Colonialism: Phase 2 to the End of the Road

Phase 1& 2: Asia

• British in South and East Asia

– In fact, India was dotted by various European trading posts until the British East India Company (a corporation) successfully colonized the entire subcontinent (by playing local rulers off against each other)

• Only after the rebellion in 1857 did the British Crown actually take-over India

• French in SE Asia; Dutch in Indonesia

• China not colonized but forced open following the Opium Wars

– British East India Company monopolized South Asia opium; did not want to drug its workers so pushed it on China

• China went to war to stop this; lost to the British

– Done via treaty ports where Euros have special privileges on trade, tariffs and customs and left their architecture (especially Shanghai)

• Begins concept of extraterritoriality (essentially, immunity for diplomats) where in there are certain spaces and institution which are beyond the normal law

– Also, European powers took over custom houses, salt trade in China to generate revenue to pay European banks for loans to China

Phase 2: Africa

• The difference maker: In the 1850’s, European doctors discovered quinine (often in the form of tonic) effectively fought malaria, and after that, the ‘scramble for Africa’ was on, by explorers and trading companies (such as the predecessor of Unilever).

– So discounted local knowledge that many European maps had 2500 mile long mountain range called the Kong Mountains which didn’t exist

• France claimed territories surrounding the Senegal River

• Britain turned existing West Africans kingdoms on the Gold coast into protectorates

By 1880’s much of Europe was in on the scramble. Why?

• With the invention of the machine gun, no African state was powerful enough to resist

• Britain took Egypt, which caused the French to try take more territory, especially the headwaters of the Nile, so they could cut off Egypt’s water

• New powers (Belgium, Germany, and Italy) wanted colonies but the desirable spots in Asia were spoken for or too hard to outright conquer

So in 1884, the Berlin Conference is held:

• Convened by German leader Otto von Bismarck, it was meant to stave off war between the European powers

• Different parts of Africa were promised to different countries

– Divided Africa up by lines of latitude, rivers, etc., instead of by cultural boundaries or sustainable eco-systems

– Tried to spilt up powerful groups between two territories or group them with their enemies

Berlin Conference (cont.)

• At the time of the conference, Europe only controlled 20% of the land in Africa, yet not a single African attended the conference

• They carved up a land of 1000 different ethnic groups and squeezed it into a planned 50 colonial states

– A similar division occurred in the Middle East after World War I

• France got most land (W. Africa), ruled directly from Paris, tried to turn Africans to French culture

– French, Syrians, Lebanese settled

• Britain got more people, resources, ruled through influence of local elites

– Settled in Kenya, Southern Africa

Methods of Colonization

• Colonial Administration

– Most on the ground power in Africa w/ the 1000 European District Officers & the European Police Chiefs

• Brits ruled indirectly through local chiefs

• Also included Euro specialists in forestry, veterinary science, medicine to change local practices

– Important part of colonial administration was creating a perception of hierarchy/superiority

• If the Europeans didn’t appear unbeatable and separate/above local population, ruling with small numbers wouldn’t have worked

• Euros hung out at a Euro only Club, where they pretended they were in Europe, built golf courses, landing strips, brought European song birds, etc..

• Used local foot soldiers, porters, butlers, clerks who were made to wear uniforms to separate them from the society around them

Methods (cont.)

• Organization of Space

– Putting people into provinces, districts, and wards to control, count, tax and know them

• Colonialism impossible w/o this

– Through policies, Europeans encouraged people to think of themselves as distinct tribes/ethnicities in distinct spaces, as opposed to more fluid identities/lifeways they relied on in the past.

• See the Kenya tribal maps on pg 342

– Usually some tribes favored politically/ economically over others

• Easier to deal with a smaller group, accomplished a divide and rule policy

– Germans, Belgians used cattle rich Tutsi to control Hutu, making a class/ethnic divide

– Sikhs, Fulani, Egyptians used in this way

• Differential power lead to conflicts post-Independence

Methods (cont.)

• Organization of Space (cont.)

