Global History final Mia Daniels

Colonization and Slavery

Definition of Colonization

• A relationship of domination between an indigenous (or forcibly imported) majority or minority of foreign invaders. 

• Fundamental decisions affecting the lives of colonized people are made and implemented by colonial rulers in pursuit of interests that are defined in a distant metropolis.

• Colonizers are convinced of their own superiority and of their ordained mandate to rule

Definition of Settlement colonies from Osterhammer: 

• A distinct form of colonial expansion aimed at creating new societies, often driven by quests for social/religious freedom or land

• These are different than exploitation colonies. Settlement colonies involve mass migration, permanent settlement, and result in the displacement of indigenous populations 

Types of colonies in Osterhammer Theoretical review:

• Exploitation colony

• Maritime enclaves

• Settler colonies

Types of Settlement Colonies:

Agrarian settlement colonies, settler minority takes best land, Caribbean style plantation economies

Explain Agrarian settlement colonies

1. Settlers come in large numbers (mass migration) and work the land themselves (medium sized farms) 

2. Indigenous people are:  displaced/expelled from land, pushed to margins or reservations. Land is the goal: indigenous are removed not needed and used

3. Labour source:  settlers themselves/family farming so no need for large indigenous labour force

4. Eg. Canada, U.S.

Explain settler minority takes best land settler colonies

1. Small group of settlers dominates land and power 2.Settlers are a minority but seize the most fertile and valuable land 3. Indigenous people:  not eliminated but kept as a subordinate majority/forced onto poorer land/ controlled politically and economically 4.Labour source: Indigenous labour (often coerced through taxes, labour systems, and wage dependency). 5. eg. south africa, algeria

Explain carribean style plantation economies

1. Settlers create plantation systems based on coerced or enslaved labour

2. Land is organized into large plantations, economy is focussed on cash crops

3. Settlers are small elite class

4. Indigenous population: rapid collapse/near destruction from disease, violence, overwork. Not labour force for long

5. Labour source: imported (enslaved africans) labour is priority for profit so indigenous replaced

6. eg. Caribbean colonies, parts of Brazil

explain the main points of the The broken Spears by Leon-Portilla reading

• Indigenous (Aztec) account of conquest of Tenochtitlan 

• Not passive victims, active resistance: organizing attacks, ambushing spaniards, capturing prisoners

• Different rules of engagement/war: Aztecs fight with ritual and honour and take Spaniards as captives for sacrifice

  • Spanish use guns/cross bows and focus on killing and total victory. What the Spanish used as the main war strategy the Aztecs saw as the antithesis of war 

• Spanish allies with Tlaxcala

• Spanish slowly gain ground and push Aztecs back until they win

What does counting and mapping massacres tell us about Australian colonial history:

• Shows that colonial violence against indigenous peoples was wide spread, systematic, and often deliberately hidden

• Challenges earlier narratives that minimized violence and reveals that colonization involved organized killing and dispossession

• Reveals the scale of violence and why Indigenous communities were destroyed 

Colonial law characteristics: 

• The purpose and motivation of colonial law is to secure the superior position of the colonizer with minimal cost and administrative obligation

• “Legal Pluralism” - different laws applied to different groups and activities

• Mercantile interests came first

Explain Terra Nullius in colonial law

the idea that land was empty or belonged to no one, allowing Europeans to claim it. Allows dispositions without treaties or consent, justifies taking indigenous land, ignores Indigenous sovereignty and legal systems

explain the code noir in colonial law

1685 colonial law that organizes and legitimizes slavery in the French caribbean, 60 articles controlling every aspect of enslaved peoples lives, legally defines enslaved people as property, controls religion, punishment, family life, and protects plantation economy, not abolished during french revolution because slavery was seen as essential 

explain the Code de l’indigenat colonial law

A french colonial legal system that imposed special rules on Indigenous people, began in 1830 Algeria, institutionalized inequality, creates separate legal systems (legal pluralism), formalizes racial hierarchy

main points in “Is race science making a comeback” reading:

• Race science is used to justify slavery, colonialism, and segregation 

• Genetics show more variation within racial groups than between

• Race science is a pseudoscience that falsely claims biological racial differences

Main points in the Pieterse “White on Black” reading:

• European ideas about race evolved from religious justifications to scientific racism, both used to justify inequality and colonial domination

• Africans linked to “curse of ham” - biblical curse and used justify slavery as natural

• Blumenbach classified humans into races and Camper measured facial angles, claiming that Africans were closer to animals

What evidence shows that original populations of Murray Island owned land?

• Evidence showed that the Meriam people of Murray island had a long standing, organized system of land ownership, including land inheritance, boundaries, and social rules governing land use 

  • Land passed down through families shows structured ownership 

  • Different families had specific plots of land

  • There were laws and customs that governed land use - a legal system

  • Continuous occupation and use

  • Land tied to identity, community, and tradition

• Proves terra nullius was false

What is Terra Nullius and how did it further colonization?

