1. Colonialism and its legacy. Describe at least three aspects of the legacy of
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1. Colonialism and its legacy. Describe at least three aspects of the legacy of Western colonial rule that continue to have a major influence over the lives of people in the regions that experienced decolonization during the twentieth century, giving specific examples. Note any important similarities and differences in the way people in these regions have adapted to this legacy. You should draw examples from at least two of the following regions: Sub- Saharan Africa, North Africa and Southwest Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.Explanation / Answer
Colonialism's Effect on Southeast Asia
Southeast Asian history features the stories of indigenous cultures that had arisen without much intermingling with outside influences, save for the occasional raids by the remote neighbors, being forced to contend with the arrival of Chinese and Western sailors and adventurers. In some cases, especially in the first years of the scramble for colonial holdings, the interaction was benign and even beneficial on both sides. “European visitors to Southeast Asia in the seventeenth century approached Asians as equals, displaying an openness and readiness to learn that was often lacking in the nineteenth century, when scientific and industrial developments had produced a technological gulf between Europe and the rest of the world.” 1 In other cases, the interaction was more indifferent, such as the West’s interaction with Siam. Often, the relations were much more negative and wrenching, as it was in Vietnam and every other country with which it came into contact. The Chinese went to Southeast Asia for tribute. Chinese Emperors believed that since China was the Middle Kingdom, all other peoples were compelled to literally pay respects to Chinese power. “[The tribute system] showed that China was the superior center and its rules had duties toward all other rulers as his inferiors.” 2
Colonialism in Southeast Asia brought modern Western ideas and concepts to Southeast Asia. Some of these new ideas included the nation-state and its concomitant bureaucratic structure, education for ambitious youth in political theory and human rights, new economic opportunities and travails and new perspectives on religion. Each of these innovations served to change the nature of life in Southeast Asia countries. Prior to the arrival of colonial powers, Southeast Asia had a small population that was probably a result of a number of factors including high female work load, rampant gonorrhea, prevalent abortion and instability of residence. 3 This dynamic changed as the colonial powers brought colonial governmental structure and the will to organize the economy to produce salable goods. With more order and with economic incentives for the people in the region to remain in place to produce raw materials, populations began to increase. As more wealth was produced, more outsiders were drawn to Southeast Asia, bringing their own cultures and religion into contact with the locals, and engendering change, and unfortunately, prejudice. “Throughout the region, the many different ethnic groups live side by side with their diverse languages religions customs, occupations, and education and social statuses. As in much of the rest of the world, these differences give rise to prejudices and stereotypes.” 4 The differences also gave rise to nationalism.
Nationalism, as it was expressed throughout Southeast Asia, looked different in each country. The various religions and cultures found in the countries in the region were so unique that some observers coined a term for the unique Southeastern Asian expression of nationalism. “We shall use the term ‘indigenism’ to describe the structure of policies and institutions created to transform the racial dimensions of the colonial type economies inherited by Southeastern Asian societies.” 5 While these scholars further broke down “indigenisms” into the individual country “ism” for each unique county in Southeast Asia, the scholars noted that all countries did share one characteristic. Even though each country had different colonial experiences, all people shared a similar, negative perception of colonialism. “Contrasting sharply with the diversity in colonial policies and practices is the uniformity of images held by Southeast Asians of their colonial experiences. Nationalism is seen as the movement to liberate the national society from the constraints…which prevented the fulfillment of individual and collective capacities for economic and political development.” 6
Kratoska hinted at what might be the actual root for these negative colonial images in the minds of indigenous Southeast Asians: the usurpation of traditional ruling prerogatives by the efficient colonial bureaucracies. The colonial bureaucracies allowed the state to reach into areas previously untouchable by any central authority. The colonial powers’ influence and authority touched all people within a large geographic region. Because colonial policies were so pervasive in a way previously in a way that had not previously been experienced, all people in the colony shared the same antipathy to the big, foreign authority in their presence. 7 The shared loathing of the colonial power resulted in “indigenism.”