– British land divided into

• Native reserves (where locals controlled land)

• Scheduled areas (for European settlers)

• Crown lands (reserved for crown)

– Also game, nature, & watershed preserves

– Areas with most resources, best farm land taken away from locals

– As population increased, poor land subdivided and degraded

Methods (cont.)

• Transport

– Not organized to support the pre-colonial on the ground order, but to make a new, export oriented one

• Lines went to areas of agricultural and mineral potential with few stops until coast

– Also used railroads to extend troops

• Building colonial railways also lucrative for European heavy industry

– Often each colony had a single port-based primate city through which all commodities flowed

• Lagos good example

– Different gauges meant that even if lines btw colonies met, wheels had to be changed

Methods (cont.)

• Economic exploitation

– Areas evaluated to see if suitable for European habitation

• Geographic Societies did just that

• Much research money spent on this question

– Two settler models

• Use Euro family labor on farm homesteads (N.Z.)

• Oversee domestic labor (Sri Lanka)

– Could not take so many locals into cash economy that food supply crashed

Methods (cont)

• Organization of Labor

– Some places people were self-sufficient, so would not labor for colonizers

• Taxes and fees were introduced, that had to be paid in currency, not crops

• Forced labor, or forced service in Army or Carrier Corps

• Outlawing some occupations (like warrior)

• Land expropriation/privatization of the commons

– Also Europeans given land closer to rails

• Europeans get exclusive right to market produce

• Europeans use advanced techniques, led to increased yields and depressed prices

– These, combined with rudimentary medicine which led to population surges, made more and more dependent on wages

Example of Control: Kenya Highlands

• Mostly Economically motivated

– Part of effort to find new markets for British products

• Germany and U.S. had become more protectionist

• Rails already built out other places

– Wanted cheaper supplies of cotton, coffee

– Destroy last vestiges of East Africa slave economy, as much for power as for humanitarian reasons

• Able to take Highlands easily

– Crop plagues, disease epidemics, seasonal migration before seizure all helped

• Highlands evaluated as having more agricultural potential, less tropical disease

Kenya Tasks

• Attract settlers from South Africa

– Also Finns, Zionists, a small number of Indians

– Decided whites would oversee, not labor

• Land appropriated by British

– Several military actions, paid for by selling losing African’s cattle

– Even good agricultural land was labeled “unimproved” and not compensated for

– Requirement removed that bought land had to be improved, led to large English owned estates

• Lord Delamere acquired 1 million acres

– All other land remained crown land, natives moved off at will

Kenya Tasks (cont)

• Crop choices

– British thought Kenyan farmers growing too many types of crops to be profitable

– Settlers told to mono-crop to become known in markets for something

• Coffee worked, as did sisal (for rope); maize used as high yield food for locals; cotton failed

– Locals forbidden from growing export crops

– Mono-cropping only works when the price is high or operation is huge

• Settler Protection and Transport

– They got better rail connections and rates

– African taxes paid for their agricultural improvements

– Police protected their interests

Kenya Tasks

• Mobilize Labor

– Laws kept Kenyans from leaving for higher paying S. Africa mines; Indians from coming in

– Put in hut tax, then poll tax; tariffs on all goods but those most used by Euros

• Tax rate for Africans 30% of earnings, forced them to labor and stopped their saving

– Allowed squatting on estates with family in exchange for labor

– Eventually put in S. Africa style pass system, allowing natives access to only certain areas and certain jobs

• Pass also record of if person was trouble maker or not

– Did everything to get Africans to participate in economy except incentives that would have made them equal participants

Kenya Results

• Even with all advantages, many settlers failed

– Great Depression hurt many

– Many behaved like gentry, not profit maximizing capitalists

• By 1950’s, whites in Kenya faced the Mau Mau rebellion, which led London to make concessions for Africans to participate in politics, get land in white areas

– Jomo Kenyatta emerges as leader, eventually leads to Independence

• He is part of a Pan-African movement, which tried unite all people of African descendent through shared pride

– A political/cultural/artistic movement

• This continued in a movement called “post-colonialism,” which tried to overturn that colonial perception of separation and inferiority

