Page 2: Colonial Encounters in Asia, Africa, and Oceania, 1750-1950

• Colonial powers had different policies and changed over time

  • Different experiences for men and women, traditional elites, Western-educated groups, artisans, peasant farmers, and migrant laborers

  • Actions and reactions of people shaped the colonial experience

• European expansion driven by Industrial Revolution

  • Need for raw materials and agricultural products

  • Europe needed to sell its own products abroad

  • European investors found it more profitable to invest abroad

  • Foreign markets kept Europe's factories and workers employed

• Imperialism promised to solve class conflicts and avoid revolution or wealth redistribution

Page 4: Analyzing Colonial Rivalries

• Growth of mass nationalism made imperialism popular in Europe

• Unification of Italy and Germany intensified competitive international relations

• Rivalry spilled over into the struggle for colonies or economic concessions

• Colonies and spheres of influence became symbols of "Great Power" status

• Acquisition of colonies mattered to ordinary people

• Imperialism appealed on economic, social, political, strategic, and emotional grounds

• Industrial era made overseas expansion more desirable and provided new means for achieving those goals

Page 5: Industry and Empire

• Industrialization changed the way Europeans perceived themselves and others

• Europeans developed a secular arrogance based on their industrial achievements

• Europeans judged other cultures based on wealth, military power, and high culture

• Chinese reduced to the image of "John Chinaman" and the "yellow peril"

• African societies demoted to tribes led by chiefs

• Peoples of Pacific Oceania seen as "big children" living closer to nature

• Europeans used scientific racism to support racial preferences and prejudices

• Hierarchy of races with whites on top and less developed "child races" beneath them

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• Europeans viewed their global expansion as inevitable and a natural outgrowth of a superior civilization

• They believed in the duty to civilize and bring progress to the "weaker races"

• The ideology of imperialism was influenced by social Darwinism, which applied the concept of "survival of the fittest" to human society

• This outlook justified imperialism, war, and aggression as a means to weed out weaker peoples and allow the stronger ones to flourish

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• The second wave of European colonial conquests took place between 1750 and 1900 in Asia, Africa, and Oceania

• Europeans preferred informal control through economic penetration, but would resort to conquest and outright colonial rule when necessary

• European empires were established through military force or the threat of it, aided by their overwhelming firepower

• Wars of conquest were fought to create these new empires, but Europeans prevailed almost everywhere due to their technological advantage

• People from various societies and civilizations, including gathering and hunting bands, agricultural village societies, pastoralists, and residents of large civilizations, all lost their political sovereignty and became subjects of European colonial states

• The passage to colonial status occurred in different ways, such as through interaction with European trading firms in India and Indonesia

• The British East India Company played a leading role in the colonial takeover of South Asia, while the Dutch acquired Indonesia through alliances with local states

• Colonial conquest in Africa, mainland Southeast Asia, and the Pacific islands occurred in the second half of the nineteenth century

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• European conquests in Africa involved negotiations and military action

  • Negotiations among Great Powers about control

  • Military action to make control effective on the ground

• Conquest of West Africa took 16 years (1882-1898)

  • African empire led by Samori Toure was difficult to subdue

  • Decentralized societies without formal state structure were challenging to conquer

• British faced difficulties in South Africa

  • Initially defeated by Zulu army in 1879

  • Boer War (1899-1902) lasted three years before British forces succeeded

• Europeans and Americans also colonized Pacific Oceania

  • Drawn in through exploration, scientific curiosity, missionary work, and economic interests

  • By 1914, most Pacific islands were under European control

• Colonization of Australia and New Zealand similar to colonization of North America

  • Large-scale European settlement and diseases reduced native populations

  • Became settler colonies with small indigenous populations

• Disease took a toll on isolated regions like Polynesia, Amazonia, and Siberia

  • Hawaii's population declined from 142,000 in 1823 to 39,000 in 1896

• Motivations and outcomes of imperialism varied across regions

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• European imperialism in Asia and Africa led to tribal displacement and cultural eradication

• United States practiced a policy of removing or exterminating Native American peoples

