Colonial Encounters 1750-1914

2nd Wave of European Conquests 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

Based on Military Force or Threat 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

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

Colonial Empires w/a difference 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

Contradictions 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

Comparing Colonial Economies 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

Economies of Coercion- Forced Labor 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

Cultivation System- Netherlands East Indies 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

Resistance 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

Economics of Wage Labor 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

Colonial Cities 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

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

Opportunities 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

Assessing Colonial Development Different measures

Overall Economic Impact of Colonial Rule 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

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

Believing and Belonging Identity and Cultural Change in the Colonial Era

Education 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

Embracing Euro Culture 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

Christianity Attractive 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

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

Christianity- not in India 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