HISTORY OF EUROPEAN COLONIZATION 4 AND 5

HISTORY OF EUROPEAN COLONIZATION 4 AND 5

Historiography:

• trends in international academia
• Belgian treatment of colognial treatment (academia, society)

international academia:

history of international academia:

• Until 1950s - colognial history was relatively uncritical (criticism of imperialism, but not always of europe)
• 1960s - decolonization there came a giant wave of anti-colognialism. Pure, simplified view of reality. Very negative.
• 1970s - economy and world systems are examined more closely, tied to colognialism.
• 1980s - emergence of post-colognial studies. Critical of past colognial studies and colognial history. Emerges primarily out of US, England and India.
  ! Said, Spivak, Bhabha !
• 1990s - decolognial studies. also critical of colognial history. South American movement. Decolognial, because we are not past colognialism. Post-colognial implies the end of cologniality. More militant, more radical, more change-driven.
  ! Quijano, Lugones, Mignolo !

Authors:

Post-colognial studies:

! Edward Said - Orientalism:

• esthetic: For him, at first orientalism was tied with art, a fascination with the East.
• academic: an outdated academic movement. it examines eastern cultures, languages, etc. it brakets together all which is ‘eastern’
  He critizes this! For him orientalism is a discource of knowledge. Through it the West puts as its antipode the East. The West uses this orientalist differentiation to pose itself as superior, as better.
  This West/East seperation (through stereotypes, superiority/inferiority binaries and so on) is used to then justify and legitimize colonization

! Gayatri Spivak - Can the Subaltern Speak?
Subalternity
oppressor - opressed / colonizer - colonized / self - other
is how we usually clasify issues. however, this is deeply incorrect, and there is a third group: the subaltern
example of the sati women (widows follow their just deceased husbands into death - cremation)
british: this is misogynistic and barbaric
indian elite: this is women’s free will
sati women end up being UNABLE to speak for themselves, and are only represented by other groups.

! Homi K. Bhabha

• Also opposes colonizer / colonized division. Identities were HYBRID. People share identities of colonizer and colonized.
• The colonized often MIMICKED the colonizer. Both forced and voluntary, sometimes being presented as mockery.

decolognial studies:

! Anibal Quijano - The Coloniality of Power

• indigienous knowledge has been rejected, banished from the archives by the colonizer.
• colognial matrix of power. coloniality was EVERYWHERE: politics, economics, social life, epistemology…
• modernity & coloniality are two sides of the same coin, they go together, hand in hand. In a sense - theyre the same.

! Walter Mignolo

• colonialism vs coloniality
  colonialism: specific historic period, places, names, and events associated with imperial domination
  coloniality: the logical strcuture of colognial domination.
  Latin Amrican colonialism ended in the 19th Century, but coloniality remains until today.

! Maria Lugones

• coloniality of gender: gender analysis is needed to understand coloniality & modernity
• proponent of intersectionality. combinations of overlapping opressions (race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality…)

globalsocialtheory.org (good brief articles on authours and concepts)

Belgian academia and society:

In Belgium, pre-BLM, decolonial movements existed. Anti-colognialism in Belgium is relatively new

• Colonial era (until 1950s): propaganda, fascination, colored view of coloniality
• Congolese independence, shocked by the ‘ungrateful’ congolese, lack of attention between 1960-1990. Only a few historians worked on colonial history
• late 1990s: greater interest! ‘King Leopold’s Ghost’, Ludo De Witte’s ‘Assasination of Lumumba’ both come out
  (Lumumba: first democratically elected president of the Congo)
  Parlamentary comissions, greater social awareness.
• 2010s - much greater amount of publications. Most famous is ‘Congo: A History’ by David Van Reubrouck. However, there’s also much nostalgia as well. Nostalgia for the colonial past. Not a SINGLE book by a congolese historian was translated into Dutch. Up until 2017 the Congo was viewed purely from a Dutch perspective!
• 2015: decolonization. Greater attention paid, academia focuses on more perspectives. BLM movement triggers removal of statues, and so on.

Notable (POSITIONALITY): this discourse is positioned within a time and place. The professor is white, male and belgian. Certian resources exist now that didnt before. Other resources will exist in the future that arent available atm.

