1. history of European colonization introduction

- definitions - causes - consequences - historiography

what percentage of the planet surface did the colonizing?

1,6%

which areas have never been colonized?

• Abyssinia (apart from 1936-1944)

• Liberia

• most of Arabian Peninsula

• Afghanistan (attacked by Brits but never succeeded)

• Thailand

• Parts of China

• Japan

• Korea

expansion

• people expanding their territories to other regions

• not always colonization: ex exodus (no center remains), emigration (integration into existent societies ex chinatown is not a colony)

• border colonization: expanding territory by moving border

• colonization: naval networks, overseas settlement

exodus

a (large) group of people moving from one place to another and settles there

• because of prosecution, ecological reasons,…

• no controlling center remains behind (no metropole)

metropole

• center of empires

• geographically remote ‘mother country’/imperial center

border colonization vs colonization

• colonies are part of the immediate territory of the country, they are within the new border

• colonies in different parts of the worlds

ex British North-America ≠ Chinatown

colony (Jürgen Osterhammel)

• a new political organization created by invasion (conquest/settlement)

• alien rulers are in sustained dependence on geographically remote ‘mother country’/imperial center (metropole) which claims exclusive rights of possession of the colony = claims political power

3 elements colony (Jurgen Osterhammel)

• invasion

• remote mother country

• exclusive rights of possession

colonialism (Jürgen Osterhammel)

relationship of domination between indigenous (or forcibly imported) majority and minority of foreign invaders

fundamental decisions affecting lives of colonized people are made and implemented by colonial rulers in pursuit of interests that are ofted defined in a distant metropolis

rejecting cultural compromises with colonized population, colonizers are convinced of own superiority and ordained mandate to rule

3 elements colonialism (Jürgen Osterhammel)

• domination

• distant metropolis

• ordained mandate

colonies without colonization

ex only military conquest

colonization without colonies

border colonization ex colonization of Ireland

internal colonialization

ex Brazil and the hinterland

• initially only coast of Brazil was only colonized => inland Brazil was colonized

• Brazil also hasn’t explored all of its forests yet => there are still indiginous tribes that are being discovered for the first time

subcolonial relations

between one colony and another colony of the empire

=> colonies become colonizers themselves

different types of colonies based on:

• administration and legal statuses (political): viceroyalties (British India), audiencias (spanish america), protectorates, Crown colonies (ruled directly by the crown), free states (free state congo => “on paper”), overseas provinces (French Guyana), league of nation mandates, UN trusteeship territories,…

• economy and population: pure settlement colonies, plantation colonies, exploitation colonies, trading settlements, maritime enclaves,…

different types of empires (3)

• formal empires

  • several ‘peripheries’ are subordinated to the center

  • ex Portugal, Spain, Dutch Republic, France, Britain,…

• semi-empires or non-empires

  • colonial powers without empires

  • ex. Spain post 1820 (lost colonies in Latin-America), Belgium (only had 1 colony)

• informal empires

  • pursue interests beyond acquisition of territory

  • regions remain independent countries

  • ex china, 19th-century Britain in Latin America,…

imperialism

all forces and activities contributing to the construction and maintenance of empires

difference colonialism and imperialism

• imperialism is more comprehensive

• colonialism is a special manifestation of imperialism

• no absolute difference (can be used interchangeably)

• ex border colonization (Roman Empire, Tatar empire, Austrian Habsburg Empire) is not colonialism but is imperialism

largest empire that ever existed

the tatar (mongol) empire

differences imperialism vs colonization

• relationship metropolis and conquered areas

  • colonial empire: metropole ruled colonies

  • Roman Empire, Mogul empire,…: people from colonies could also become emperors,…

    —> ex non-roman roman emperors: Trajan (spain), Hadrian (spain), Septimus Severus (libya), philip the arab (syria)

    —> the Tatars assimilation: conversion from Tengrism and Buddhism to islam (as if Britain would have become for example hindu), Kublai Khan grandson of Genghis Khan and first emperor of Yuan dynasty of China)

