Afactoryentrepôt, a basic example of colonialism illustrating its different elements, hierarchies and impact on the land and people (theDutch V.O.C. factory inHugli-Chuchura, Bengal, in 1665)
Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group.[1][2][3][4][5] Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory.[6][7] While frequently animperialist project, colonialism can also take the form ofsettler colonialism, whereby colonial settlers occupy the territory of an existing population.[8][9]
Because of this broad impact different instances of colonialism have been identified from around the world and in history, starting with whencolonization was developed by developingcolonies andmetropoles, the base colonial separation and characteristic.[8]
Decolonization, which started in the 18th century, gradually led to the independence of colonies in waves, with a particular large wave of decolonizations happening in theaftermath of World War II between 1945 and 1975.[13][14] Colonialism has apersistent impact on a wide range of modern outcomes, as scholars have shown that variations in colonial institutions can account for variations ineconomic development,[15][16][17]regime types,[18][19] andstate capacity.[20][21] Some academics have used the termneocolonialism to describe the continuation or imposition of elements of colonial rule through indirect means in the contemporary period.[22][23]
Colonialism isetymologically rooted in the Latin word "Colonus", which was used to describe tenant farmers in theRoman Empire.[4] Thecoloni sharecroppers started as tenants of landlords, but as the system evolved they became permanently indebted to the landowner and trapped in servitude.
The earliest uses of colonialism referred to plantations that men emigrated to and settled.[24] The term expanded its meaning in the early 20th century to primarily refer to European imperial expansion and theimperial subjection of Asian and African peoples.[24]
Collins English Dictionary defines colonialism as "the practice by which a powerful country directly controls less powerful countries and uses their resources to increase its own power and wealth".[3]Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary defines colonialism as "the system or policy of a nation seeking to extend or retain its authority over other people or territories".[2] TheMerriam-Webster Dictionary offers four definitions, including "something characteristic of a colony" and "control by one power over a dependent area or people".[25]
TheStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy uses the term "to describe the process of European settlement and political control over the rest of the world, including the Americas, Australia, and parts of Africa and Asia". It discusses the distinction between colonialism,imperialism andconquest and states that "[t]he difficulty of defining colonialism stems from the fact that the term is often used as a synonym for imperialism. Both colonialism and imperialism were forms of conquest that were expected to benefit Europe economically and strategically," and continues "given the difficulty of consistently distinguishing between the two terms, this entry will usecolonialism broadly to refer to the project of European political domination from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries that ended with the national liberation movements of the 1960s".[4]
In his preface toJürgen Osterhammel'sColonialism: A Theoretical Overview, Roger Tignor says "For Osterhammel, the essence of colonialism is the existence of colonies, which are by definition governed differently from other territories such as protectorates or informal spheres of influence."[1] In the book, Osterhammel asks, "How can 'colonialism' be defined independently from 'colony?'"[26] He settles on a three-sentence definition:
Colonialism is a relationship between an indigenous (or forcibly imported) majority and a minority of foreign invaders. The fundamental decisions affecting the lives of the colonised people are made and implemented by the colonial rulers in pursuit of interests that are often defined in a distant metropolis. Rejecting cultural compromises with the colonised population, the colonisers are convinced of their own superiority and their ordained mandate to rule.[27]
According to Julian Go, "Colonialism refers to the direct political control of a society and its people by a foreign ruling state... The ruling state monopolizes political power and keeps the subordinated society and its people in a legally inferior position."[6] He also writes, "colonialism depends first and foremost upon the declaration of sovereignty and/or territorial seizure by a core state over another territory and its inhabitants who are classified as inferior subjects rather than equal citizens."[7]
According to David Strang, decolonization is achieved through the attainment of sovereign statehood withde jure recognition by the international community or through full incorporation into an existing sovereign state.[28]
The Times once quipped that there were three types of colonial empire: "The English, which consists in making colonies with colonists; the German, which collects colonists without colonies; the French, which sets up colonies without colonists."[29] Modern studies of colonialism have often distinguished between various overlapping categories of colonialism, broadly classified into four types:settler colonialism,exploitation colonialism,surrogate colonialism, andinternal colonialism. Some historians have identified other forms of colonialism, including national and trade forms.[30]
Exploitation colonialism involves fewer colonists and focuses on the exploitation of natural resources or labour to the benefit of themetropole. This form consists oftrading posts as well as larger colonies where colonists would constitute much of the political and economic administration. The Europeancolonization of Africa andAsia was largely conducted under the auspices of exploitation colonialism.[36]
Surrogate colonialism involves a settlement project supported by a colonial power, in which most of the settlers do not come from the same ethnic group as the ruling power, as it has been (controversially) argued was the case ofMandatory Palestine and theColony of Liberia.[37][38]
Internal colonialism is a notion of uneven structural power between areas of astate. The source of exploitation comes from within the state. This is demonstrated in the way control and exploitation may pass from people from the colonizing country to an immigrant population within a newly independent country.[39][40]Harbour Street,Kingston, Jamaica,c. 1820
National colonialism is a process involving elements of both settler and internal colonialism, in which nation-building and colonization are symbiotically connected, with the colonial regime seeking to remake the colonized peoples into their own cultural and political image. The goal is to integrate them into the state, but only as reflections of the state's preferred culture. TheRepublic of China in Taiwan is the archetypal example of a national-colonialist society.[41]
Trade colonialism involves the undertaking of colonialist ventures in support of trade opportunities for merchants. This form of colonialism was most prominent in 19th-century Asia, where previouslyisolationist states were forced to open their ports to Western powers. Examples of this include theOpium Wars and theopening of Japan.[42][43]
When colonists settled in pre-populated areas, the societies and cultures of the people in those areas permanently changed. Colonial practices directly and indirectly forced the colonized peoples to abandon their traditional cultures. For example, European colonizers in the United States implemented theresidential schools program to force native children to assimilate into the hegemonic culture.
