1. Chapter 18: Colonial Encounters in Africa and Asia
Objectives: To examine the ways Europeans created 19th century empires
To examine 19th century racist ideology-as a function of European feelings of superiority; to assess impact on subject peoples of European racial assumptions
To consider the extent to which the colonial experience transformed the live of Asians and Africans
To define some of the distinctive qualities of modern European empires vis-à-vis earlier examples of empire
Chapter 18: Colonial Encounters in Africa and Asia

2. Which European powers had colonies in the 19th century
Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Russia, and the United States all had colonial empires in this time period
Colonial policy varied depending on time, place, and who was in charge
The actions of the colonized people also helped to shape the colonial experience
Each empire justified its actions primarily using racial difference as a starting point.
Which European powers had colonies in the 19th century

3. The industrial revolution helped to fuel much European expansion in the 19th century
Industrial countries demanded raw materials and food products
Needed markets to sell industrial production
European capitalists often invested money in foreign areas
Foreign markets kept European workers employed
Growth of mass nationalism made imperialism popular in Europe: Italy and Germany unified by 1870, saw colonies as a status symbol
Industry and Empire

4. Industrial age inventions and technologies made overseas expansion possible.
Breech loading rifles and machine guns gave an advantage in weaponry
Steamships could carry more and did not rely on winds for movement
Underwater telegraph connected far away places. Government could now effectively reach around the planet
Quinine for malaria, germ theory and sanitation allowed Europeans to survive more successfully in tropical areas
Industry and Empire

5. Prior to the age of industrialization Europe had largely defined others in terms of religion.
But, they had adopted and adapted many foreign ideas and techniques
Mingled freely with Asian and African elites
The idea of the noble savage gave status to non technological peoples as well
This began to change in the course of the 19th century
Europe and “others”

6. The advance of industry and wealth in European areas gave rise to a type of arrogance among many in Europe and NA
This smugness often included a sense of religious superiority
European opinion of Asian and African peoples and cultures dropped
A new kind of racism was being expressed, often in terms of the new scientific language (using scientific terms to justify and legitimate racist understandings)
“Others”

7. Others Most non-Europeans seen as “weaker races”. Non white= weaker
Europeans had a “duty” to civilize these people
Bring them education (European style), health care, good government, and Christianity
This was regarded as progress and civilization as if these areas such as India, Latin America, and China had never had civilizations
Social Darwinism: this was an effort to apply Darwin’s evolutionary theory to human history. This was the culmination of racist scientific rationalization in the Modern Era.
Others

8. The second wave of European Conquests
From 1750 to 1900 there was a second, distinctive wave of European colonial conquest
This second wave had several new players: Germany, Italy, Belgium, United States, Japan
Europeans and Japanese preferred informal control through economic treaties, port agreements, cultural programs, protectorates
But, occasionally competition between powers or resistance on the part of those being colonized led to brutal conquest in some cases-(American liberation of the Philippines, Egypt by Britain, Vietnam by France, Korea by Japan, Southwest Afrika by Germany)
The second wave of European Conquests

9. Military Threats and the Use of Force
What role did force play in 19th century colonization.?
The establishment of the second wave empires was based on an implicit threat of force.
European (and American and Japanese) military advantage lay in organization, drill, and command structure originally. During the 19th century this was augmented by:
The development of steam warships, barreled artillery, breech loading and repeating rifles, the machine gun. This overwhelming advantage in firepower was seldom defeated in conquest wars.
Military Threats and the Use of Force

10. How did a place become a colony? Did they ask to be one? Mostly not!
In some areas hunter gatherers, agriculturalists, and pastoralists were incorporated into complex societies for the first time
Indian and Indonesian colonies grew out of original European trade penetration and domination
Most of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands(Oceania) was deliberately conquered. It was as if Europeans could not stand to have any place on Earth where they were not in power.
Decentralized societies were the hardest to conquer as they had no formal structure to deal with. This would include much of Africa
How did a place become a colony? Did they ask to be one? Mostly not!

