Colonial Encounters in Asia Africa Oceania Objective Examine

Colonial Encounters in Asia, Africa, & Oceania Objective: Examine the extent to which the colonial experience transformed the lives of Asians and Africans

Industry & Empire • The enormous productivity of industrial technology & Europe’s growing affluence now created the need for extensive raw materials • Europe needed to sell its own products abroad, since its factories made more goods than its people could afford to buy • European investors also found it profitable to invest their money abroad • Nationalism intensified the competition to imperialize other countries • Europeans also had the technological means to imperialize

Industry & Empire • Industrialization also changed the way Europeans perceived themselves • Their perceptions of the outside world also drastically changed; people they regarded as superior or equal were now below them • Europeans justified the conquest of other countries through the idea that they needed to civilize them • Scientific Racism: a new kind of racism that increasingly used the prestige & apparatus of science to support European racial prejudices & preferences • Scientists classified races & put white as the more intelligent race

Industry & Empire • Any contact with the “inferiors” threatened their health • Europeans viewed imperialism as the inevitable & natural outgrowth of a superior country to expand • Civilizing mission: included bringing Christianity, good government, work discipline, & production for the market to the lazy • It also included educating the ignorant & illiterate, health care to the sick, & suppressing “native customs” • Social Darwinism: belief that European dominance inevitably led to the displacement of destruction of backward peoples or “unfit” races – Survival of the Fittest

A Second Wave of European Conquests • Europeans preferred informal control, which operated through economic penetration & occasional military intervention • However, when local governments were unable or unwilling to cooperate, Europeans proved more than willing to undertake the expense & risk of conquest • Europeans took advantage of moments of weakness in local societies • They had the weapons to overpower the countries they wanted to control • Sometimes companies played leading roles in the colonial take over of South Asia

A Second Wave of European Conquests • Scramble for Africa: pitted half a dozen European powers against one another as they partitioned the entire continent among themselves • The process of securing Africa involved endless but peaceful negotiation among the competing Great Powers followed by extensive & bloody military action to make their control effective on the ground • The colonization of the Pacific Oceania & South Pacific was more so for its agricultural resources & raw materials • Colonization took place in this region with many indigenous dying due to disease

A Second Wave of European Conquests • The United States westward expansion involved a policy of removing or exterminating Native Americans • Many Native Americans were placed on & confined to “reservations” • Here the United States tried to “civilize” them to be more “American” • The United States was able to obtain the Philippines, Puerto Rico, & Guam after the Spanish American War • Ethiopia & Siam (Thailand) were notable for avoiding colonization/imperialism • Many countries negotiated with the Europeans in an attempt to keep some independence & power

Under European Rule • Incorporation into European colonial empire was a traumatic experience • Conquest often meant that the natural harmonies of life had been badly disrupted

Cooperation & Rebellion • Various groups & many individuals willing cooperated with colonial authorities to their own advantage • Colonial rulers relied heavily on local intermediaries • Some people were able to retain their privileges • Both colonial governments & private missionary organizations had an interest in promoting a measure of European education

Cooperation & Rebellion • However, periodic rebellions erupted in colonial regimes everywhere • Indian Rebellion of 1857 -1858 broke out due to cultural issue • Many people joined the rebellion however for a variety of reasons • A mutiny among Indian troops trigged the rebellion • The rebellion was suppressed but cause a deeper racial divide & caused the British to take direct control over the colony

Colonial Empire with a Difference • The 19 th century European version of empire was distinct with prominence of race in distinguishing rulers as “superior” to the ruled • The colonies that had a larger European settler population, the expression of racial distinctions was much more pronounced • South Africa developed the idea of Apartheid • Colonizers had to deal with the complications of running a separate country

Colonial Empire with a Difference • Colonial governments collected a vast amount of information, sought to organize it “scientifically”, & used it to manage the unfamiliar, complex, varied, & fluctuating societies that they governed • They invented ways to control & classify the people they controlled • By linking the inferiority of women with that of people of color, imperialists joined gender ideology & race prejudice in support of colonial rule • The colonial policies of Europeans contradicted their own core values & their practices at home

Ways of Working: Comparing Colonial Economies • The most pronounced change was in the way subject people worked • This included transforming the imperialized countries to the increasing demand to produce valuable natural resources • Old ways of working were eroded almost everywhere in the colonial world • This included farming & trading

Economies of Coercion: Forced Labor & the Power of the State • The most obvious change in work habits was the required & unpaid labor on public projects • King Leopold II of Belgium controlled the Congo Free State & exploited the region for its rubber • This resulted in the death of 10 million in the Congo • This exploitation was exposed to the rest of the Europe who forced the Belgian government to take over ending Leopold’s private control