Cultural colonialism gave rise to culturally and ethnically mixed populations such as themestizos of the Americas, as well as racially divided populations such as those found inFrench Algeria or inSouthern Rhodesia. In fact, everywhere where colonial powers established a consistent and continued presence, hybrid communities existed.
American Progress (1872) byJohn Gast is an allegorical representation of the idea ofmanifest destiny.Columbia, a personification of the United States, leads settler civilization westward, bringing light, stringingtelegraph wire, holding a book,[46] and highlighting different stages of economic activity and evolving forms of transportation,[47] while on the left, displacingNative Americans in the United States from their homeland
Activity that could be called colonialism has a long history, starting at least as early as theancient Egyptians.Phoenicians,Greeks, andRomans foundedcolonies in antiquity.Phoenicia had an enterprising maritime trading-culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550 BC to 300 BC; later thePersian Empire and variousGreek city-states continued on this line of setting up colonies. The Romans would soon follow, setting upcoloniae throughout the Mediterranean, in North Africa, and in Western Asia.
Medieval
Beginning in the 7th century,Arabs colonized a substantial portion of the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Asia and Europe. From the 9th centuryVikings (Norsemen) such asLeif Erikson establishedcolonies in Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, North America, present-day Russia and Ukraine, France (Normandy) and Sicily.[48] In the 9th century a new wave ofMediterranean colonisation began, with competitors such as theVenetians,Genovese andAmalfians infiltrating the wealthy previouslyByzantine orEastern Roman islands and lands. EuropeanCrusaders set up colonial regimes inOutremer (inthe Levant, 1097–1291) and in theBaltic littoral (12th century onwards).Venice began to dominateDalmatia and reached its greatest nominal colonial extent at the conclusion of theFourth Crusade in 1204, with the declaration of theacquisition of three octaves of the Byzantine Empire.[49]
Modern
Iberian Union of Spain and Portugal between 1580 and 1640
In the late 19th century, many European powers became involved in theScramble for Africa.[54]
20th century
The Harmsworth atlas and Gazetter 1908 European colonization map
The world's colonial population at the outbreak of the First World War (1914) – a high point for colonialism – totalled about 560 million people, of whom 70% lived inBritish possessions, 10% in French possessions, 9% in Dutch possessions, 4% in Japanese possessions, 2% in German possessions, 2% in American possessions, 3% in Portuguese possessions, 1% in Belgian possessions and 0.5% in Italian possessions. The domestic domains of the colonial powers had a total population of about 370 million people.[57] Outside Europe, few areas had remained without coming under formal colonial tutorship – and evenSiam,China,Japan,Nepal,Afghanistan,Persia, andAbyssinia had felt varying degrees of Western colonial-style influence – concessions,unequal treaties,extraterritoriality and the like.
Asking whether colonies paid, economic historianGrover Clark (1891–1938) argues an emphatic "No!" He reports that in every case the support cost, especially the military system necessary to support and defend colonies, outran the total trade they produced. Apart from the British Empire, they did not provide favoured destinations for the immigration of surplus metropole populations.[58] The question of whether colonies paid is a complicated one when recognizing the multiplicity of interests involved. In some cases colonial powers paid a lot in military costs while private investors pocketed the benefits. In other cases the colonial powers managed to move the burden of administrative costs to the colonies themselves by imposing taxes.[59]
Map of colonial and land-based empires throughout the world in 1914Imperial powers in 1945
AfterWorld War I (1914–1918), the victoriousAllies divided up the German colonial empire and much of the Ottoman Empire between themselves asLeague of Nations mandates, grouping these territories into three classes according to how quickly it was deemed that they could prepare for independence. The empires of Russia and Austria collapsed in 1917–1918,[60] and theSoviet empire started.[61]Nazi Germany set up short-lived colonial systems (Reichskommissariate,Generalgouvernement) in Eastern Europe in the early 1940s.
In the aftermath ofWorld War II (1939–1945),decolonisation progressed rapidly. The tumultuous upheaval of the war significantly weakened the major colonial powers, and they quickly lost control of colonies such as Singapore, India, and Libya.[62] In addition, theUnited Nations shows support for decolonisation in its 1945charter. In 1960, the UN issued theDeclaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, which affirmed its stance (though notably, colonial empires such as France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States abstained).[63]
The word "neocolonialism" originated fromJean-Paul Sartre in 1956,[64] to refer to a variety of contexts since the decolonisation that took place afterWorld War II. Generally it does not refer to a type of direct colonisation – rather to colonialism or colonial-style exploitation by other means. Specifically, neocolonialism may refer to the theory that former or existing economic relationships, such as theGeneral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and theCentral American Free Trade Agreement, or the operations of companies (such asRoyal Dutch Shell inNigeria andBrunei) fostered by former colonial powers were or are used to maintain control of former colonies and dependencies after the colonial independence movements of the post–World War II period.[65]
The term "neocolonialism" became popular in ex-colonies in the late 20th century.[66]
A 1904 cartoon byBob Satterfield about the brutality committed by Western nations: the personifications of England, the United States, and Germany carrying spears topped by the severed heads of Tibet, the Philippines, and Southwest Africa respectively. The caption describes this as "The advance guard of civilization".The Dutch Public Health Service provides medical care for the natives of theDutch East Indies, May 1946.
