(Redirected from Colonial)
:''See
colony and
colonisation for examples of colonialism which do not refer to Western colonialism.
'Colonialism' is the extension of a nation's
sovereignty over
territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either
settler colonies or
administrative dependencies in which
indigenous populations are
directly ruled or
displaced. Colonising nations generally dominate the
resources,
labor, and
markets of the
colonial territory, and may also impose socio-cultural, religious and linguistic structures on the conquered population (see also
cultural imperialism). It is essentially a system of direct political, economic and cultural intervention by a powerful country in a weaker one. Though the word ''colonialism'' is often used interchangeably with ''
imperialism'', the latter is sometimes used more broadly as it covers control exercised informally (via influence) as well as formal military control or economic leverage.
The term colonialism may also be used to refer to a set of beliefs used to legitimize or promote this system. Colonialism was often based on the
ethnocentric belief that the morals and values of the colonizer were superior to those of the colonized; some observers link such beliefs to
racism and
pseudo-scientific theories dating to the 17th and 18th centuries. In the
western world, this led to a form of proto-
social Darwinism that placed
white people at the top of the
animal kingdom, "naturally" in charge of dominating non-
European indigenous populations.
Types of colonies
Several types of colonies may be distinguished, reflecting different colonial objectives. '
Settler colonies' refer to a variety of ancient and more recent examples whereby ethnically distinct groups settle in areas other than their original settlement that are either adjacent or across land or sea. Examples in antiquity range from large empire like the
Roman Empire, the
Arab Empire, the
Ottoman Empire or small movements like ancient
Scots moving from
Hibernia to
Caledonia, Magyars into
Pannonia (modern-day
Hungary) and
Thailand. Later examples are
Brazil,
Russia (
Siberia),
United States of America,
Canada,
Australia,
New Zealand and
Argentina which were established by the movement of large numbers of people from a central region or a
mother country to new settlement regions or colonies. More recent examples of internal colonialism are the movement of ethnic
Chinese into Tibet and
Eastern Turkestan, ethnic
Javanese into
Western New Guinea, Israelis into the
West Bank and
Gaza, ethnic
Arabs into Iraqi
Kurdistan. The local populations or tribes, such as the
Aboriginal people in Canada and the United States, were usually far overwhelmed numerically by the settlers and were thus moved forcibly to other regions or
exterminated. These forcible
population transfers, usually to areas of poorer-quality land or resources often led to the permanent detriment of indigenous peoples. Whilst commonplace in the past, in today's language colonialism and colonization are seen as state-sponsored
illegal immigration that was
criminal in nature and intent, achieved essentially with the use of violence and
terror.
In some cases, for example the
Vandals,
Huguenots,
Boers,
Matabeles and
Sioux, the colonizers were fleeing more powerful enemies, as part of a chain reaction of colonization.
Settler colonies may be contrasted with 'dependencies', where the colonizers did not arrive as part of a mass emigration, but rather as administrators over existing sizable native populations. Examples in this category include the
British Raj,
Egypt, the
Dutch East Indies, and the
Japanese colonial empire. In some cases large-scale colonial settlement was attempted in substantially pre-populated areas and the result was either an ethnically mixed population (such as the
mestizos of the
Americas), or racially divided, such as in
French Algeria or
Southern Rhodesia.
With '
plantation' colonies such as
Barbados,
Saint-Domingue and
Jamaica, the white colonizers
imported black slaves who rapidly began to outnumber their owners, leading to minority rule, similar to a dependency. '
Trading posts', such as
Hong Kong,
Macau,
Malacca,
Deshima and
Singapore constitute a fifth category, where the primary purpose of the colony was to engage in trade rather than as a staging post for further colonization of the hinterland.
History of colonialism
Main articles: History of colonialism,
Chronology of colonialism
The historical phenomenon of colonisation is one that stretches around the globe and across time, including such disparate peoples as the
Hittites, the
Incas and the
British, although the term ''colonialism'' is normally used with reference to discontiguous European overseas empires rather than contiguous land-based empires, European or otherwise, which are conventionally described by the term ''imperialism''. Examples of land-based empires include the
Mongol Empire, a large empire stretching from the Western
Pacific to
Eastern Europe, the Empire of
Alexander the Great, the
Umayyad Caliphate, the
Persian Empire, the
Roman Empire, the
Byzantine Empire. The
Ottoman Empire was created across
Mediterranean,
North Africa and into
South-Eastern Europe and existed during the time of European colonization of the other parts of the world.
This map of the world in 1900 shows the large colonial empires that powerful nations established across the globe
World map of colonialism at the end of the Second World War in 1945.