Beware of ‘white narratives’ - whitewashing of discources.
Reduction of, for example, the Congo only to post-arrival of Belgians, no discussion of its pre-colonial history.

Major Metropoles:

!!! PORTUGAL !!!
(during 15th Century Portugal establish new settlements and colonies in search of a route to India)
!!! 1415: Ceuta (first European colonization?)
1419: Maderia
1427-31: Azores
1434: Cape Bojador
1460: Cape Verde
1467: Serra Lyoa
! Exact dates are not important, however - remember both order, and general decade.
(Ceuta - Maderia - Azores - Cape Bojador - Cape Verde - Serra Lyoa)
1470s: Islands on the West of Africa (Sao Tome, Principe, Bioko, Annobon)
! 1483: Congo River (Diogo Cao)
! 1487: Cape of Good Hope (Southmost tip of Africa - hope of circumventing Africa and reaching India)

• They did it hoping to find gold, hope to find lost Christians, fianlly unite Christianity, defeat the Muslims
  ! 1498: Calicut (Vasco da Gama); India finally reached
  ! 1510: Goa, West Indian coast: Establishment of Indian State.
  Goa becomes the empire of the Portugese Indian colonial state, existing as trade posts, fortifications, etc on the Indian coast.
  VERY lucrative for the Portugese, accounting for 40% of the Europe-India trade

Columbus first approached the Portugese and got rejected. Then he went to the Spanish.
! 1492: America is reached by Columbus
! 1494: Treaty of Tordesillas: Pope solves Spanish-Portugese confict by proposing two even spheres of influence: one Spanish, one Portugese (Similar to 1885 - Berlin)

! 1500 Alvares (Portugese) reaches Brazil.

• first step in American colonization
• trade & plantations (coffee, sugar, etc.)
• movement inland gradually for slaves and gems
• immigration of European and African slaves
  (1750 - Treaty of Madrid, correction of Tordesillas Treaties, redivides Brazil)

! Collapse of Portugese empire

• 1578: Portugese defeated in Morocco
• 1580-1640: Spanish king occupies Portugal. Portugese interests not defended or cared about.
• Major loss of territories by Dutch and English
  Portuglas loses Malacca (Malaysia) and Ceylon (Shri Lanka) - both major hubs
• Some territories remain: Macau (China), Goa (India), East Timor (Indonesia), but the decline was obvious
• 19th Century: Porugese loose Brazil in first wave of decolonization
• participate in scramble for Africa (first to reach Congo river), taking Angola and Mozambique

Portugal: first to colonize, last to decolonize, decolonizing Africa as recently as 1974 (Lisbon - Carnation Revolution)

!!! SPAIN !!!
Positioned between Mediterrenian and Atlantic

• conquered vast territories
• made money differently (economic exploitation)
• different demographic impact

! 1492: Hispaniola (Haiti/Dominican republic) reached by Columbus - first colonial capital in Americas established (Santo Domingo)
! 1512: Panama. American continent reached for the first time by Europeans
! 1520s-1530s: Maya, Aztec and later Inca empries in the region defeated by the Spanish
1521 & 1565 - Phillipines
1565 - Florida, 1595 - New Mexico/Arizona, 1602 - California, 1763 - Louisiana
Even in 1819 Spain owned MANY parts of the NA continent (the era of Zoro)

[dont learn years by heart - 16th Century is the Spanish Century]

Spanish economic exploitation (new forms of enrichment introduced)

• Portugese trade/taxes
• Silver mines in Mexico / Peru
• plantations & new crops (coffee, cotton, sugar)
  ! abundance of wealth, so much capital, Spain becomes the wealthiest European metropole

HOWEVER, all money used for warfare. Defending protestantism against catholicism (Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands)

• At first victorious, but soon begins loosing
• Spain loses power towards the end of the 16th, Beginning of the 17th Century
• 1713: Loss of posessions in Italy and Low Countries

Essentialy: Spain innovated in exploitation of its colonies, finding new ways to make money. At first it was VERY reich. Soon after it overextended, lost many wars, and due to inflation, territory loss, bankrupcy it lost power.

! Demographic impact of Spanish Empire [one of the most important parts of the course]!

