spain, Portuguese, France, Britain, Netherlands,

4. Colonial Rivalries • As colonisation took wing, Europeans fought over the right to exploit • By 1800 the British were by far the winners

7. An Uneasy Circumstance • The success of the British in creating a huge colonial system also coincided with more powerful forced – Victorianism Morality and Liberalism. • They did not always work together, but instead helped created a distorted sense of right and wrong and sense of equity. • These conflicting attitudes were intermixed with racism and prejudice • They did not want to take over the territory, but would only stay for a little while.

8. Imperialism • Imperialism: The economic, political control of a nation / region through indirect control. • In the mid 1800s the European powers shifted away from colonising • Opted for indirect control • Indian Mutiny 1857 – British abolish East India Co. and assume indirect control - Viceroy

9. A New Style • The British did not take direct control, or try to impose British culture on the Indians. • They looked for local rulers and western trained administrators to run the show while they held power through the head of the government (Governor) and the military. The local people were “free” as long as the British Government let them. • Nigeria= pop 20 mil, 400 white administrators • Sudan = pop 9 mil, 140 white administrators • Looking at this shift the French also adopted the same approach. They did not need to send people to settle, they only had to control the mechanisms of power.

10. Post War • Neo Colonialism replaces Imperialism • The idea corresponds with the growth of globalisation. • After World War Two, the major European countries could no longer go back to the way it was. • They were weakened politically, economically, and militarily • In this relaxed state, many colonies developed nationalist / independence movements • Control was not going to be given up easily

11. What is it? "As long as imperialism exists it will, by definition, exert its domination over other countries. Today that domination is called neo-colonialism." Che Guevara, Marxist revolutionary, 1965

12. How Economic Imperialism Works • Powerful economic states maintain a presence in the economies of former colonies, especially where it concerns raw materials. • Stronger nations are charged with interfering in the governance and economics of weaker nations to maintain the flow of such material, at prices and under conditions which unfairly benefit developed nations and trans-national corporations. • Most multinational companies will sell their expertese in developing the resource, and in return keep a % of the profit. • Fruit companies in Central America • China in the Sudan