Colonialism

• 1. Etymology And Definitions

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  The word colonialism originates from the Latin term colonia, which designated a type of city or outpost founded by Roman citizens under government direction. This root derives further from the Latin word for farmer and its verb form meaning to cultivate or till land. Early uses of the term described plantations where men emigrated to settle new territories. The definition expanded in the early 20th century to reference European imperial expansion and the subjection of Asian and African peoples. International anti-colonial movements later debated the concept at the 1955 Bandung Conference. Academic definitions distinguish colonialism from imperialism through specific mechanisms of control. Roger Tignor notes that colonies are governed differently than protectorates or informal spheres of influence. Julian Go defines colonialism as direct political control where a ruling state keeps a society in a legally inferior position. Lorenzo Veracini argues that colonialism maintains an unequal relationship through displacement and violence. Wendell Bell describes it as a process where dominance is acquired and held by a foreign power over another people and land.

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• 2. Historical Evolution And Types

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  Activity resembling colonialism began with ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans establishing colonies across the Mediterranean and North Africa. Vikings like Leif Erikson set up settlements in Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, and parts of North America during the 9th century. Modern colonialism generally started when Spanish forces conquered the Canary Islands around 1492. Portuguese Prince Henry the Navigator opened sea routes after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The Treaty of Tordesillas divided newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal in 1494. The Dutch Empire emerged in the 17th century alongside French and English overseas possessions. Settler colonialism involves large-scale immigration to supplant existing populations, seen in nations like Argentina, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Exploitation colonialism focuses on natural resources or labor with fewer colonists, common in European colonization of Africa and Asia. Surrogate colonialism occurs when settlers do not share the ethnic group of the ruling power, such as in Mandatory Palestine. Internal colonialism describes uneven structural power within a state, demonstrated when control passes from colonizing countries to immigrant populations in independent states.

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• 3. Economic Exploitation And Trade

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  European empires used mercantilist policies to channel trade through their metropoles while taxing activities accordingly. Greek trade networks spread throughout the Mediterranean region before Roman expansion directed tribute toward Rome. By the time of emperor Augustus, up to 120 ships sailed annually from Myos Hormos in Egypt to India. The Dutch East India Company became the first multinational corporation financed by shares that established the modern stock exchange. Economic historian Grover Clark argued that colonies rarely paid for themselves because military costs outran total trade production. Private investors often pocketed benefits while colonial powers bore heavy military expenses. Some powers moved administrative cost burdens onto colonies by imposing taxes directly. The Reversal of Fortune theory notes that less developed civilizations in 1500 like North America are now richer than prosperous ones like India or the Inca Empire. Political institutions determined economic outcomes where colonists introduced new systems only where little could be extracted quickly. European colonization changed gendered power systems by focusing development efforts on male workers and allocating foreign aid exclusively to men. This created technological, economic, and class-based gaps that widened over time. Extractive colonial institutions left lasting effects on modern economic development and infrastructure in former colonies.

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• 4. Disease And Biological Impact

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  Encounters between explorers and indigenous populations introduced diseases like smallpox, measles, malaria, and yellow fever unknown in pre-Columbian America. Half the native population of Hispaniola died from smallpox in 1518 alone. Smallpox ravaged Mexico in the 1520s killing 150,000 people including the emperor in Tenochtitlan. Measles killed two million Mexican natives during the 17th century. An epidemic in 1618-1619 wiped out 90% of Massachusetts Bay Native Americans. Up to 95% of the Native American population of the New World may have perished due to Old World diseases. Smallpox decimated Australia's indigenous population killing around 50% in early British colonization years. As late as 1848-1849, an estimated 40,000 Hawaiians died of measles, whooping cough, and influenza. In 1875, measles killed over 40,000 Fijians representing one-third of their total population. The Ainu population decreased drastically in the 19th century due to infectious diseases brought by Japanese settlers into Hokkaido. Researchers hypothesize that syphilis may have originated in the New World before mutating into a more deadly form in Europe. A cholera pandemic began in Bengal and spread across India by 1820 killing thousands of British troops and countless Indians. Between 1736 and 1834 only about 10% of East India Company officers survived to return home.

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• 5. Social Engineering And Othering

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  Colonial belief systems often included natural racial superiority of the mother country alongside inherent male superiority over females. Nineteenth-century biologists and anthropologists studied colonized indigenous women through pseudo-scientific methods like craniology and phrenology. Georges Cuvier's study of Sarah Baartman exemplified how scientists differentiated colonized Africans from Europeans based on anatomy. Studies claimed African women's genitalia resembled mandrills or baboons to reinforce evolutionary hierarchies. Female inferiority emerged as an ideology supported by cranial size differences between men and women. Political geographers explain how colonial powers othered places they wanted to dominate to legalize land exploitation. Western powers perceived the East as different and separate creating dominant-subordinate dynamics. Post-colonial scholars believe colonizing powers explained an other who existed to be dominated, civilized, and exploited. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak argued that major European metaphysics works excluded subaltern people from discussions entirely. Hegel considered Western civilization the most accomplished while Kant displayed traces of racialism in his work. The 2014 YouGov survey found British people were mostly proud of colonialism and the British Empire despite these legacies. Colonial practices also spurred spread of conquerors' languages and literature while endangering or obliterating those of indigenous peoples.

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• 6. Decolonization And Neocolonialism

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  Decolonization progressed rapidly after World War II when major colonial powers lost control of territories like Singapore, India, and Libya. The United Nations issued a Declaration on Granting Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in 1960 though France, Spain, Britain, and the US abstained. Jean-Paul Sartre coined the word neocolonialism in 1956 to refer to indirect forms of colonial-style exploitation. Former economic relationships like the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade maintained control over former colonies through companies such as Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria. The term became popular in ex-colonies during the late 20th century. Post-independence migration followed routes back toward imperial countries with 900,000 French colonists resettling in France after Algeria's independence in 1962. Eight hundred thousand people of Portuguese origin migrated to Portugal between 1974 and 1979 following African colony independence. Three hundred thousand settlers of Dutch origin moved to the Netherlands from the Dutch West Indies after military control ended. The Commonwealth of Nations promotes cooperation between Britain and its former colonies while Francophonie serves similar functions for France. Immigration from former colonies has proven problematic where majority populations express hostility toward ethnic minorities. Cultural conflicts erupted in France between immigrants from Maghreb countries and the majority population by the 1980s.

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• 7. Postcolonial Theory And Critique

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  Post-colonial theory grapples with the legacy of colonial rule through philosophy and literature branches concerned with political and cultural independence. Edward Saïd's book Orientalism published in 1978 is considered the theory's founding work though Aimé Césaire and Frantz Fanon made similar claims decades earlier. Saïd analyzed works by Balzac, Baudelaire, and Lautréamont arguing they shaped societal fantasies of European racial superiority. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's Can the Subaltern Speak? gave its name to Subaltern Studies published in 1998. In A Critique of Postcolonial Reason she argued that major European metaphysics actively prevented non-Europeans from occupying fully human subject positions. Walter Rodney stated that Africa lost power during short periods of colonialism resulting in consistent expatriation of surplus produced by African labor. Lenin regarded colonialism as the root cause of imperialism distinguishing it through monopoly capitalism via colonialism. The Soviet Union positioned itself as an explicitly anti-imperialist power playing important roles in anticolonial resistance movements across Asia and Africa. Marx viewed colonialism as a form of capitalism enforcing exploitation and social change producing distorted economies and massive poverty. Liberal thinkers like Adam Smith wrote that Britain should grant independence to all colonies for economic benefit.

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