The impacts of colonisation are immense and pervasive.[71] Various effects, both immediate and protracted, include the spread of virulentdiseases,unequal social relations,detribalization,exploitation,enslavement,medical advances, the creation of new institutions,abolitionism,[72] improved infrastructure,[73] and technological progress.[74] Colonial practices also spur the spread of conquerors' languages, literature and cultural institutions, while endangering or obliterating those ofIndigenous peoples. The cultures of the colonised peoples can also have a powerful influence on the imperial country.[75]
With respect to international borders, Britain and France traced close to 40% of the entire length of the world's international boundaries.[76]
Economy, trade and commerce
Economic expansion, sometimes described as thecolonial surplus, has accompanied imperial expansion since ancient times.[citation needed] Greek trade networks spread throughout the Mediterranean region while Roman trade expanded with the primary goal of directing tribute from the colonised areas towards the Roman metropole. According toStrabo, by the time of emperorAugustus, up to 120 Roman ships would set sail every year fromMyos Hormos inRoman Egypt to India.[77] With the development of trade routes under theOttoman Empire,
Gujari Hindus, Syrian Muslims, Jews, Armenians, Christians from south and central Europe operated trading routes that supplied Persian and Arab horses to the armies of all three empires, Mocha coffee toDelhi andBelgrade, Persian silk to India andIstanbul.[78]
Aztec civilisation developed into an extensive empire that, much like the Roman Empire, had the goal of exacting tribute from the conquered colonial areas. For the Aztecs, a significant tribute was the acquisition of sacrificial victims for their religious rituals.[79]
On the other hand, European colonial empires sometimes attempted to channel, restrict and impede trade involving their colonies, funneling activity through the metropole and taxing accordingly.
Despite the general trend of economic expansion, the economic performance of former European colonies varies significantly. In "Institutions as a Fundamental Cause of Long-run Growth", economistsDaron Acemoglu,Simon Johnson andJames A. Robinson compare the economic influences of the European colonists on different colonies and study what could explain the huge discrepancies in previous European colonies, for example, between West African colonies likeSierra Leone andHong Kong andSingapore.[80]
According to the paper, economic institutions are the determinant of the colonial success because they determine their financial performance and order for the distribution of resources. At the same time, these institutions are also consequences of political institutions – especially howde facto andde jure political power is allocated. To explain the different colonial cases, we thus need to look first into the political institutions that shaped the economic institutions.[80]
For example, one interesting observation is "the Reversal of Fortune" – the less developed civilisations in 1500, like North America, Australia, and New Zealand, are now much richer than those countries who used to be in the prosperous civilisations in 1500 before the colonists came, like the Mughals in India and the Incas in the Americas. One explanation offered by the paper focuses on the political institutions of the various colonies: it was less likely for European colonists to introduce economic institutions where they could benefit quickly from the extraction of resources in the area. Therefore, given a more developed civilisation and denser population, European colonists would rather keep the existing economic systems than introduce an entirely new system; while in places with little to extract, European colonists would rather establish new economic institutions to protect their interests. Political institutions thus gave rise to different types of economic systems, which determined the colonial economic performance.[80]
European colonisation and development also changed gendered systems of power already in place around the world. In many pre-colonialist areas, women maintained power, prestige, or authority through reproductive or agricultural control. For example, in certain parts ofSub-Saharan Africa women maintained farmland in which they had usage rights. While men would make political and communal decisions for a community, the women would control the village's food supply or their individual family's land. This allowed women to achieve power and autonomy, even in patrilineal and patriarchal societies.[81]
Through the rise of European colonialism came a large push for development and industrialisation of most economic systems. When working to improve productivity, Europeans focused mostly on male workers. Foreign aid arrived in the form of loans, land, credit, and tools to speed up development, but were only allocated to men. In a more European fashion, women were expected to serve on a more domestic level. The result was a technologic, economic, and class-based gender gap that widened over time.[82]
Within a colony, the presence of extractive colonial institutions in a given area has been found have effects on the modern day economic development, institutions and infrastructure of these areas.[83][84]
European nations entered their imperial projects with the goal of enriching the European metropoles. Exploitation of non-Europeans and of other Europeans to support imperial goals was acceptable to the colonisers. Two outgrowths of this imperial agenda were the extension of slavery and indentured servitude. In the 17th century, nearly two-thirds of English settlers came to North America as indentured servants.[85]
European slave traders brought large numbers of African slaves to the Americas by sail. Spain and Portugal hadbrought African slaves to work in African colonies such asCape Verde andSão Tomé and Príncipe, and then in Latin America, by the 16th century. The British, French and Dutch joined in the slave trade in subsequent centuries. The European colonial system took approximately 11 million Africans to the Caribbean and to North and South America as slaves.[86]
Number of slaves imported between 1450 and 1870[86]
Portuguese Empire
Brazil
3,646,800
British Empire
British Caribbean
1,665,000
French Empire
French Caribbean
1,600,200
Spanish Empire
Latin America
1,552,100
Dutch Empire
Dutch Caribbean
500,000
British Empire
British North America
399,000
Abolitionists in Europe and Americas protested the inhumane treatment of African slaves, which led to the elimination of the slave trade (and later, of most forms of slavery) by the late 19th century. One (disputed) school of thought points to the role of abolitionism in theAmerican Revolution: while the British colonial metropole started to move towards outlawing slavery, slave-owning elites in theThirteen Colonies saw this as one of the reasons to fight for their post-colonial independence and for the right to develop and continue a largely slave-based economy.[87]
British colonising activity inNew Zealand from the early 19th century played a part in ending slave-taking and slave-keeping among the indigenousMāori.[88][89]On the other hand, British colonialadministration in Southern Africa, when it officially abolished slavery in the 1830s, caused rifts in society which arguably perpetuated slavery in theBoer Republics and fed into the philosophy ofapartheid.[90]
The labour shortages that resulted from abolition inspired European colonisers in Queensland, British Guaiana and Fiji (for example) to develop new sources of labour, re-adopting a system of indentured servitude.Indentured servants consented to a contract with the European colonisers. Under their contract, the servant would work for an employer for a term of at least a year, while the employer agreed to pay for the servant's voyage to the colony, possibly pay for the return to the country of origin, and pay the employee a wage as well. The employees became "indentured" to the employer because they owed a debt back to the employer for their travel expense to the colony, which they were expected to pay through their wages. In practice, indentured servants were exploited through terrible working conditions and burdensome debts imposed by the employers, with whom the servants had no means of negotiating the debt once they arrived in the colony.