European colonialism began in the 15th century, with
Portugal's conquest of
Ceuta. Colonialism was led by Portuguese and
Spanish exploration of the Americas, and the coasts of
Africa, the
Middle East,
India, and East Asia. Despite some earlier attempts, it was not until the
17th century that
England,
France and
the Netherlands successfully established their own overseas empires, in direct competition with each other and those of Spain and Portugal.
The end of the 18th and early 19th century saw the first era of
decolonization when most of the European colonies in the Americas gained their independence from their respective
metropoles. Spain and Portugal were irreversibly weakened after the loss of their New World colonies, but
Britain (after the union of England and
Scotland), France and the Netherlands turned their attention to the Old World, particularly
South Africa, India and South East Asia, where coastal enclaves had already been established. Germany, after being united under Prussia also sought colonies in
Deutsch Ost Afrika.
Italy occupied
Eritrea,
Somalia and
Libya. During the
First and the
Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Italy invaded Abyssinia, and in
1936 Italian Empire was created.
The industrialization of the 19th century led to what has been termed the era of
New Imperialism, when the pace of colonization rapidly accelerated, the height of which was the
Scramble for Africa. During the 20th Century, the overseas colonies of the losers of
World War I were distributed amongst the victors as
mandates, but it was not until the end of
World War II that the second phase of decolonization began in earnest.
World Colonization 1492-2007
Neocolonialism
Main articles: Neocolonialism
Despite the decolonization in the 1960s-70s, many former colonies remain under strong Western influence. Critics of this continued Western influence talk of
neocolonialism. The exception to this rule being in particular the
East Asian Tigers (mainly Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan), and the emerging Indian and Chinese powers. (''See
Immanuel Wallerstein.'')
U.S. foreign intervention
On the other hand, because of the Cold War, which led Moscow and Beijing to support anti-imperialist movements, the US (as well as other NATO countries) interfered in various countries, by issuing an
embargo against Cuba after the 1959
Cuban Revolution—which started on
February 7,
1962—and supporting various
covert operations (the 1961
Bay of Pigs Invasion,
the Cuban Project, etc.) for example. Theorists of neo-colonialism are of the opinion that the US preferred supporting
dictatorships in Third World countries rather than having democracies that always presented the risk of having the people choose being aligned with the
Communist bloc rather than the so-called "
Free World".
For example, in Chile (see ''
United States intervention in Chile'') the
Central Intelligence Agency covertly spent three million dollars in an effort to influence the outcome of the 1964 Chilean presidential election;
[CIA Reveals Covert Acts In Chile, CBS News, September 19, 2000. Accessed online November 26, 2006.] supported the attempted October 1970 kidnapping of General
Rene Schneider (head of the Chilean army), part of a plot to prevent the congressional confirmation of socialist
Salvador Allende as president (in the event, Schneider was shot and killed; Allende's election was confirmed);
the U.S. welcomed, though probably did not bring about the
Chilean coup of 1973, in which Allende was overthrown and
Augusto Pinochet installed
[1] and provided material support to the military regime after the coup, continuing payment to CIA contacts who were known to be involved in human rights abuses;
[2] and even facilitated communications for
Operation Condor,
[3] a cooperative program among the intelligence agencies of several right-wing South American regimes to locate, observe and assassinate political opponents.
The proponents of the idea of neo-colonialism also cite the 1983 U.S.
invasion of Grenada and the 1989
United States invasion of Panama, overthrowing
Manuel Noriega, who was characterized by the U.S. government as a
druglord. In
Indonesia, Washington supported
Suharto's
New Order dictatorship.
This interference, in particular in South and Central American countries, is reminiscent of the 19th century
Monroe doctrine and the
Big stick diplomacy codified by U.S. president
Theodore Roosevelt.
Left-wing critics have spoken of an "
American Empire", pushed in particular by the
military-industrial complex, which president
Eisenhower warned against in 1961. On the other hand, some
Republicans have supported, without much success since World War I,
isolationism. Defenders of U.S. policy have asserted that intervention was sometimes necessary to prevent
Communist or Soviet-aligned governments from taking power during the
Cold War.
Most of the actions described in this section constitute imperialism rather than colonialism, which usually involves one country settling in another country and calling it their own. U.S. imperialism has been called neocolonial because it is a new sort of colonialism: one that operates not by invading, conquering, and settling a foreign country with pilgrims, but by exercising economic control through international monetary institutions, via military threat, missionary interference, strategic investment, so-called "Free trade areas," and by supporting the violent overthrow of leftist governments (even those that have been democratically elected, as detailed above).