• gigantic impact of european colonizalism
• ! Colombian exchange: exchange of flaura and fauna between the old and the new world. Agricultures (see graph), fruits, grains, livestock, metals, and very importantly: diseases!
• Smallpox killed millions of people:

1. In Hispaniola, in 1500 3-4 millions, by 1520 it was merely 15,000, by 1570 it was 0.
2. In mainland America only a 1/10th of the original population remained

• this is one of the greatest attrocities of human history.
• the emptiying of the Americas lead to waves of whtie settlers.
• From Spain: 240,000 in 16th Century, 500,000 in 17th.
• Import of 11 million African slaves. 5 mil by Portugal, 2 mil by Spain, 1 mil by France, 3 mil by Britian, and less than a mil by Holland, the US, Denmark. Done over the course of 54K voyages
• most of these slaves were important to Brazil, then the British colonies, etc.
• what follows is a variety of racial and ethnic/cultural mixtures
  [this was pioneered by the Spanish, but the other empires followed suit]

Like the Portugese Empire, the Spanish one did not last a very long time.

• Spanish loose Haiti, Jamaica and Guyana
• The Caribbean turns into a patchwork of colonial ownership. No longer solely Spanish.
• Jenkins’ Ear War: mid 18th Century, Spain defeats Britian, is able to exist in the Americas and the Caribbean
• ! early 19th Century: most Spanish Latin American colonies become independant
• 1898: Spanish-American War. Loss of Puerto Rico, Cuba, Phillipines
• by 20th Century Spain only has a few colonies and is a part of the scramble of Africa.

!!! THE NETHERLANDS !!!
Dutch Republic:

• 80 years war, Spain and Netherlands are at war, in Europe and the colonies as well.
• The 17th Century was Dutch
• ! done via the officialy chartered company. A company with SHARES. Citizens invest in a voyage, and then get a part of the returns. (East Indies voyages are risky, this is a good way to share the risk and invest!)
• Dutch colonialism was public-investment driven
• these companies were ‘technically’ private, yet they recieved major state support, due to the Dutch state’s interest in defeating Spain (again, 80 years war)
• originally smaller companies, by 1602 conglomorated into the United East-Indian Company. 1621: WestIndian Company

Originally the Dutch searched for a route to the East Indies via Russia/North-East (Novaya Zembla from Pale Fire) - failed, too much ice
! Then they tried Northwest [! Henry Hudson !] - sailed up to modern New York! Hudson river! New Amsterdam!

The New Netherlands: Henry Hudson 1609 - first fort 1615 - province 1623 - ! Manhattan purchase 1626 [New Amsterdam established] - ! conquered by England 1664 [renaimed new city to New York]

Despite this, they were still unable to reach the East Indies. They used spies to gather information from the Portugese (that the Portugese got from Arabs).

• This jumpstarts the golden age of the VOC (Dutch East India Company)
  ! 1605 (beginning of Dutch 17th Century) - the dutch reach spice islands / East Indies (Indonesia)
• East Indies were a golden egg of spices.
• Cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper…

!!! The Dutch were more TRADERS, than settlers or exploiters. They only become conquerers in Indonesia in the 19th Century.

1619 - Batavia/Java; 1641 - Malacca; 1651 - Celyon…
! What matters is that during the 17th Century the Dutch expand into India, Indonesia, etc. Open up spice trades, etc., etc.

• Dutch reach Taiwan, but are soon driven away (their defeater celebrated as a hero) / strong Chinese anti-colonial sentiment
• reach Japan (like Portugese) - Japan soon bans all Europeans, except the Dutch, under VERY strict conditions
• The Dutch establish a resupply point in the Cape Colony / South Africa (1650). Farmers settle there to grow food for trade ships.
• Exploration - Australia (New Holland) and New Zeland, Tasmania, etc. They never completely circle Australia, they’re only aware its a giant island.
  (all of this was the VOC, east india trade company)

The WIC (West India Trading company)

• established to compete with Spain in the Caribbean
• at first done via piracy (plundering ships with silvers on board). Basically state terrorism in the context of a war.
• direct warfare with Spain and Portugal (Porugal was spanish)
• direct warfare with England (loss of New Amsterdam)
• example of Georgetown, where a strong Dutch past can be felt (despite it later becoming British)

!!! ENGLAND / BRITISH EMPIRE !!!
(England becomes Britian in 1707 via its union with Scotland)