India and China were the largest source of indentured servants during the colonial era. Indentured servants from India travelled to British colonies in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, and also to French and Portuguese colonies, while Chinese servants travelled to British and Dutch colonies. Between 1830 and 1930, around 30 million indentured servants migrated from India, and 24 million returned to India. China sent more indentured servants to European colonies, and around the same proportion returned to China.[91]
Following theScramble for Africa, an early but secondary focus for most colonial regimes was the suppression of slavery and the slave trade. By the end of the colonial period they were mostly successful in this aim, though slavery persists in Africa and in the world at large with much the same practices ofde facto servility despite legislative prohibition.[72]
Conquering forces have throughout history applied innovation in order to gain an advantage over the armies of the people they aim to conquer. Greeks developed thephalanx system, which enabled their military units to present themselves to their enemies as a wall, with foot soldiers using shields to cover one another during their advance on the battlefield. UnderPhilip II of Macedon, they were able to organise thousands of soldiers into a formidable battle force, bringing together carefully trained infantry and cavalry regiments.[92]Alexander the Great exploited this military foundation further during his conquests.
The Spanish Empire held a major advantage overMesoamerican warriors through the use of weapons made of stronger metal, predominantly iron, which was able to shatter the blades of axes used by theAztec civilisation and others. The use ofgunpowder weapons cemented the European military advantage over the peoples they sought to subjugate in the Americas and elsewhere.
The populations of some colonial territories, such as Canada, enjoyed relative peace and prosperity as part of a European power, at least among the majority. Minority populations such asFirst Nations peoples and French-Canadians experiencedmarginalisation and resented colonial practices. Francophone residents ofQuebec, for example, were vocal in opposing conscription into the armed services to fight on behalf of Britain during World War I, resulting in theConscription crisis of 1917. Other European colonies had much more pronounced conflict between European settlers and the local population. Rebellions broke out in the later decades of the imperial era, such as India'sSepoy Rebellion of 1857.
The territorial boundaries imposed by European colonisers, notably in central Africa and South Asia, defied the existing boundaries of native populations that had previously interacted little with one another. European colonisers disregarded native political and cultural animosities, imposing peace upon people under their military control. Native populations were often relocated at the will of the colonial administrators.
ThePartition of British India in August 1947 led to theIndependence of India and thecreation of Pakistan. These events also caused much bloodshed at the time of the migration of immigrants from the two countries. Muslims from India and Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan migrated to the respective countries they sought independence for.
In a reversal of the migration patterns experienced during the modern colonial era, post-independence era migration followed a route back towards the imperial country. In some cases, this was a movement of settlers of European origin returning to the land of their birth, or to an ancestral birthplace. 900,000 French colonists (known as thePied-Noirs) resettled in France following Algeria's independence in 1962. A significant number of these migrants were also of Algerian descent. 800,000 people ofPortuguese origin migrated to Portugal after the independence of former colonies in Africa between 1974 and 1979; 300,000 settlers of Dutch origin migrated to the Netherlands from theDutch West Indies after Dutch military control of the colony ended.[93]
After WWII 300,000 Dutchmen from theDutch East Indies, of which the majority were people of Eurasian descent calledIndo Europeans, repatriated to the Netherlands. A significant number later migrated to the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.[94][95]
Global travel and migration in general developed at an increasingly brisk pace throughout the era of European colonial expansion. Citizens of the former colonies of European countries may have a privileged status in some respects with regard to immigration rights when settling in the former European imperial nation. For example, rights to dual citizenship may be generous,[96] or larger immigrant quotas may be extended to former colonies.[citation needed]
In some cases, the former European imperial nations continue to foster close political and economic ties with former colonies. TheCommonwealth of Nations is an organisation that promotes cooperation between and among Britain and its former colonies, the Commonwealth members. A similar organisation exists for former colonies of France, theFrancophonie; theCommunity of Portuguese Language Countries plays a similar role for former Portuguese colonies, and theDutch Language Union is the equivalent for former colonies of the Netherlands.[97][98][99]
Migration from former colonies has proven to be problematic for European countries, where the majority population may express hostility to ethnic minorities who have immigrated from former colonies. Cultural and religious conflict have often erupted in France in recent decades, between immigrants from theMaghreb countries of north Africa and the majority population of France. Nonetheless, immigration has changed the ethnic composition of France; by the 1980s, 25% of the total population of "inner Paris" and 14% of the metropolitan region were of foreign origin, mainly Algerian.[100]
Encounters between explorers and populations in the rest of the world often introduced new diseases, which sometimes caused local epidemics of extraordinary virulence.[101] For example,smallpox, measles, malaria, yellow fever, and others were unknown in pre-Columbian America.[102]