• border colonization vs European (overseas) colonial empires

  • ex Tatar Empire, Russian Empire (greatly expanded their borders)

• plethora of empires in world history

  • China under Han, Jin, Tang, Yuan, Ming & Qing, Precolonial empires in Western Africa, the Inca Empire, The Ottoman Empire,…

How could the expansion of the Russian empire though it is seen as border colonization still be argued to be colonization?

the representation and imagination of non-western people (the people in the caucasus) showed a lot of denigration and came very close to being just like orientalism

in soviet times, the bolsheviks created a federation and gave some autonomy to all ethnic groups (embracing diversity)=> also typical European colonization = labelling people in ethnic terms by categorizing them into groups

colonization vs European colonization

• not subordinate to metropole

  • Greek colonies, Phoenician colonies,…

• ancient past or present-day

  • ex Israel-Palestine,…

• scale of european colonization

  • portuguese settlements, spanish colonization, dutch colonization, Britisch Empire…

  • over different continents

voyages

• European: Christopher columbus (late 15th century), James Cook (late 18th century)

• other: Ibn Battuta (middle 14th century), Ma Huan worked for Cheng-ho (beginning 14th century, biggest fleet the world has ever seen, not typical voyage), Marco Polo (just a traveller)

• difference: mostly within one cultural sphere (muslim countries mostly), no permanent transformation (no settlement,…)

Rosalind Franklin

• first to discover composition of DNA

• British

• rare that she hasn’t been forgotten (just like colonization)

when did European colonization start? (thinkers)

• early starters: David Landes and Immanuel Wallerstein

• critics: Kenneth Pomeranz and John Darwin

• compromises: David abernethy and Anthony Hopkins

David Landes

• book the wealth and poverty of nations (1998)

• “for the last thousand years, Europe has been the prime mover of development and modernity”

Immanuel Wallerstein

• 16th century: rise of one single capitalist world economy

  • North-western Europe: core (prime mover)

  • rest of europe: semi-periphery (provided corn, food, coal)

  • rest of the world: periphery

• book the modern world-system (1974-1989), book world system analysis

• critique book: there wasn’t just one single core in these centuries (ex also ottoman empire, china)

Kenneth Pomeranz

• book The Great Divergence

• core areas in 18th century Old World

  • NW Europe and Chinese and Japanese cores

• many parallels (between core areas)

  • life expectancy, consumption, markets,…

  • Asian GNP vs European GNP

    —> 1750: 130% (SE Asia wealthier) - 1800: 100% (start divergence) - 1870: 50%

  • economy and development were much more similar than previous historians had realised

• divergence in early 19th century

  • European shortage of energy:

    timber —> coal —> steam —> industrial revolution

  • East asian hinterlands boomed

    —> prevented need for innovation

John Darwin

• “before 1800 what really stood out was not the sharp economic contrast between Europe and Asia, but on the contrary, a Eurasian world of surprising resemblances”

• book After Tamerland. the rise and fall of global empires 1400-2000 (2007)

David abernethy:

• 5 phases

  1. expansion (1415-1773)

     • 1415 Portugal conguered Ceuta = first time European country colonized overseas country

  2. first decolonization (1775-1824)

  3. second colonization (1824-1912)

  4. consolidation (1914-1939)

     • between start first and second world war

  5. second decolonization (1940-1980)

     • actually still going on

• book the dynamics of global dominance: European overseas empires 1914-1980 (2000)

Anthony Hopkins

• 4 stages

  1. archaic globalised networks

  2. proto-globalisation (1600-1800)

  3. high imperialism

  4. postcolonial era

• book globalization in World history (2002)

causes of European colonization

• geography

• technology

• economy

• politics

• culture

• irrationality

• combination

• beyond europe

geography as a cause for European colonization

• Europe peninsula surrounded by water (good locations)

  • particularities: Portugal (closest to atlantic) - Spain (between atlantic and mediterranean) - Dutch republic - England

• protection from steppe imperialism (couldn’t reach them because there were countries in between that stopped invaders)

  • vs. Eastern Europe (tatars, ottomans and Russians)