French foreign intervention
France wasn't inactive either: it supported dictatorships in the former colonies in Africa, leading to the expression ''
Françafrique'', coined by
François-Xavier Verschave, a member of the anti-neocolonialist
Survie NGO, which has criticized the way
development aid was given to post-colonial countries, claiming it only supported neo-colonialism, interior corruption and arms-trade. The
Third World debt, including
odious debt, where the interest on the external debt exceeds the amount that the country produces, had been considered by some a method of oppression or control by first world countries; a form of
debt bondage on the scale of nations.
Post-colonialism
Main articles: Post-colonialism,
Postcolonial literature
Post-colonialism (aka post-colonial theory) refers to a set of theories in philosophy and literature that grapple with the legacy of colonial rule. In this sense, postcolonial literature may be considered a branch of
Postmodern literature concerned with the political and cultural independence of peoples formerly subjugated in colonial empires. Many practitioners take
Edward Said's book ''
Orientalism'' (1978) to be the theory's founding work (although French theorists such as
Aimé Césaire and
Frantz Fanon made similar claims decades before Said).
Edward Said analyzed the works of
Balzac,
Baudelaire and
Lautréamont, exploring how they were both influenced by and helped to shape a societal fantasy of European racial superiority. Post-colonial fictional writers interact with the traditional colonial
discourse, 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's ''
Can the Subaltern Speak?'' (1998) gave its name to the
Subaltern Studies.
In ''A Critique of Postcolonial Reason'' (1999), Spivak explored how major works of European
metaphysics (e.g.,
Kant,
Hegel) not only tend to exclude the subaltern from their discussions, but actively prevent non-Europeans from occupying positions as fully human
subjects. Hegel's ''
Phenomenology of Spirit'' (1807) is famous for its explicit ethnocentrism, in considering the
Western civilization as the most accomplished of all, while Kant also allowed some traces of
racialism to enter his work.
Impact of colonialism and colonization
Main articles: Impact and evaluation of colonialism and colonization
Debate about the perceived negative and positive aspects (
infrasctructures,
medical advances etc.) of colonialism has occurred for centuries, amongst both colonizer and colonized, and continues to the present day. The questions of
miscegenation; the alleged ties between colonial enterprises,
genocides — see the
Herero Genocide — and the
Holocaust; and the questions of the nature of imperialism,
dependency theory and neocolonialism (in particular the Third World debt) continues to retain their actuality.
References
1. The Kissinger Telcons: Kissinger Telcons on Chile, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 123, edited by Peter Kornbluh, posted May 26, 2004. See especially TELCON: September 16, 1973, 11:50 a.m. Kissinger Talking to Nixon: 'Nixon': Well we didn't – as you know – our hand doesn't show on this one though. 'Kissinger': We didn't do it. I mean we helped them. [Garbled] created the conditions as great as possible. 'Nixon': That is right. And that is the way it is going to be played. Accessed online November 26, 2006.
2. Peter Kornbluh, CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet’s Repression Report to Congress Reveals U.S. Accountability in Chile, Chile Documentation Project, National Security Archive, September 19, 2000. Accessed online November 26, 2006.
3. Operation Condor: Cable suggests U.S. role, National Security Archive, March 6, 2001. Accessed online November 26, 2006.
See also
Bibliography
★
Arendt, Hannah, ''
The Origins of Totalitarianism'' (1951) (second chapter on
Imperialism examines ties between colonialism and
totalitarianism)
★
Conrad, Joseph, ''
Heart of Darkness'', 1899
★
Fanon, Frantz, ''
The Wretched of the Earth'', Pref. by
Jean-Paul Sartre. Translated by Constance Farrington. London : Penguin Book, 2001
★
Gobineau, Arthur de, ''
An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races'', 1853-55
★
Gutiérrez, Gustavo, ''A
Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, Salvation'', 1971
★
Kipling, Rudyard, ''
The White Man's Burden'', 1899
★
Las Casas, Bartolomé de, ''
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies'' (
1542, published in
1552)
★
LeCour Grandmaison, Olivier, ''Coloniser, Exterminer - Sur la guerre et l'Etat colonial'', Fayard, 2005, ISBN 2213623163
★
Lindqvist, Sven, ''Exterminate All The Brutes'', 1992, New Press; Reprint edition (June 1997), ISBN 978-1-56584-359-2
★ Maria Petringa, ''Brazza, A Life for Africa'' (2006), ISBN 978-1-4259-1198-0
★
Said, Edward, ''
Orientalism'', 1978; 25th-anniversary edition 2003 ISBN 978-0-394-74067-6
External links
★
Liberal opposition to colonialism, imperialism and empire (pdf) - by professor Daniel Klein
★
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
★
''Globalization (and the metaphysics of control in a free market world)'' - an online video on globalization, colonialism, and control.
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