11. Australia and New Zealand were conquered more in the style of North America with disease killing off most of the aboriginal population in both places. (Maoris in New Zealand) Also massive European immigration in both places
This also occurred in places like Hawaii, Fiji, and Tahiti
US and Russia continued to expand; the US into the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, Russia into Siberia and Manchuria
Taiwan and Korea were conquered by the Japanese in the finest European style
Mostly Not!

12. There was one bit of reverse colonization: in the 1840’s freed American slaves were settled in a remote area in Africa’s west known today as Liberia. Few ex-slaves were eager to return to Africa as most of them had been born in the US and knew little about Africa. This colony survived and today is the independent nation of Liberia (1847)
Two major countries in the world avoided colonization for most of the period by skillfully playing European countries against each other:
Siam or Thailand and Ethiopia
Asian and African societies had a wide range of responses to the European threat
Colonization

13. European takeover could and did elicit traumatic reactions: loss of life was often significant, and property could be and was destroyed. Colonial peoples did not forget this.
Cooperation or rebellion: Some groups were willing to work with Europeans while other were not. Each of course had its own reasons for doing what it did.
Cooperators: elites generally kept status and privileges under European rule. Many also found employment in the Europeans native armies use to control the colony or fight in other colonies. (Sikhs in India)
Under European Rule

14. Colonial government promoted European education and European morality
A small class with western education soon became dominant as the second tier (under Europeans) in most colonies
Colonial governments increasingly relied on these people over time as they became more dependent on this growing “European” class
Under European Rule

15. BUT: exceptions to the happy colony fantasy can be found
In India in 1857 the Great Indian Rebellion occurred. Began as a mutiny against the British among Indian troops. Grievances went unheard and unheeded by the British; this irritated and angered the colonials in the army.
Rebel leaders advocated the overthrow of the British and the re- establishment of the Mughal Empire.
Britain assumed direct rule of India as a result; British were less tolerant of Indian customs and result was a deepening of racial prejudice and intolerance among the British in India
Under European Rule

16. Race and Gender in Colonial Empires
In these 19th century empires, race was a prominent point used to distinguish the rulers from the ruled.
Education for colonial subjects was limited to a small group of “ok” people, and emphasized practical day to day matters, areas of learning suitable for “primitive minds”. Some exceptions occurred of course
Even the most and best educated of native peoples rarely succeeded in penetrating the highest levels of colonial government or civil service.
Race and Gender in Colonial Empires

17. Racism was even more pronounced in areas that had large European settlements such as South Africa, Rhodesia, Australia, and New Zealand. Racism was also very evident in the US and Canada home to large groups of European settlers.
Colonizers were not content with making racial determinations about subject people. They often interfered with or changed age old ways of doing things.
Race and Gender

18. In India the British were both fascinated and repelled by the system of jatis and varna that had been established over a thousand years.
The system in place did not satisfy the British need to categorize in easy groups, so a very complex system was simplified to present the caste system that we are most familiar with. Didn’t know that did ya?
The British were also responsible for establishing “tribes” in areas of Africa that they took over. Others imitated them. In many cases the whole thing was invented for what ever reason the Europeans devised: language, territory, dress could all be ways of identifying “tribes” who were unrelated in any meaningful way. Thus, the legacy of empire.
Race and Gender

19. Most European societies that created empires were possessed of a much exaggerated idea of masculinity.
Colonizers defined themselves as “masculine”
Colonial peoples were defined as “feminine”
Linked the idea of gender ideology and race prejudice into a support for colonial ideals and colonial rule
European women were seen as the emblem of civilization.
Race and Gender

20. Some colonial peoples were seen and regarded as “masculine” or martial “races” and recruited into military or security forces
These included Sikhs (as mentioned before), Gurkhas, Kamba, and Hausa
Colonial practices contradicted the values Europeans prized at home and the core values of western civilization
They did so in the following ways:
Race and Gender

21. Colonies were essentially dictatorships unlike the European home country in almost all cases
Colonies were the antithesis of national independence and freedom
Racial classifications based on bogus science were un-Christian and anti-Enlightenment and anti-Science
Many of the colonizers objected to modernizing the colonies for a variety of reasons mostly having to do with prejudice
In time, these visible contradictions in European behavior helped to undermine colonial rule in both the colonies and the European lands.
Contradictions