Half the native population ofHispaniola in 1518 was killed by smallpox. Smallpox also ravagedMexico in the 1520s, killing 150,000 inTenochtitlan alone, including the emperor, andPeru in the 1530s, aiding the European conquerors.Measles killed a further two million Mexican natives in the 17th century. In 1618–1619, smallpox wiped out 90% of theMassachusetts Bay Native Americans.[103] Smallpox epidemics in 1780–1782 and1837–1838 brought devastation and drastic depopulation among thePlains Indians.[104] Some believe[who?] that the death of up to 95% of theNative American population of theNew World was caused byOld World diseases.[105] Over the centuries, the Europeans had developed high degrees ofimmunity to these diseases, while theindigenous peoples had no time to build such immunity.[106]
Smallpox decimated the native population ofAustralia, killing around 50% ofindigenous Australians in the early years of British colonisation.[107] It also killed many New ZealandMāori.[108] As late as 1848–49, as many as 40,000 out of 150,000Hawaiians are estimated to have died ofmeasles,whooping cough andinfluenza. Introduced diseases, notably smallpox, nearly wiped out the native population ofEaster Island.[109] In 1875,measles killed over 40,000Fijians, approximately one-third of the population.[110] TheAinu population decreased drastically in the 19th century, due in large partto infectious diseases brought by Japanese settlers pouring intoHokkaido.[111]
Conversely, researchers have hypothesised that a precursor tosyphilis may have been carried from the New World to Europe afterColumbus's voyages. The findings suggested Europeans could have carried the nonvenereal tropical bacteria home, where the organisms may have mutated into a more deadly form in the different conditions of Europe.[112] The disease was more frequently fatal than it is today; syphilis was a major killer in Europe during theRenaissance.[113] Thefirst cholera pandemic began inBengal, then spread across India by 1820. Ten thousand British troops and countless Indians died during thispandemic.[114] Between 1736 and 1834 only some 10% ofEast India Company's officers survived to take the final voyage home.[115]Waldemar Haffkine, who mainly worked in India, who developed and usedvaccines againstcholera andbubonic plague in the 1890s, is considered the firstmicrobiologist.
As early as 1803, theSpanish Crown organised a mission (theBalmis expedition) to transport the smallpox vaccine to theSpanish colonies, and establish mass vaccination programs there.[117] By 1832, the federal government of the United States established asmallpox vaccination program for Native Americans.[118] Under the direction ofMountstuart Elphinstone a program was launched to propagatesmallpox vaccination in India.[119] From the beginning of the 20th century onwards, the elimination or control of disease in tropical countries became a driving force for all colonial powers.[120] Thesleeping sickness epidemic in Africa was arrested due to mobile teams systematically screening millions of people at risk.[121] In the 20th century, the world saw the biggest increase in its population inhuman history due to lessening of themortality rate in many countries due tomedical advances.[122] Theworld population has grown from 1.6 billion in 1900 to over seven billion today.[citation needed]
Botany
Colonial botany refers to the body of works concerning the study, cultivation, marketing and naming of the new plants that were acquired or traded during the age of European colonialism. Notable examples of these plants included sugar,nutmeg,tobacco,cloves,cinnamon,Peruvian bark, peppers,Sassafras albidum, andtea. This work was a large part of securing financing for colonial ambitions, supporting European expansion and ensuring the profitability of such endeavors.Vasco de Gama andChristopher Columbus were seeking to establish routes to trade spices, dyes and silk from theMoluccas, India and China by sea that would be independent of the established routes controlled by Venetian and Middle Eastern merchants. Naturalists likeHendrik van Rheede,Georg Eberhard Rumphius, andJacobus Bontius compiled data about eastern plants on behalf of the Europeans. ThoughSweden did not possess an extensive colonial network, botanical research based onCarl Linnaeus identified and developed techniques to grow cinnamon, tea and rice locally as an alternative to costly imports.[123]
Settlers acted as the link between indigenous populations and the imperial hegemony, thus bridging the geographical, ideological and commercial gap between the colonisers and colonised. While the extent in which geography as an academic study is implicated in colonialism is contentious, geographical tools such ascartography,shipbuilding,navigation, mining and agricultural productivity were instrumental in European colonial expansion. Colonisers' awareness of the Earth's surface and abundance of practical skills provided colonisers with a knowledge that, in turn, created power.[124]
Anne Godlewska and Neil Smith argue that "empire was 'quintessentially a geographical project'".[clarification needed][125] Historical geographical theories such asenvironmental determinism legitimised colonialism by positing the view that some parts of the world were underdeveloped, which created notions of skewed evolution.[124] Geographers such asEllen Churchill Semple andEllsworth Huntington put forward the notion that northern climates bred vigour and intelligence as opposed to those indigenous to tropical climates (SeeThe Tropics) viz a viz a combination ofenvironmental determinism andSocial Darwinism in their approach.[126]
Political geographers also maintain that colonial behaviour was reinforced by the physical mapping of the world, therefore creating a visual separation between "them" and "us". Geographers are primarily focused on the spaces of colonialism and imperialism; more specifically, the material and symbolic appropriation of space enabling colonialism.[127]: 5
Comparison of Africa in the years 1880 and 1913
Maps played an extensive role in colonialism, as Bassett would put it "by providing geographical information in a convenient and standardised format, cartographers helped open West Africa to European conquest, commerce, and colonisation".[128] Because the relationship between colonialism and geography was not scientifically objective, cartography was often manipulated during the colonial era. Social norms and values had an effect on the constructing of maps. During colonialism map-makers used rhetoric in their formation of boundaries and in their art. The rhetoric favoured the view of the conquering Europeans; this is evident in the fact that any map created by a non-European was instantly regarded as inaccurate. Furthermore, European cartographers were required to follow a set of rules which led to ethnocentrism; portraying one's own ethnicity in the centre of the map. AsJ.B. Harley put it, "The steps in making a map – selection, omission, simplification, classification, the creation of hierarchies, and 'symbolisation' – are all inherently rhetorical."[129]