It should be noted that most nationalists and revolutionaries in Southeast Asia did not object to structure and bureaucracy per se. Revolutionary leaders, most of whom had been educated in the West, understood that an efficient bureaucracy was intrinsic to the functioning of the state. Further, most Southeast Asian revolutionaries did not object to the usurpation of power from the local chieftains (unless, of course, the displaced chieftain returned as a revolutionary). Instead, the indigenous leaders objected to the foreigners being in power, not to the governmental structure necessary to projecting the power. These local leaders were content to displace the colonial rulers while maintaining the trappings of power. 8
An example of this phenomenon is Indonesia. Prior to the arrival of the Dutch, the people of the islands that eventually came to be known as Indonesia saw themselves as subjects of a this or that kingdom or as members of a particular ethnic group. After the Dutch set up political boundaries and asserted authority throughout the islands did the people on those islands have something towards which to direct their resentment and around which to unite. Ambitious, Western educated revolutionaries recognized the power of the resentment that could be leveraged to expel the Dutch while at the same time admiring to political infrastructure that the Europeans had created. After finally forcing the Dutch out, the revolutionaries grabbed power but soon realized that the temporary unity displayed by the Indonesians in ridding themselves of their colonial overseers would not persist. Indonesia has found that replacing a foreign hegemon with a local authoritarian has not instantly improved the lives of the people. 9
Indonesia has striven to create itself as a nation-state, but has been largely unsuccessful since the people have reverted to their natural affiliations to local leaders, ethnic groups, and now increasingly, religious preferences. These sub-allegiances work to subvert the foundation of a nation state in general, and in Indonesia in particular, making the idea of a nation state in Southeast Asia a chimera. “In some way the state's sovereignty is inherent within the people, expressive of its historic identity. In it, ideally, there is a basic equivalence between the borders and character of the political unit upon the one hand and a self-conscious cultural community on the other. In most cases this is a dream as much as a reality. Most nation-states in fact include groups of people who do not belong to its core culture or feel themselves to be part of a nation so defined.” 10
The fact that many Southeast Asian revolutionaries only recognized their desire to overthrow and supplant their colonial masters after availing themselves of Western educations is another common theme to the post-colonial period. There is some evidence that many of these highly educated individuals would have been content to return to a position of power in their own countries even only to serve the colonial administration. However, Western powers were not willing to provide much opportunity to these returning scholars. So, instead of working within the colonial structure to buttress the status quo, these revolutionaries worked to undermine it. Colonialism thus “contained the seeds of its own destruction.” 11 Young people with good educations could recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the colonial system, and therefore could attack the weaknesses and preserve the strengths. Additionally, these young, intelligent leaders could to some extent rally the people who as we have seen, shared with these returning intellectuals an antipathy towards foreigners, although the antipathy grew out of different causes such a lack of respect for religion or blame for wild, disconcerting economic swings. “The colonial powers inadvertently nurtured Asian nationalism by combining political repression with opportunities for Western (or Japanese) education. The most talented and capable indigenous leaders were offered the benefits of colonial education but denied profession opportunities to use it. Strain rapidly increased between traditional values and new ones, between efforts to adapt modern Western material techniques and the need to maintain a distinctly non-Western cultural identity, and between the impulse to assimilate the intruder and to expel him completely.” 12
Another by product of colonialism was introducing new religious beliefs that supplanted indigenous, traditional ones. These new beliefs became a way to set populations apart from one another. “Southeast Asia is a crossroads of many religious influences, which have always been treated syncretically. One precondition for this basically peaceful syncretism is the fact that the different religious communities largely eschew orthodoxy and content themselves with their followers' commitment to a particular ritual practice (orthopractice).” 13 This syncreticism has begun to erode however, as the religions brought into the region by the colonial powers begin to insist on a rigid orthodoxy enforced through worldwide communications and hardened in reaction to one another.
Colonialism’s effects in Southeast Asia continue to this day. The region has a large, dense population brought about by the economic effects of colonialism. The density of population and the wealth in the region has brought many different cultures into contact, and altered the religions and culture. Colonial education policies introduced ideas about nationalism and human rights that encouraged and inspired revolutionaries who ultimately overthrew the colonial order. The revolutionaries co-opted the colonial bureaucratic structure to administer the governments they now controlled. The results have been mixed, but the legacy of colonialism and the nationalism it engendered remain to the present.
The Impact of European Colonization on Sub-Saharan Africa and its People
Imperialism is the influence over an area by a foreign power, often involving some form of dominance. Imperialism was imposed by the Europeans as they colonized Sub-Saharan Africa. For hundreds of years the Europeans traded gold and salt with huge trading empires that had developed in Africa. For hundreds of years they continued trading but in the late 1800s Europeans began to colonize Africa. They saw their colonies as a direct source to the goods they had been trading for decades and as a way to grow their empires.
By 1914 all of the Sahel had been colonized by the Europeans, they set boundaries that divided ethnic groups creating conflict between different groups which only made the European rule, stronger. The European colonization diminished African culture sufficiently but some Africans still benefited from the education the Europeans brought with them. Soon some educated Africans demanded a role in government and, when denied, a few launched independence movements and at the half century mark some started to become independent.
In east Africa, European explorers made their way inland. As the European explorers divided power between themselves they disrupted villages by transforming their small farms into huge plantations. Colonization turned African lives up-side-down, some groups tried to resist European rule but most failed. Beginning in the mid 1900s African independence movements began to become more successful.
On the west coast of Africa slavery became a huge economy, as the British began shipping large amounts of slaves across the Atlantic to the Americas to work on huge plantations. Many tribes and ethnic groups fled the area as they were afraid of being captured and sold into slavery. The French were trying to end slavery and put in legal prohibitions that encouraged the ethnic groups to return to the areas that they had fled. One colony the British formed is the colony of Nigeria, this colony housed many different ethnic groups within its boundaries and when the colony gained independence conflicts arose and the newly found country erupted into civil war. Cultural and religious differences still are present in the country today.
Large areas of land weren’t colonized until the 1800s in central Africa, though the Europeans had been trading in Africa since the 1400s. Deadly diseases like Malaria had stopped rapid colonization. By the 1800s the Europeans held substantial amounts of land as colonies. The French turned one of their African colonies into a huge cash crop economy. By the early 1900s small revolts against french rule were happening often. Europeans promoted European culture, which weakened African tradition and culture. Africans were often treated harshly and their village life was sufficiently disrupted by the impact of colonization.
In southern Africa the Portuguese shipped slaves to different places around the world. They maintained control of Angola throughout the 1500s. They disrupted the African land and villages by putting in railroads to transport labor workers. The Africans did not benefit in any way from this colonization and this lead to uprisings against colonial rule.
When colonies gained independence it created power vacuums, an absence of leadership. Ethnic and other types of groups started to compete for power sometimes breaking out into civil war. Today many former colonies struggle with maintaining order and deal with unstable governments, some even have problems with racial discrimination. Disease is wide spread in Africa and most governments in the former colonies don’t have the resources to deal with it which also hurts their country. Neo-Colonization is the structure of the colony still in tact but the foreign power gone, in other words the former colonies still have the export economies the Europeans set up. Although neo-colonization helped the economies in African countries it ultimately impacted the African people negatively and they are now dealing with the consequences of the Europeans actions.
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