• Japan's takeover of Taiwan and Korea similar to European imperialism

• Russian expansion in Central Asia brought more territories under European control

• United States acquired the Philippines from Spain in 1898

• Freed U.S. slaves migrated to Liberia in West Africa

• Ethiopia and Siam (Thailand) avoided colonization through military and diplomatic skills

• Target societies had to decide how to respond to European power

  • Some sought European assistance in internal struggles or rivalries

  • Some played off imperial powers against each other

  • Some resorted to military action

  • Some negotiated to preserve independence and power

• Incorporation into European colonial empires was traumatic for many

  • Loss of life, homes, cattle, crops, and land was devastating

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• Violence was a prominent feature of colonial life during conquest and after

  • Vietnamese elite experienced disruption and loss after French conquest

  • Many individuals withdrew into private life to avoid serving under the French

• Cooperation with colonial authorities was common for personal advantage

  • Local intermediaries were relied upon due to communication difficulties

  • African rulers and elite families retained status and privileges while gaining wealth

• European education was promoted by colonial governments and missionary organizations

  • Western-educated class emerged and served the colonial state and businesses

  • Some received higher education abroad and returned as professionals

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• Colonial rule provoked opposition and periodic rebellions

  • Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858 was triggered by the introduction of a new cartridge

  • Various groups with grievances against British colonial presence joined the rebellion

• European rule led to loss of power, exploitation, and resentment among subject peoples

  • Landlords, peasants, weavers, and religious leaders were affected

• European colonial empires in the 19th century had distinct features

  • European racism played a prominent role in distinguishing rulers as "superior"

  • European settler colonies had more pronounced racial distinctions

  • South Africa had an extreme racial system known as apartheid

• Colonial states in the 19th century were able to penetrate the societies they governed

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• European colonizers brought significant changes to the daily lives of people in Asia, Africa, and Oceania

  • Centralized tax-collecting bureaucracies, new means of communication and transportation, changes in landholding patterns, integration of colonial economies into a global network of exchange, public health and sanitation measures, and the activities of missionaries

• Europeans had a penchant for counting and classifying their subject people

  • With the help of anthropologists and missionaries, colonial governments collected vast amounts of information and used it to manage the societies they governed

• In India, the British favored and sought to preserve a Brahmin version of the caste system, while scorning the Indian elite educated in European schools

• Europeans identified distinct tribes in African colonies, reducing the complexity of African societies to make colonial administration easier

• Europeans defined themselves as "active masculinity" and portrayed the conquered races as soft, passive, and feminine

• European notions of class and gender influenced their treatment of subject peoples

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• European men in the colonies viewed their own women as the bearers of civilization

• Certain colonized people were gendered as masculine or "martial races" and recruited into the British military or police forces

• Colonial policies contradicted European core values and practices at home

• European colonies were essentially dictatorships, offering order and stability but not democratic government

• Empire went against European notions of national independence and racial classifications contradicted Christian and Enlightenment ideas of human equality

• Europeans were reluctant to encourage modernization in their colonies, fearing it would challenge colonial rule

• Contradictions between European practices at home and in the colonies undermined colonial rule

Ways of Working: Comparing Colonial Economies

• Colonial rule affected the ways of working of subject people

• The colonial state played a role in transforming ways of working through taxation, land seizure, labor compulsion, and infrastructure development

• Colonized societies were integrated into a world economy that demanded various products

• Economic transformations were not uniform and different groups experienced the colonial era differently

• Migrant workers, cash-crop farmers, plantation laborers, domestic servants, urban elites, day laborers, men, and women all underwent profound changes in their daily working lives.