A common practice by the European cartographers of the time was to map unexplored areas as "blank spaces". This influenced the colonial powers as it sparked competition amongst them to explore and colonise these regions. Imperialists aggressively and passionately looked forward to filling these spaces for the glory of their respective countries.[130] TheDictionary of Human Geography notes that cartography was used to empty 'undiscovered' lands of their Indigenous meaning and bring them into spatial existence via the imposition of "Western place-names and borders, [therefore] priming 'virgin' (putatively empty land, 'wilderness') for colonisation (thus sexualising colonial landscapes as domains of male penetration), reconfiguring alien space as absolute, quantifiable and separable (as property)."[131]
David Livingstone stresses "that geography has meant different things at different times and in different places" and that we should keep an open mind in regards to the relationship between geography and colonialism instead of identifying boundaries.[125] Geography as a discipline was not and is not an objective science, Painter and Jeffrey argue, rather it is based on assumptions about the physical world.[124] Comparison ofexogeographical representations of ostensibly tropical environments in science fiction art support this conjecture, finding the notion of the tropics to be an artificial collection of ideas and beliefs that are independent of geography.[132]
The term "imperialism" is often conflated with "colonialism"; however, many scholars have argued that each has its own distinct definition. Imperialism and colonialism have been used in order to describe one's influence upon a person or group of people.Robert Young writes that imperialism operates from the centre as a state policy and is developed for ideological as well as financial reasons, while colonialism is simply the development for settlement or commercial intentions; however, colonialism still includes invasion.[137] Colonialism in modern usage also tends to imply a degree of geographic separation between the colony and the imperial power. Particularly, Edward Said distinguishes between imperialism and colonialism by stating: "imperialism involved 'the practice, the theory and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan center ruling a distant territory', while colonialism refers to the 'implanting of settlements on a distant territory.'[138] Contiguous land empires such as the Russian, Chinese or Ottoman have traditionally been excluded from discussions of colonialism, though this is beginning to change, since it is accepted that they also sent populations into the territories they ruled.[138]: 116
Imperialism and colonialism both dictate the political and economic advantage over a land and the indigenous populations they control, yet scholars sometimes find it difficult to illustrate the difference between the two.[139]: 107 Although imperialism and colonialism focus on the suppression ofanother, if colonialism refers to the process of a country taking physical control of another, imperialism refers to the political and monetary dominance, either formally or informally. Colonialism is seen to be the architect deciding how to start dominating areas and then imperialism can be seen as creating the idea behind conquest cooperating with colonialism. Colonialism is when the imperial nation begins a conquest over an area and then eventually is able to rule over the areas the previous nation had controlled. Colonialism's core meaning is the exploitation of the valuable assets and supplies of the nation that was conquered and the conquering nation then gaining the benefits from the spoils of the war.[139]: 170–75 The meaning of imperialism is to create an empire, by conquering the other state's lands and therefore increasing its own dominance. Colonialism is the builder and preserver of the colonial possessions in an area by a population coming from a foreign region.[139]: 173–76 Colonialism can completely change the existing social structure, physical structure, and economics of an area; it is not unusual that the characteristics of the conquering peoples are inherited by the conquered indigenous populations.[139]: 41 Few colonies remain remote from their mother country. Thus, most will eventually establish a separate nationality or remain under complete control of their mother colony.[140]
The Soviet leaderVladimir Lenin suggested that "imperialism was the highest form of capitalism", claiming that "imperialism developed after colonialism, and was distinguished from colonialism by monopoly capitalism".[138]: 116
Marxism
Marxism views colonialism as a form of capitalism, enforcing exploitation and social change.Marx thought that working within the global capitalist system, colonialism is closely associated with uneven development. It is an "instrument of wholesale destruction, dependency and systematic exploitation producing distorted economies, socio-psychological disorientation, massive poverty and neocolonial dependency".[141] Colonies are constructed into modes of production. The search for raw materials and the current search for new investment opportunities is a result[according to whom?] of inter-capitalist rivalry forcapital accumulation.[citation needed]Lenin regarded colonialism as the root cause of imperialism, as imperialism was distinguished by monopoly capitalism via colonialism and asLyal S. Sunga explains: "Vladimir Lenin advocated forcefully the principle ofself-determination of peoples in his "Theses on the Socialist Revolution and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination" as an integral plank in the programme of socialist internationalism" and he quotes Lenin who contended that "The right of nations to self-determination implies exclusively the right to independence in the political sense, the right to free political separation from the oppressor nation. Specifically, this demand for political democracy implies complete freedom to agitate for secession and for a referendum on secession by the seceding nation."[142] Non-Russian Marxists within theRSFSR and later theUSSR, likeSultan Galiev andVasyl Shakhrai, meanwhile, between 1918 and 1923 and then after 1929, considered theSoviet regime a renewed version ofRussian imperialism and colonialism.