Some More African Case Studies

The Congo Free State/Belgian Congo

• Congo basin last area to be explored by Euros

– Last part sorted out by Stanley’s search for Livingstone

• Established at the conference as a free trade zone and one of the largest colonies

– Run as a personal colony by King Leopold II of Belgium

• During Rubber Boom, 50% of workers died, many had hands cut off as punishment for slacking

– Was such a large, brutally run state other European countries, Mark Twain protested

• Eventually the Belgium parliament took over in 1908

– Far less violent in control, but locals had almost no control or role in government

Some African Case Studies

South Africa

– First Euros were Dutch Calvinists in 1652 (the Boers) who settled to supply ships sailing around Cape of Good Hope

• Fought wars against the Xhosa people

– In 1806, British seized the Cape, Dutch moved inland to Veldt, fought wars against the powerful Zulu kingdom.

– Eventually Brits fight both (in order to access mineral rich areas of the country), but do give country independence in 1910.

– In 1948, the Afrikaners take control of government, start Apartheid policies, which have Jim Crow South aspects

• Race-exclusive districts of cities and the ethnic “homelands” which were resource poor were established

Some African Case Studies

Ethiopia

– The Abyssinian/Axum Kings (or people who claimed to be) ruled in some form the area of Ethiopia from at least 700 AD to Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974

– “Given” to Italy in Berlin conference, but Menelik II managed to defeat the Italians (through the government’s investment in weaponry) keeping them to Eritrea

– The only African territory along with Liberia (and some of the few anywhere) never to be colonized.

• As the WD of authors show, Liberia’s independence bothered Europeans in particular because it disturbed their view of European superiority; many books in Britain fretting over whether Liberians were capable of governing themselves

So What Led Up Japan Being Colonial Power?

Japan (like China) had been inward looking, until Europeans forced their way in in the 1800’s.

• The Tokugawa Shogunate (shogun being the most powerful of the landlord classes), virtually shut off the country in 1600’s.

– It became a feudal society again, while rest of world industrialized.

• U.S. Admiral Mathew Perry sails into Edo (now Tokyo) harbor in 1853, and demands the Japanese open themselves up to trade.

• In 1868, the Tokugawa Shogunate overthrown by a combination of daimyo (more minor landholders) and some samurai (a warrior class)

– Emperor restored in name, although others actually rule.

Then Japan gets its act together

• Slogan became “National Wealth and Military Strength” and a program of industrialization, militarization and modernization begins

– Being a large island with a unified, centralized, hierarchical culture allowed them to martial the population

• With state funds, began advanced iron and steel production (which were used to make ships & armaments)

Where did they get the money to do this?

• Invested in agriculture, then taxed it.

– 40% of money came from silk exports

– Used latest machinery to make finer and cheaper cloth than Europe and China

• Improving infrastructure and educational enrollment.

• Government would develop monopoly industries and then sell them to powerful families, which came to be known as zaibatsu.

– Zaibatsu would often produce goods in several different industries, while being active in banking. Mitsubishi is one of these.

• The government aimed at self-sufficiency, despite lack of mineral and oil wealth

Military Successes Followed

• 1895 Cino-Japanese War gives Japan control of Taiwan

• 1904-5 Russo-Japanese War, which led to annexation of Korea in 1910

• Little Involvement in WWI, led to expansion of industry while others powers were fighting

• America becoming more antagonistic, economic depression and disasters hurt economy, all of which brings militarists to power

• 1931Japan takes Manchuria

• 1937 takes coastal China

• 1940 French Indo-China, Dutch East Indies.

• Expansion in Pacific continues until battle of Midway in 1942

T

he way Japan ran its territories had all the marks of a colonial relationship

• On smaller Pacific Islands, pushed for settlement of Japanese citizens {population pressures}

• Signed unequal trade pacts with colonies, often taking primary products (especially minerals and oil) and returning manufactured goods

• Believed in cultural superiority, planned to eliminate Korean language

• Committed atrocities similar in scope to Europeans: killed several hundred thousand civilians in taking of Nanking, taking of 200,000 Korean “comfort women” into virtual slavery

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