• competition (17th Dutch, 18th France, 19th Russia)
• Irish experience. Post-1536 British settlers started establishing farms. Ireland was a testing ground for British colonialism.
• Spanish sent soldiers to colonies. The British sent entire families, or prisoners (penal colonies). SETTLER COLONIALISM
• Canada, British NA, Australia, New Zeland: all major settler colonies, all British.
• new technological innovations (warfare)
• innovations in economic structuring. The Dutch pursued exclusivity (luxury goods). The British for ‘super-abundance’ of product (mass-production, early Industrial Age)
• quantity rather than quality. No longer spices - cheap, abundant textiles (for example - at some point you need to stop adding pepper to your clothes. your wardrobe, via textiles, is NEVER full, here we can see early capitalist consummerism)
  -Brits are latecomers, lagging behind Portugese, Spanish and Dutch.
• Nevertheless a British explorer (Magellan) went to America in the late 15th Century (Newfoundland)
• 16th Century Francis Drake reached California
• also British piracy (state terrorism), the Brits did this in a time of peace (unlike the Dutch). Henry Morgan (pirate) later becomes governer in 17th Century
• Defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 by Francis Drake
• ! Gradual conquest of Spanish colonies in Carribean (mid to late 17th Century)
• major profits from sugar plantations in Jamaica (1773 / 18th Century). Jamaica is FIVE TIMES more profitable than NA (so, no catastrophic economic losses from NA loss)
• establishment of colonies in NA (BNA) 1607-1681. Seperate colonies for a variety of reasons. Jamestown is the first British colony.
• Plymoth rock is the first proper British colony (established for religious reasons)
• variety of reasons for BNA colonies: economy, religion, philosophy, conquest
• ! by mid-18th century (1750) BNA consists of 13 british colonies
• alongside BNA theres also colonies in Canada, Jamaica, Caribbean islands, Honduras, etc.

England also expands into the East, where it competes with the Dutch

• 1600 British East India company is founded (minor version of the VOC, only a tenth of its means)
• Some sucess in India
• Failures in East Indies (Indonesia)
• ! All over 17th Century theres minor British Victories. During the 19th Century these become the capitals of British activities in the region. At first scattered. Become important overtime.
• In second half of 17th Century begin Dutch-British wars
• British civil war, Cromwell becomes British lord protector (not king), he is important for the expansion of the British fleet
  Reasons for Anglo-Dutch wars (17th):

1. Cromwell restricts Dutch: only Brit ships can trade with Brit colonies.
2. New Amsterdam / New York dispute
3. Suriname land disputes

• Brits dont defeat Dutch.
• Holy Revolution (17th) (Catholics vs Protestants)
• ! English unite, via a dynastic union (marriage) solve Dutch-Anglo dispute. They begin collaborating.
• English stock exchange, further expertiese gained.
• ! This leads to British superiority in the 18th Century (after the 17th Dutch Century)

(Belgium, Italy, Germany play a role only during 19th Century with the scramble for Africa, they’re for later on, this leaves only one metropole)

!!! FRANCE !!!

• Also world leader. Dominates European continent. Giant territory, giant population. France was more interested in the european continent, yet nevertheless noticed the profits made by other nations via their colonies, and so it too participated, despite never being a colonial leader.
• Didnt invest as many funds, or as much time
• French colonies were usually large, but quite undeveloped
• Louisiana was gigantic, yet no french was spoken there, it was barely utilized. Same with the Saharra
• French Indo-China and Haiti are exceptions (Algeria as well)
• little settler colonialism compared to the Brits
• French export from India was only half of the British one in the 18th Century
• French were present in Canada due to exploration: Quebec (16th Century); Acadia (17th Century), as well as in NA, but north of BNA (Maine)
• Quebec is founded in 1608
• French Guyana (North South America) (17th Century)
• Caribbean: Guadeloupe, Martinique (mid 17th) Haiti (late 17th)
• Louisiana (late 17th Century). The French only claimed the space, did not establish plantations, did not send settlers. It wasnt as developed as British colonies, despite the land claimed as French being much grater
• Also some islands east of African coast
• France still retains some territories (such as Guyana)

Ostend Company: Austria / Habsburg Empire (18th Century, 1717), after gaining some Dutch territories: only a historic footnote. Only 55 ships
Prussian, Swedish and Courland (now Latvia)

• chapter 2 finishes here