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Old ways of working eroded in the colonial world

• Subsistence farming diminished as people started working for wages or selling their products for cash income

• Artisans suffered when machine-manufactured goods replaced handmade goods

• Asian and African merchants were squeezed out by European commercial firms

Economies of Coercion: Forced Labor and the Power of the State

• Colonial state demanded unpaid labor on public projects

• Required labor on public projects included building railroads, constructing government buildings, and transporting goods

• Forced labor was resented by the native population

• Congo Free State under King Leopold II of Belgium had infamous cruelties of forced labor, particularly in rubber collection

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Ways of Working: Comparing Colonial Economies

• Cultivation system in the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) required peasants to cultivate cash crops to meet tax obligations

• Cultivation system enriched the Dutch economy and traditional authorities who enforced it

• Peasants faced double burden of obligations to the colonial state and local lords, leading to indebtedness

Colonial Violence in the Congo

• Horrific photos of mutilated children in the Congo Free State impacted public opinion about imperial rule

• Forced cultivation of cash crops led to abuses and famines

• Resistance to forced cultivation of cash crops occurred in some instances, such as in German East Africa

AP Argument

• Political and social reformers in the nineteenth century used photographs of colonial abuses to promote changes in how governments ruled their colonies

• Forced cultivation of cash crops could lead to colonial revolts and alter the plans of colonizers

Page 18: Economies of Cash-Crop Agriculture: The Pull of the Market

• Asian and African peoples produced for international markets before colonial rule

  • Examples: peanuts and palm oil in West Africa, cotton in Egypt, spices in Indonesia, pepper and textiles in India

• Colonial rule facilitated and increased cash-crop production in some places

  • Example: British authorities in Burma encouraged rice production by ending prohibition on rice exports, providing irrigation and transportation facilities, enacting land tenure laws

  • Result: population boom, increase in rice exports, improved standards of living for small farmers

• Environmental consequences of cash-crop agriculture

  • Destruction of mangrove forests and swamplands

  • Depletion of soils in river deltas

  • Generation of methane gas, contributing to global warming

• Specialization in one or two cash crops created dependence on world market prices

Page 19: Ways of Working: Comparing Colonial Economies

• Wage labor in European enterprises in colonial societies

• Millions of colonial subjects sought employment in European-owned plantations, mines, construction projects, and homes

• Migration to distant work sites, including overseas

• African migration: Atlantic slave trade, internal migration within colonies, migration to European-controlled farms and plantations

• Settler colonies in Africa obtained large tracts of land, displacing African societies

• Ecological degradation and environmental consequences of African wage labor

• Labor migration in South Africa's gold and diamond mines

• Asian migration: Indians and Chinese migrated to various regions, including Southeast Asia, South Pacific, South Africa, Caribbean islands, Indian Ocean basin

Page 20: Economic Change in the Colonial World

• Large-scale foreign investment played a role in economic transformations of the colonial era

• Example: workers on a Ceylon tea plantation preparing tea for export, highlighting the role of foreign investment

Page 21: Ways of Working: Comparing Colonial Economies

• Plantations in Southeast Asia financed from Europe grew various crops such as sugarcane, rubber, tea, tobacco, and sisal.

  • Impoverished workers from India, China, and Java came to work on these plantations.

  • Workers were subject to strict control, housed in barracks, and paid poorly.

  • Disease was common, and death rates were high.

• British colonial authorities facilitated the migration of millions of Indians to work in other British Empire countries as indentured laborers or independent merchants.

• Mines in Southeast Asia, particularly in Malaysia, employed Chinese workers under strict contracts.

• Chinese migrants also moved to Manchuria and participated in the gold rushes in Australia and California.

• Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States enacted measures to restrict or end Chinese immigration in the late nineteenth century.

Page 22: Women and the Colonial Economy: Examples from Africa

• In precolonial Africa, women were active farmers and had economic autonomy.

• With the growth of the colonial economy, women's lives diverged from men's.

• In colonies with cash-crop agriculture, men focused on export crops, while women were left with subsistence production.

• Men controlled the most profitable aspects of cash-crop agriculture, increasing women's workload.

• Labor migration of men to cities, farms, and mines left women to manage the domestic economy alone.

• Women took on traditionally male tasks and had to supply food to men in the cities.

• In South Africa, a significant percentage of men were absent from rural areas, and women headed the majority of households.

• In Botswana, where male labor was supplied to South Africa, married couples were separated due to labor migration.