Economies of Coercion: Forced Labor & the Power of the State • Cultivation System: system of forced labor where peasants were required to cultivate at least 20% of their land in cash crops for sale at low & fixed prices to government contractors, who then earned enormous profits from resale of the crops • Europeans did this to avoid taxing their own citizens while providing capital for the Industrial Revolution • Europeans used lashing & various tortures to achieve their quota • However, these beatings led to rebellions

Economies of Cash-Crop Agriculture: The Pull of the Market • Many Asian & African peoples had produced quite willing for an international market long before they were enclosed within colonial societies • Cash-crop production: agricultural production of crops for sale in the market rather than for consumption by farmers themselves • It was a different situation from that of peasants forced to grow crops that seriously interfered with their food production • One major problem with cash-crop production was the unhealthy dependence on one or two crops especially when world market prices dropped

Economies of Wage Labor: Migration for Work • Millions of colonial subjects across Asia, Africa, & Oceania sought employment in European owned plantations, mines, construction projects, & homes • In this process often required migration to distant work sites, many of them were overseas • The slave trade had diminished & now internal migration mounted within colonies

Economies of Wage Labor: Migration for Work • Europeans set up the conditions as such people would be displaced and forced to work for them • Huge plantations that were financed by the Europeans required a large supply of workers • People all over Asia migrated to these plantations to work • Mines were another source of wage labor for many Asians

Women & the Colonial Economy: Examples from Africa • In pre-colonial Africa, women were almost everywhere active farmers • As the demands of the colonial economy grew, women’s lives increasingly diverged from those of men • Men acted to control the most profitable aspects of cash-crop agriculture & in doing so greatly increased the subsistence workload of women • When men left to find employment, women were left to manage the domestic economy almost alone

Women & the Colonial Economy: Examples from Africa • The colonial economy sometimes provided measure of opportunity for enterprising women, particularly in small-scale trade & marketing • Women of impoverished rural families, by necessity; often became virtually independent heads of household in the absence of their husbands • Some women took advantage of new opportunities in mission schools, towns, & mines to flee the restrictions of rural patriarchy • The control of women’s sexuality & mobility was a common interest of Europeans & African men

Assessing Colonial Development • Defenders of colonization praise it for jump-starting modern economic growth, while numerous critics cite a record of exploitation & highlight the limitations & unevenness of that growth • Colonial rule served to further the integration of Asian & African economies into a global network of exchange • Europeans couldn’t avoid conveying to the colonies some elements of their own modernizing process • Nowhere in the colonial world did a breakthrough to modern industrial society occur

Believing & Belonging: Identity & Cultural Change • The exposure of European culture, social & economic upheavals, also generated new patterns of identity within Asian, African, & Oceanic societies • Millions of people underwent substantial & quite rapid changes in what they believed & in how they defined the communities to which they belonged

Education • Acquisition to Western education, through missionary or government schools, generated a new identity • Education often provided social mobility & elite status within colonized peoples’ own communities • Some people embraced European culture, dressing in European clothing & speaking European languages • At least initially, the colonial enterprise was full of promise for a better future

Education • However, Europeans generally declined to treat their Asian & African subjects, even those with a Western education, as equal partners in the enterprise of renewal • The educated classes in colonial societies everywhere found European rule far more of an obstacle to their countries’ development than a means of achieving it

Religion • Religion too provided the basis for new or transformed identities during the colonial era such as the widespread conversion to Christianity • Conversion to Christianity was based on the old basis that defeat shook confidence in old gods while other found it as an outlet for greater freedom • Missionaries teaching & practice also generated conflict & opposition • Their efforts to enforce Western gender norms were in part responsible for considerable turnover in the ranks of African church members • Issues also rose over female circumcision

Religion • Africanization of Christianity: process that occurred where many who converted to Christianity sought to incorporate older traditions, values, & practices into their understanding of Christianity • Christianity didn’t take hold in India • Europeans in India separated the Hindus & Mulisms more by creating distinct laws & rules for both people

“Race” & “Tribe” • People began to define the idea of “African Identity” • Influenced by the common experience of colonial oppression & by a highly derogatory European racism, well educated Africans began to think in broader terms • It was an effort to revive the cultural self-confidence of their people by articulating a larger, common, & respected “African Tradition” equivalent to that of Western culture • Such ideas resonated with a broader public which stimulated along a few a sense of belonging to an even larger pan-African world

“Race” & “Tribe” • The most important new sense of belonging that evolved from the colonial experience was not the notion of “Africa” rather it was the idea of “tribe” • The idea of an African sharply divided into separate & distinct “tribes” was in fact a European notion that facilitated colonial administration & reflected Europeans’ belief in African primitiveness • By requiring people to identify their tribe on applications for jobs, schools, & identity cards, colonial governments spread the idea of tribe widely within their colonies • Some found a sense of security in being part of a recognized tribe