  • vs India (afghans, persians and turkic people)

  • vs China (tatars and Manchu)

• narrowness of the atlantic ocean (much closer from europe to america than fex china to america)

• need to circumvent Africa for trade with India

  • new world “discovered” by europeans (ex america and africa explored)

Jared Diamond

• actually geographer

• contrasts Eurasia to other continents (why did they become the colonizers and not the others)

• Eurasia: long east-west distances (more homgeneity and exchange)

  • vs different climates in africa

  • vs different latitudes in america

• benefits

  • more exchange and wheat varieties

  • more domesticated animal species

  • food supply —> dense populations —> division of labour

• book guns germs and steel: a short history of everybody for the last 13000 years, collapse,…

technology as a cause for European colonization

• early inventions

  • eyeglasses (doubled the working life because people loose sight at older age), mechanical clock (discipline,…), printing (propaganda,…), …

• communication and transportation (second wave colonization)

  • shipbuilding (development of caravel, galleon, steamship,…)

• science and medicine (second wave)

  • vitamin C (scurvy due to lack of vitamin), Quinine (malaria)

  • diseases were reason why Europe initially didn’t penetrate Africa => medicine made this possible

• military superiority (second wave)

  • gunpowder, maxim guns

Tonio andrade

• book the gunpowder age

• emphasises European and Chinese similarity just as Pomeranz

• long-standing chinese superiority

  • song developed gunpowder weapons

  • ming first gunpowder empire

  • Europe classic gun (as late as) in the 14th century

  • China prevailed in all early conflicts

• great military divergence: 1760-1840

  • Europe increasingly innovated

    • ships, renaissance fortress, industrial revolution

  • China lost position (no incentives for innovation)

    • peace under Ming and High Qing

    • dysfunctional state under late Qing

economy as a cause of European colonization

• capitalism (almost like feedback mechanism)

  • property rights

  • competition and profit motive

  • capital accumulation

• industrial revolution

  • need for raw materials and resources

  • need for markets and investments

  • social transformation and population pressure

• great diversity

  • ex not all business milieus enthusiastic

  • ex not all colonization economically motivated

John Hobson

• “imperialism is the endeavour of the great controllers of industry to broaden the channel for the flow of their surplus wealth by seeking foreign markets and foreign investments to take off the goods and capital they cannot sell or use at home”

• book Imperialism: a study (1902)

Vladimir Lenin

• critic of imperialism

• “imperialism is capitalism in that stage of development in which the domination of monopolies and finance capital has taken shape; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world by the international trusts has begun and in which the partition of all the territory of the earth by the greatest capitalist countries has been completed”

• book imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism (1916-17)

gentlemanly capitalism

• british imperialism driven by the business interests of the city of london

• PJ Cain and Hopkins: British imperialism (1993)

politics as a cause of european colonization

• competition

  • 16th c Portugal vs Spain

  • 17th c Dutch republic vs Spain, then England (won)

  • 18th c Britain vs France (both in europe and colonies)

  • 19th c new nations (germany, Italy, Belgium)

• power

  • prestige and nationalism

  • geopolitics and pre-emptive strikes

  • lightning rod for domestic problems

  • role of individuals

Ronald Robinson & John Gallagher on imperialism in Africa

• political and strategic

  • reluctant because of the activities of others

  • to secure against instability

• peripheral and excentric

  • politicians rather than masses

  • local administrators rather than metropole politicians

  • importance of local resistance that prompted occupation

• Africa and The Victorians

culture as a cause of European colonization

• mentality: feelings of superiority

  • science: cult of progress (europeans made many inventions => further expansion, industrial revolution,…)

  • race: social darwinism and united white service

• ideology: civilizing mission

  • moral: abolitionism and humanitarianism

  • religion: missionary revival

Max Weber

• advocate cultural causes colonization

• father of social sciences

• wrote “die protestantische ethik und des “geist” des kapitalismus”

• active and rationalizing mentality are unique to European protestants

  • bureacracy, legal state, science, capitalism, property, freedom, discipline, individual initiative => competition, capitalist economy,…