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Ways of Working: Comparing Colonial Economies

• Men and women lived in different worlds during the colonial era

  • Men focused on cities and working for wages

  • Women focused on village life and subsistence agriculture

• Women coped with these circumstances in various ways

  • Sought closer relations with their families of birth

  • Introduced laborsaving crops and new farm implements

  • Earned money as traders

  • Established self-help associations in cities

• Colonial economy provided opportunities for enterprising women

  • Particularly in small-scale trade and marketing

  • Women in West Africa dominated this sector of the economy

• Women gained economic autonomy

  • Nupe women in Nigeria contributed more to family income than husbands

  • Igbo women in Nigeria had economic independence through selling crops

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Women and Peanut Production in Gambia

• Women in Gambia were heavily involved in peanut production

• Peanuts were the colony's major export crop

• Control of women's sexuality and mobility was of interest to European and African men

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Assessing Colonial Development

• The economic impact of colonial rule on Asian and African societies is highly controversial

• Defenders praise it for jump-starting modern economic growth

• Critics cite exploitation and limitations of imperialism

• Colonial rule furthered the integration of Asian and African economies into a global network of exchange

• More land and labor were devoted to production for the global market during the colonial era

• Some groups and individuals benefited from new access to global markets

• Others were devastated, such as Indian wheat farmers during a major drought and famine

• Europeans conveyed elements of their own modernizing process to the colonies

• Colonial rule facilitated modern administrative and bureaucratic structures, communication and transportation infrastructure, and education

• Major breakthrough to modern industrial society did not occur in the colonial world

• India remained one of the poorest developing countries after independence

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Believing and Belonging: Identity and Cultural Change

• Colonial rule generated new patterns of identity within Asian, African, and Oceanic societies

• Acquisition of Western education generated a new identity for some

• Education provided escape from obligations under European control and access to better-paying positions

• Education provided social mobility and elite status within colonized communities

• Some embraced European culture and ways of life

• Western education had a significant impact on colonial societies

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• Colonial societies in Asia and Africa had a cultural divide between the educated elite and the majority who had not mastered the ways of their rulers.

  • Literate Christians in Buganda referred to their "pagan" neighbors as "those who do not read."

  • Western-educated elite saw themselves as modernizing vanguard, initially believing in the promise of the colonial enterprise for a better future.

  • Some reform societies in India saw themselves working with British colonial authorities to improve their society.

• Europeans treated educated African and Asian cultures as primitive and backward, refusing to see them as equals.

  • Educated Africans were seen as chickens, but they saw themselves as eagles.

  • European rule became an obstacle to the development of colonial societies, leading to struggles for independence.

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• The European presence in the Afro-Asian world generated a small group of people who embraced European culture and lifestyle.

• Religion played a significant role in identity and cultural change during the colonial era.

  • Conversion to Christianity was widespread in Pacific Oceania and non-Muslim Africa.

  • Christianity was associated with modern education and provided new opportunities and freedom for oppressed groups.

  • African teachers and catechists played a crucial role in spreading the Christian message.

• Missionary teaching and practice generated conflict and opposition, particularly regarding gender roles.

  • Issues such as female nudity, polygyny, and sexual activity outside of monogamous marriage challenged Western gender norms.

  • Female circumcision in colonial Kenya sparked outrage and led to the creation of independent schools and churches.

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• The Xhosa Cattle Killing Movement in South Africa and the Ghost Dance in North America were rebellions influenced by religious ideas.

  • The Xhosa believed that killing their cattle would bring peace and unity to their population.

  • Both rebellions were based on prophetic visions but were ultimately unsuccessful.

• Christianity in Africa adapted to local cultural patterns, leading to the Africanization of Christianity.

  • Converts continued to use protective charms and medicines and consulted local religious practices.

  • African customs and beliefs were incorporated into Christian practices.