In his critique of colonialism in Africa, the Guyanese historian and political activistWalter Rodney states:[143][144]
The decisiveness of the short period of colonialism and its negative consequences for Africa spring mainly from the fact that Africa lost power. Power is the ultimate determinant in human society, being basic to the relations within any group and between groups. It implies the ability to defend one's interests and if necessary to impose one's will by any means available ... When one society finds itself forced to relinquish power entirely to another society that in itself is a form ofunderdevelopment ... During the centuries of pre-colonial trade, some control over social political and economic life was retained in Africa, in spite of the disadvantageous commerce with Europeans. That little control over internal matters disappeared under colonialism. Colonialism went much further than trade. It meant a tendency towards direct appropriation by Europeans of the social institutions within Africa. Africans ceased to set indigenous cultural goals and standards, and lost full command of training young members of the society. Those were undoubtedly major steps backwards ... Colonialism was not merely a system of exploitation, but one whose essential purpose was to repatriate the profits to the so-called 'mother country'. From an African view-point, that amounted to consistent expatriation of surplus produced by African labour out of African resources. It meant the development of Europe as part of the same dialectical process in which Africa was underdeveloped. Colonial Africa fell within that part of the international capitalist economy from which surplus was drawn to feed the metropolitan sector. As seen earlier, exploitation of land and labour is essential for human social advance, but only on the assumption that the product is made available within the area where the exploitation takes place.
According to Lenin, the new imperialism emphasised the transition ofcapitalism fromfree trade to a stage ofmonopoly capitalism to financecapital. He states it is, "connected with the intensification of the struggle for the partition of the world". Asfree trade thrives onexports of commodities[according to whom?], monopoly capitalism thrived on the export of capital amassed by profits from banks and industry. This, to Lenin, was the highest stage of capitalism. He goes on to state that this form of capitalism was doomed for war between the capitalists and the exploited nations with the former inevitably losing. War is stated to be the consequence of imperialism. As a continuation of this thought, G.N. Uzoigwe states, "But it is now clear from more serious investigations of African history in this period that imperialism was essentially economic in its fundamental impulses."[145]
During the colonial era, the global process of colonisation served to spread and synthesize the social and political belief systems of the "mother-countries" which often included a belief in a certain natural racial superiority of the race of the mother-country. Colonialism also acted to reinforce these same racial belief systems within the "mother-countries" themselves. Usually also included within the colonial belief systems was a certain belief in the inherent superiority of male over female. This particular belief was often pre-existing amongst the pre-colonial societies, prior to their colonisation.[149][150][151]
Popular political practices of the time reinforced colonial rule by legitimising European (and/ or Japanese) male authority, and also legitimising female and non-mother-country race inferiority through studies ofcraniology,comparative anatomy, andphrenology.[150][151][152] Biologists, naturalists, anthropologists, and ethnologists of the 19th century were focused on the study of colonised indigenous women, as in the case ofGeorges Cuvier's study ofSarah Baartman.[151] Such cases embraced a natural superiority and inferiority relationship between the races based on the observations of naturalists' from the mother-countries. European studies along these lines gave rise to the perception that African women's anatomy, and especially genitalia, resembled those of mandrills, baboons, and monkeys, thus differentiating colonised Africans from what were viewed as the features of the evolutionarily superior, and thus rightfully authoritarian, European woman.[151]
In addition to what would now be viewed as pseudo-scientific studies of race, which tended to reinforce a belief in an inherent mother-country racial superiority, a new supposedly "science-based" ideology concerning gender roles also then emerged as an adjunct to the general body of beliefs of inherent superiority of the colonial era.[150] Female inferiority across all cultures was emerging as an idea supposedly supported bycraniology that led scientists to argue that the typical brain size of the female human was, on the average, slightly smaller than that of the male, thus inferring that therefore female humans must be less developed and less evolutionarily advanced than males.[150] This finding of relative cranial size difference was later attributed to the general typical size difference of the human male body versus that of the typical human female body.[153]
Within the former European colonies, non-Europeans and women sometimes faced invasive studies by the colonial powers in the interest of the then prevailing pro-colonial scientific ideology of the day.[151]
Othering
Othering is the process of creating a separate entity to persons or groups who are labelled as different or non-normal due to the repetition of characteristics.[154] Othering is the creation of those who discriminate, to distinguish, label, categorise those who do not fit in the societal norm. Several scholars in recent decades developed the notion of the "other" as an epistemological concept in social theory.[154] For example, postcolonial scholars, believed that colonising powers explained an "other" who were there to dominate, civilise, and extract resources through colonisation of land.[154]
Political geographers explain how colonial/imperial powers "othered" places they wanted to dominate to legalise their exploitation of the land.[154] During and after the rise of colonialism the Western powers perceived the East as the "other", being different and separate from their societal norm. This viewpoint and separation of culture had divided the Eastern and Western culture creating a dominant/subordinate dynamic, both being the "other" towards themselves.[154]
Post-colonialism (or post-colonial theory) can refer to a set of theories in philosophy and literature that grapple with the legacy of colonial rule. In this sense, one can regard post-colonial literature as a branch ofpostmodern literature concerned with the political and cultural independence of peoples formerly subjugated in colonial empires.
Many practitioners takeEdward Saïd's bookOrientalism (1978) as the theory's founding work (although French theorists such asAimé Césaire (1913–2008) andFrantz Fanon (1925–1961) made similar claims decades before Saïd). Saïd analyzed the works ofBalzac,Baudelaire andLautréamont, arguing that they helped to shape a societal fantasy of European racial superiority.
Writers of post-colonial fiction interact with the traditional colonialdiscourse, but modify or subvert it; for instance by retelling a familiar story from the perspective of an oppressed minor character in the story.Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak'sCan the Subaltern Speak? (1998) gave its name toSubaltern Studies.