• european protestantism

  • vs confucianism (China): inactive => failed to turn their inventions (printing,…) into a superiority, capitalize them

  • vs islam: irrational => more active but fex took their religion to literally and didn’t analyze and discuss it enough (christianity is base for philosophy)

  • vs hinduism: inactive & irrational

Rudyard Kipling

• Bombay 1865 + 1936

• The man who would be King (1888), the jungle book (1894) and Kim (1901)

• 1907 nobel prize in literature

• lived in British india => books were about British colonization,…

• also wrote poems => one of them became key represenatation of feeling of “white superiority”

irrationality as cause of european colonization Joseph Schumpeter:

• colonialism is irrational in economic terms (actually not true => europe made lots of profits)

  • drain of resources from development

  • military adventures without meaningful economic return

• social and psychological explanation (if irrational)

  • objectless expansion: behaviour learned from other nations and institutionalized by a “warrior” class

  • atavistic (tendency of species to return to ancestors features (ex tailbone that comes from forefathers) => tendency to fight/compete) and anachronistic

  • vs modernity: cosmopolitan and peaceful

• book: the sociology of imperialism (1919): after collapse habsburg empire, lived in time of decline European imperialism

• Austrian early 20th century

irrationality as cause of european colonization Bernard Porter:

• book: the absent-minded Imperialists: empire, society and culture in Britain (2005)

• imperialism not driven by ratio => British empire created by series of incidences

• empire had far lower profile in Britain than abroad

• Britain was never genuine imperial society

• cf US today => many Americans little concerned about power their country has

• very strange to think that british imperialism would have happened unconsciously => almost the whole world has been invaded by England

irrationality as cause of european colonization Jon Wilson:

• Chaotic imperialism

• book: india conquered: britain’s raj and the chaos of empire (2016)

• beneath veneer of pomp and splendour, british rule in india was

  • anxious, fragile and fostered chaos

  • oscillated between paranoid paralysis and occasional moments of extreme violence

combination of causes for imperialism Niall Ferguson

• current day best selling history authors

• book: civilization. the west and the rest (2011)

• 6 care applications (features that differentiate Europe/the west from the rest of the world)

  • competition (economy, politics)

  • science (culture)

  • property

  • medicine

  • consumption

  • work ethics

combination of causes for imperialism David Abernethy:

• global dominance

• three sectors in the metropole

  —> public (state, government), private (merchants, traders,…), private, religious (church)

• will to expand (of all three secotors)

  —> power, profit and proselytization (spread fate)

• capacity to expand (of all three secotors)

  —> monarchs (in 19th century nation states), companies, missionary bodies (well organized)

• expanded independently

  • more financial means and people involved

  • flexibility: religion in America (easier), trade in Asia (easier, religion more difficult)

  • cross-sectoral alliances (ex spanish combined public and religious sectors while colonizing latin america, all three sectors in congo…)

combination of causes for imperialism John Darwin

• English historical review (1997)

• agressively interventionist ideology

  • free trade - utilitarianism - christianity - abolitionism => different “umbrellas”

• new appetites in culture and consumption

• coalition of economic forces

  • credits - cheap exports - migrants

• maritime superiority, military superiority

David Abernethy theory applied to China

• public sector

  • pre-eminent wealth and power

  • revenues from intensive agriculture

• private sector

  • quantitative instead of qualitative growth

  • no need for radical shift in production technique

• religious sector

  • confucianism supported a social order considered unique

  • reason to stay home, not to reach out (no conversion)

• much capacity and collaboration, but no will

  • merchants and settlers abroad (individual chinese merchants) lacked imperial support

David Abernethy theory applied to Arab world

• public sector

  • weak control by suprastates (caliphates)

  • cities: too many for competition, too small for expansion

• private sector

  • no hierarchy of companies

  • arab merchants set out on their own (not supported by bigger organization)

• religious sector

  • no ecclesiastical hierarchy (no pope,…)