Page 29: Believing and Belonging: Identity and Cultural Change

• Christian missionaries brought new religion and elements of European culture to colonial societies

  • Missionaries brought European medicine, education, gender roles, and culture

  • Independent churches were established under African control, incorporating African cultural practices

• In India, leading intellectuals and reformers defined their region's beliefs as Hinduism

  • Hinduism provided a distinct and unified religion for India

  • Hinduism served to uplift village communities and distinguish the "spiritual East" from the "materialistic West"

• British colonial rule in India contributed to the emergence of Hinduism as a distinct religious tradition

  • British implemented separate inheritance laws and census categories for Muslims and Hindus

  • Anti-British patriots cast India in Hindu terms, leading to a clearer sense of Muslims as a separate community

Page 30: ZOOMING IN Vivekananda, a Hindu Monk in America

• Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu monk, played a significant role in bringing Indian religious culture to the West

• Vivekananda received an excellent European education and immersed himself in Hindu philosophy and practice

• In 1893, Vivekananda made a profound impression at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago

  • He spoke about tolerance, universal acceptance, and the end of sectarianism and persecution

• Indian spirituality began to penetrate Europe and the Americas through Vivekananda's teachings

• The emergence of Hinduism as a distinct religious tradition during the colonial era in India contributed to a religious and political division within the South Asian peninsula

Page 30: Race and Tribe

• In Africa, new ways of belonging emerged as people confronted the upheavals of colonial life

• Central to these new identities were notions of race and ethnicity

• By the end of the nineteenth century, African thinkers began to define the idea of an "African identity"

• Previously, people in Africa identified with specific local communities defined by language, religion, or other factors

• The emergence of an "African identity" led to a profound religious and political division within the South Asian peninsula

Page 31: Vivekananda's Message on Hinduism

• Vivekananda expressed major themes of his world mired in materialism and militarism

  • Proclaimed a modernized Hindu outlook

  • All human beings possess a divine nature

  • Awakening to that nature can be pursued through various paths

  • Spiritual practice and realization are more important than dogma or doctrine

• Vivekananda's followers did not seek converts, but invited participants to apply Hindu principles and practices within their own religious traditions

  • Spoke about Jesus with respect and displayed his image along with that of Buddha and Hindu sacred figures

  • Criticized Christian missionaries for their emphasis on conversion

  • Some opposed his message due to his critique of Christian missionaries and his assertion of the equality of all religious traditions

Page 32: African Identity and Ethnic Identity

• Well-educated Africans began to think in broader terms, similar to Indian reformers developing the notion of Hinduism

  • Effort to revive cultural self-confidence by articulating a larger, common, and respected "African tradition"

  • Pointed to ancient African kingdoms as examples of achievement comparable to Western culture

• Edward Blyden praised the differences between African and European cultures

  • African culture: communal, cooperative, egalitarian, harmonious relationship with nature, profound religious sensibility

  • Africa's global mission "to be the spiritual conservatory of the world"

• Colonial experience led to the notion of "tribe" or ethnic identity

  • Idea of separate and distinct "tribes" facilitated colonial administration and reflected Europeans' belief in African primitiveness

  • Europeans imposed the idea of tribe, but Africans also found ethnic or tribal labels useful, especially in urban areas

Page 33: Reflections: Who Makes History?

• In colonial cities, migrants categorized themselves and others in larger ethnic terms.

  • People who spoke similar languages, shared a common culture, or came from the same general part of the country began to think of themselves as a single people.

  • They organized ethnic or tribal associations to provide mutual assistance and support.

  • Migrant workers found a sense of security in being part of a recognized tribe.

• The Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria as an example.

  • Prior to the twentieth century, they were organized in independently governed village groups.

  • They eagerly embraced Western education and moved to the cities and towns of colonial Nigeria.

  • They gradually discovered their commonalities and differences from other Nigerian peoples.

  • By the 1940s, they were organizing on a national level and calling for tribal unity and progress.

• Africans built tribes to belong to, as Europeans believed Africans belonged to tribes.

REFLECTIONS Who Makes History?

• Dominant groups do not make history alone.

  • Slave owners, upper classes, men, and colonial rulers have their actions constrained and choices limited by subordinated people.

  • Europeans requiring colonized Africans to grow cotton found themselves unable to achieve self-sufficiency.

  • Missionaries imposing their understanding of Christianity faced resistance from converts.

  • Highly educated subjects in Asia and Africa became leaders in movements seeking to end colonial rule.

• Subordinated people have been active agents in shaping history.

  • Slaves, workers, peasants, women, and the colonized have