• Terra nullius is the colonial legal idea that land belonged to no one or “empty”. It furthered colonization by allowing Europeans to claim indigenous land as their own without treaties or consent, ignoring existing Indigenous societies and systems of land ownership and used as justification for the continuous ownership as their own even today. 

A. Greer; What evidence shows that Innu hunting zones constituted property?

• they had collective control over important resource areas

• Collectively owned the eel fishing place, even if the exact spot shifted slightly from year to year

• hunting areas were allocated and organized

• families were assigned particular hunting areas and were not supposed to cross into others zones

• innu words showing title and control: Tipentitam and Kanauenitam

• master over land; actual exercise or use of that title in daily life

• personal claims to hunting areas - hunter could control territory but could not own it, sell it, accumulate it

How did encomenderos acquire Indigenous lands in New Spain (2)

• through royal grants (encomiendas) and through informal or coercive appropriation (pressure, manipulation, exploitation) - forces “sales”

• using authority to expand control

• would create tensions between community leaders bc technically they did not have the right to alienate land

• Encomiendas was a land grant from the municipal government/crown and gave the Spanish crown control over indigenous labour

What are the shared traits of settler colonialism and genocide?

• goal of acquiring land, the removal or elimination of indigenous populations, the use of racial ideologies to justify violence, and the restructuring of space through segregation and displacement

• obtaining and maintaining territory is the central goal

• colonialism is ab taking and occupying land permanently and genocide land acquisition often happens bc indigenous ppl are in the way of that land

• “logic of elimination” - wolfe - colonialism is based on eliminating indigenous people and includes mass killing, displacement, assimilation

• racial ideologies justify violence and dispossession

• destruction of ways of life

• genocide as a structure that can be built into settler colonialism, not only an event

John Tully, “The Ecological cost of transformation” - What is the meaning of the terms “use value” and “exchange value”?

• Use value refers to the value of natural resources based on their practical use for survival - food, shelter, survival needs - indigenous people hunted beavers for warmth

• “exchange value” refers to their value as commodities that can be traded or sold for profit - trade, profit, accumulation - europeans hunted beavers for fur trade (money)) - overhunting and environmental destruction

Carl H. Nightingale reading - When/why did the term “white” emerge in history as a racial attribute? How did the term support European colonialism?

• The term White emerged as a racial category during European expansion in the 18th and 19th centuries, as part of new racial ideologies used to justify colonial domination

• Supported European colonialism by creating a hierarchy that positioned Europeans as superior and legitimized segregation, land control, and imperial rule over non european population

• Rise of “scientific racism”

• “race becomes a global organizing system of difference”

Historical examples of “White” as a term as a racial attribute

• Madras, India (1711) - first “white town/black town” - Europeans separated themselves from locals

• Singapore (1819) - divided into European, Chinese, Indian, Arab sectors

• South Africa (apartheid) - forced removals, rigid racial zoning

• United States (urban segregation especially after ww2)

  • redlining, housing discrimination - white tied to property value

Explain two different forms of labour in colonial settings

1. 1. Indentured labour in Assam

   This was a more formalized legal system.

   Workers were bound through:

   • written contracts

   • colonial law

   • legal penalties for breach of contract

   • arrest for absconding

   So the key feature is:

   coercion backed by the state and law

   Even though it looked like wage labour, the contract was enforced through the legal system, which made it closer to slavery than free labour.

Explain the other one

2. Plantation contract labour under coercion in Vietnam

Workers were controlled through:

• deception at recruitment

• distance from home

• lack of understanding of the contract

• dependence once they arrived

• starvation, disease, harsh discipline

So the key feature is:

coercion through fraud, isolation, and plantation conditions

The contract existed, but the important thing is that workers were often trapped before they ever had a real chance to consent

When did the New Imperialism begin, how and where did it occur?

New Imperialism began in the 1870s and involved rapid European expansion into Africa and Asia through industrial-driven conquest, competition between powers, and the use of military and racial ideologies.

Bev Sellars, They called me Number One - In what ways does testimony about residential schools affect Indigenous and non-indigenous populations in Canada?

• validating their experiences, preserving memory, and revealing the long-term trauma caused by the system

• for non indigenous populations, it raises awareness, challenges national narratives, and forces recognition of the harms of colonialism

  • survivors - finally able to speak, counters silence and denial, sharing can be healing, preserves history and ensures experiences are not forgotten

  • transforms residential schools from a hidden history into a shared national issue

What was the role of residential schools as Bev Sellars tells it in They Called Me Number One?

• shows that residential schools functioned as instituions of control and assimilation, designed to strip Indigenous children of their idenitity, culture, and family connections, while subjecting them to discipline, abuse, and dehumanization

• banning language, suppressing culture, enforcing Christian/euro Canadian norms