  • cosmopolitan and highly adaptable to alien cultures

• much will, but no capacity

  • decentralized sectors => less capable of expanding and dominating

  • also created overseas empires, spread their religion,… but not on the same level as Europe

James Blaut

• eight eurocentric historians

• “false history and bad geography”

• opposes idea of geographical advantage europe

• also disagrees with other causes (culture,…)

• causes beyond Europe => “rise of Europe cannot be explained in the Eurocentric way”

causes beyond europe for imperialism

• networks beyond Europe

  • older

  • vast

  • picture = Chola Empire 1030 CE

• economies in Asia

  • CF Pomeranz & Darwin = both settled great divergence

  • great South-Asian empires (some even more powerful than european)

• others’ impact on europe (Europe’s colonization made possible)

  • India as a magnet because of its wealth

  • ottoman expansion (Muslim world) caused search for new routes

  • the New World enabled further expansion

  • others’ technology and agency (gunpowder from China, Arab technology)

diversity among colonizers

• different forms (=> types of colonies) and ideologies

• evolution (long period of colonization): from pillage to development colonialism

• different situations → different consequences

diversity among colonized

• political: stateless, chefferies, early states, complex states (India when reached by Portugese,…)

• economic: hunter-gathering, early agricultural economies, monetized economies with agrarian surplus and specialized crafts, proto-industrialization

• different situations → different consequences

political consequences colonization

• geography

  • place names => ex Easter island: discovered on Easter day (very eurocentric = naming it after European holidays, people,…), rio de janeiro (discovered in january),

  • borders = todays borders largely formed by Europeans => european borders average drawn in 18th century, American and Asian in 19th century and African in 20th century

  • national identities: Europeans created new identities by creating new empires (combining regions with different languages and cultures) => in Africa still a lot of border conflicts largely due to this

• systems

  • homogenization of governance, reduction of forms

    • failed states => according to Europeans “because we left” <=> already violence during colonial era, rule that was in colonial era continues to be applies

  • violence

    • conflicts => a lot of global conflicts have colonial roots

• international relations: international plans for nature protection is imposition of western views on rest of the world

economic consequences colonization

• production

  • plantation (new crops introduced,…) and mines (taking natural resources from colonies)

  • infrastructure (roads, railways,…) => still today major export products of some countries were introduced by Europeans (Cocoa is more than 50% of product export from Ghana but is not original to africa => introduced from latin america by europeans)

• trade: also without colonization, but

  • more products and exchange

  • different directions

    • colonization opens borders (‘trade follows flag’)

    • colonization closes borders (‘imperial preference’ = colonies should prioritize metropole)

  • shifting trade balance ex india —> direction of trade first from india to britain, then from britain to india = “draining of wealth”

societal consequences colonization

• landownership (obvious to Europeans but new for others)

  • different ideas about property and land titling (imposed by europeans)

  • massive expropriation and rise of new elites => complete shift in societies

• societal structures

  • marginalization and exploitation of rural communities

  • proletarization and urbanization (for trade,…)

• demography

  • decline / extermination (of entire populations) => native population in America collapsed due to diseases that were introduced by colonizers

  • migration ex Suriname: dutch colony => South-Africans, Indians (largest ethnic group today = hindustani), natives, creoles (second largest ethnic group), Dutch, Chinese and Javanese (indonesia 3rd largest ethnic group)

cultural consequences colonization

• tools of empire

  • communication, science, religion,…

• triviality and omnipresence

  • language

    • speak english, spanish, portugese,…,

    • use latin script

    • new languages: afrikaans, creole languages in caribean

    • pyjamas imported

  • food

    • potatoes, spices, tea, coffee…

• psychology

  • feelings of inferiority and superiority

  • racism

• memory

  • violence, slavery, exploitation, genocide

short overview international academia of historiography of colonization

• till 1950: uncritical

• 1950s and 1960s: pre- and anticolonial (fierce criticism or focus on precolonial situation in colonized countries)

• 1970s: economy, world systems (emmanuel wallerstein)

• 1980s: postcolonial studies (south america, critical of colonial studies and history)