InA Critique of Postcolonial Reason (1999), Spivak argued that major works of Europeanmetaphysics (such as those ofKant andHegel) not only tend to exclude the subaltern from their discussions, but actively prevent non-Europeans from occupying positions as fully humansubjects. Hegel'sPhenomenology of Spirit (1807), famous for its explicit ethnocentrism, considersWestern civilisation as the most accomplished of all, while Kant also had some traces ofracialism in his work.
The 2014YouGov survey found that British people are mostly proud of colonialism and theBritish Empire:[155]
A new YouGov survey finds that most think the British Empire is more something to be proud of (59%) than to be ashamed of (19%). 23% don't know. Young people are least likely to feel pride over shame when it comes to the Empire, though about half (48%) of 18–24 year olds do. In comparison, about two-thirds (65%) of over 60s feel mostly proud. ... A third of British people (34%) also say they would like it if Britain still had an empire. Under half (45%) say they would not like the Empire to exist today. 20% don't know.[156]
Colonistics
The field ofcolonistics studies colonialism from such viewpoints as those of economics, sociology and psychology.[157]
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^Olusoga, David (2010).The Kaiser's Holocaust: Germany's Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism. Faber & Faber.
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^Wong, Ting-Hong (May 2020). "Education and National Colonialism in Postwar Taiwan: The Paradoxical Use of Private Schools to Extend State Power, 1944–1966".History of Education Quarterly.60 (2):156–184.doi:10.1017/heq.2020.25.S2CID225917190.
^abMelvin E. Page, ed.,Colonialism: An International Social, Cultural, and Political Encyclopedia (2003)
^Dina Gusejnova (2016).European Elites and Ideas of Empire 1917–1957. Cambridge University Press. p. 14.ISBN9781107120624.
^Benjamin, ed.Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism Since 1450 (3 vol 2006)
^These statistics exclude the Russian Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Spain and Denmark. U.S. Tariff Commission.Colonial tariff policies (1922), p. 5online
^Raymond Leslie Buell, "Do Colonies Pay?"The Saturday Review, 1 August 1936 p 6 ]
^Rönnbäck & Broberg (2019) Capital and Colonialism. The Return on British Investments in Africa 1869–1969 (Palgrave Studies in Economic History)
^G.M. Gathorne-Hardy,A Short History of International Affairs, 1920–1939 (4th ed. 1950),online
^Uzoigw, Godfrey N. (2019). "Neocolonialism Is Dead: Long Live Neocolonialism".Journal of Global South Studies.36 (1):59–87.doi:10.1353/gss.2019.0004.S2CID166252688.
^Forsyth, James. A history of the peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian colony 1581-1990. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
^Alessio, Dominic; Renfro, Wesley (1 August 2022). "Building empires litorally in the South China Sea: artificial islands and contesting definitions of imperialism".International Politics.59 (4):687–706.doi:10.1057/s41311-021-00328-x.ISSN1740-3898.S2CID240567127.
^Miles, William F. S. (2014).Scars of Partition: Postcolonial Legacies in French and British Borderlands. University of Nebraska Press. p. 3.ISBN978-0-8032-6771-8.Anglo-French carving of colonial space is a significant geographical legacy: nearly 40 percent of the entire length of today's international boundaries were traced by Britain and France.
^Hannah-Jones, Nikole (14 August 2019)."Our democracy's founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true".The New York Times Magazine.The wealth and prominence that allowed Jefferson, at just 33, and the other founding fathers to believe they could successfully break off from one of the mightiest empires in the world came from the dizzying profits generated by chattel slavery. In other words, we may never have revolted against Britain if the founders had not understood that slavery empowered them to do so; nor if they had not believed that independence was required in order to ensure that slavery would continue. It is not incidental that 10 of this nation's first 12 presidents were enslavers, and some might argue that this nation was founded not as a democracy but as a slavocracy.
^Petrie, Hazel (2015).Outcasts of the Gods? The Struggle over Slavery in Maori New Zealand. Auckland University Press.ISBN9781775587859. Retrieved17 June 2020.Trade with the early explorers, whalers, sealers, and shore-based traders; interaction with missionaries; the availability of muskets; unprecedented warfare; new methods of dispute resolution; and English law all played their part in influencing the increase or decline of Maori captive-taking.
^Firth, Raymond (1929).Primitive Economics of the New Zealand Maori. Routledge Revivals (reprint ed.). Abingdon: Routledge (published 2011). p. 203.ISBN9780415694728. Retrieved17 June 2020.The economic value of the slave to the community was considerable. [...] Slavery among the Maori is certainly not comparable to the system as it existed among the ancient civilized states of Europe, but relative to the culture of this native people, it played an important part [...].{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^Lowe, Joshua (2014).To what extent was the Great Trek undertaken to preserve Afrikaner Culture?. GRIN. p. 2.ISBN9783656715245. Retrieved17 June 2020.There were also threats to what the Afrikaner perceived as tradition, and slavery was included in this perception. The abolition of slavery had an effect on why the Great Trek was undertaken and has links to the Afrikaner cultural preservation theory. Slavery was an integral part of Afrikaner society, and there was a sense of discontent when it was called to an end.
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Schill, Pierre:Réveiller l'archive d'une guerre coloniale. Photographies et écrits de Gaston Chérau, correspondant de guerre lors du conflit italo-turc pour la Libye (1911–1912), Créaphis, 480 p., 2018 (ISBN978-2-35428-141-0).Awaken the archive of a colonial war. Photographs and writings of a French war correspondent during the Italo-Turkish war in Libya (1911–1912). With contributions from art historian Caroline Recher, critic Smaranda Olcèse, writer Mathieu Larnaudie and historian Quentin Deluermoz.
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