  • edward said, gayatri spivak, homi bhabha

• 1990s: decolonial studies (more from anglosphere and india, there is still a colonial existence, colonial era isnt over yet)

  • anibal quijano, maria lugones, walter mignolo

Edward Said

—> postcolonial

• 1935-2003

• palestinian origin

• orientalism

  • esthetic movement (paintings,… = fascination with the east)

  • an (outdated) academic discipline (= examines Eastern countries, religions, languages…) => bracketing together “east”

  • discourse of knowledge (-E Said) => western world contrasts itself against the “east”

• orient as inferior (and homogeneous) “other”

  • served to define Europe as superior

  • Arab world, indian world,… all inferior and not developping

• stereotypical essentialization

  • Tintin in India, Aladdin…

• not innocent, but highly motivated

  • in part to justify colonialism

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

—> postcolonial

• 1942-…

• from India

• subalternity (most marginalized groups in society)

  • subaltern: other to the other (binary thinking is wrong => there are other groups = subaltern)

    • oppressor —> oppressed

    • colonizer —> colonized

    • self —> other

  • book: can the subaltern speak? —> no, she wants to give them a voice

  • example of sati / suttee (widow-burning => widows follow recently deceased husbands into death by throwing themselves/being thrown on the burning pile of their husbands)

    • British: widespread misogynistic tradition (prime example of barbarity)

    • Indian elite: free will of truly Indian women (shows loyalty of the wives)

    • Women are spoken for and do not speak themselves (=subaltern)

Homi K. Bhabha

—> postcolonial

hybridity (opposing juxta-position colonized-colonizer)

• new transcultural forms via the contact zone produced by colonization

• against the idea of putity and originality, helps to overcome exotism

mimicry

• imitation (forced and volunatry)

  • sometimes close to mockery

• concept to complexify “simple” relationship colonized-colonizer

  • displays lack of colonial control

  • complicity and resistance within the colonized

==> understand colonized reactions towards colonization

Anibal quijano

• 1930-2018

• pioneer within decolonial studies

• 500th anniversary of columbus reaching america

• colonialidad/coloniality

  • coloniality of knowledge: colonial societies have systematically banished indigenous forms of knowledge from their archives and rejected the media in which this knowledge was transported

    ==> knowledge became and has remained colonial

• colonial matrix of power (coloniality is everywhere)

  • economic: land, labor, finance

  • political: state, military

  • civic: christian family values

  • epistemic: control of knowledge and subjectivity, including christian and modern rational thought and the devaluation of non-western cosmologies and epistemologies

• coloniality and modernity (two sides of the same coin)

  • coloniality is not opposed to modernity

  • coloniality does not precede modernity

Walter Mignolo

• 1941-…

• colonialism

  • specific historical periods (in the past) and places of imperial domination

• coloniality

  • the logical structure of colonial domination

  • Latin American colonialism ended in the 19th century, but coloniality remains until today

• decoloniality

  • aims to counter/deconstruct coloniality

  • want to bring change => seen as more radical

Maria lugones

• agreed with Quijano and Mignolo

• coloniality of gender (already a bit in the civic aspect of the cmp)

  • need to include gender analysis in modernity/coloniality

• intersectionality

  • combination of overlapping opressions (race, gender,…) = interconnection

Belgian colonial studies historiography

• colonial era: propaganda

• 1960s-1970s: silence (Belgian society was traumatized by “ungratefulness” of the congolese) => very few historians wrote about congo (Jean Stengers and Jean Velut)

• since 2000s: greater interst => King leopold’s ghost- Adam Hochschild and de moord op lumumba - Ludo de witte

• 2010 (50 years anniversary of congolese independence): much attention and publications on congo => congo een geschiedenis -David van Reybroeck (very white, Eurocentric narrative) + much nostalgia: many journalists visited Congo = 50 years of the loss of a colony ==> 2017: first book in dutch about congo from congolese perspective (2 dutch artists translated)

• since 2015: decolonization = more multidimensional perspective, renovation AfricaMuseum, removal of colonial statues,…