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10. Colonial Encounters in Asia, Africa, Oceania

Comparing colonial economies

most pronounced change: ways of working

heavily influenced by colonial state’s ability

tax

seize land for European enterprises

compel labor

build railroads, ports, roads

growing integration of colonized societies into word economy

increasing demand for gold, diamonds, copper, tin, rubber, coffee, cotton, sugar, cocoa, etc.

various groups experienced colonial era differently

migrant workers and cash-crop farmers

plantation laborers and domestic servants

urban elites and day laborers

men and women

old ways eroded

subsistence farming (peasant families produced for own needs) diminished as growing numbers directed some energies to working for wages or selling products for cash

used money for various needs

pay taxes and school fees

buy products from industrial economies of Europe

machine-produced textiles, bicycles, kerosene

artisans suffered greatly when machine manufacturing replaced their handmade goods

inexpensive textiles from Britain’s new factories ruined jobs of tens of thousands of India’s handloom weavers

iron smelting largely disappeared in Africa

blacksmithing, tanning, etc. often replaced

Asian, African merchants, who earlier handled trade between their countries and world, now overtaken by well-financed European commercial firms

Coercion economies

new ways of working that emerged during colonial era often derived directly from demands of colonial state

most obvious: required and unpaid labor on public projects

building railroads

constructing government buildings

transporting goods

French Africa: all “natives” legally obligated to due “statue labor” for 10-12 days a year

much resented

practice lasted until 1946

Congo Free State

governed personally by King Leopold II (Belgium)

private companies in the Congo that operated under the authority of the state

forced villagers to collect rubber (for bicycle, automobile tires)

terror and abuse that cost millions of lives

eventually widely publicized in Europe; created scandal

Belgium government forced to take control of Congo in 1908

ended Leopold’s private control and reign of terror

Cultivation system

Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) during 19th

peasants required to cultivate 20% or more of their land in cash crops (e.g. sugar, coffee) to meet tax obligation to state

sold to government contractors at fixed, low prices → resold on world market → profitable for Dutch traders, shippers; Dutch state, citizens

state could avoid taxing its own people

provided capital for its Industrial Revolution

enriched, strengthened position of “traditional authorities” who reinforced the system

often used lashings and various tortures

did it on behalf of the Dutch

Javanese peasants obligated to both colonial state and local lords

often became indebted to moneylenders

impact: wave of famines during mid-19th; hundreds of thousands perished

demands from state

loss of land and labor now excluded from food production

German East Africa’s resistance

colonial authorities in late 19th imposed cotton cultivation, which interfered with production of local food crops

rebellion called Maji Maji (1904-1905) persuaded Germans to end forced growing of cotton

Cash-crop economies

many Asians, Africans already willingly produced for international market even before they were colonized

West Africa: peanuts, palm oil

Egypt: cotton

Indonesia: spices

India: pepper, textiles

Burma (Britain)

authorities encouraged rice production among small farmers

ended earlier prohibition on rice exports

provided irrigation and transportation facilities

enacted land tenure laws that facilitated private ownership of small farms

impact

population of Irrawaddy Delta boomed

migrants from Upper Burma, India entered region

rice exports increased

local farmers benefited considerably

could own their own land

could build substantial houses

could buy imported goods

Vietnam (France)

colonial development Mekong River delta had important environmental consequences

destruction of mangrove forests, swamplands

the fish and shellfish that supplemented diets died

new dikes and irrigation channels → inhibited depositing of silt from upstream → depleted soils in deltas

agriculture used generated large amounts of methane gas (contributed to global warming)

West Africa (Britain)

profitable cash-crop farming in southern Gold Coast (present-day Ghana)

African farmers took initiative to develop export agriculture

planted cacao trees in huge quantities → became world’s leading supplier of cacao by 1911

why cacao and not cotton?

compatible with continued production of foods

did not require so much labor time

early 20th: brought prosperity to many local farmers

new issues arose due to labor shortages

employment of former slaves as dependent, exploited workers

tensions between men and women: some men married women for their labor power but refused to support them adequately

huge influx of migrants from drier interior parts of West Africa → ethnic and class tensions

many colonies came to specialize in one or two cash crops → unhealthy dependence when world market prices dropped

Wage labor economies

millions of colonial subjects across Africa, Asia, Oceania sought employment in European-owned plantations, mines, construction projects, homes

needed money

lost adequate land to support families

ordered by colonial authorities

colonized migrants joined by millions of Chinese, Japanese, etc. who lived in more independent states

generated vast streams of migrants that paralleled and at least equaled the movement of Europeans during 19th and early 20th

Africans

Atlantic slave trade continued for much of 19th

funneled well over 3 million additional people to Americas; mostly Brazil

slave trade diminished; colonial rule formed in Africa

influx of internal migration within or among particular colonies

Farms and plantations

migrated to farms or plantations controlled by Europeans because they had lost their own land

permanent European societies obtained huge tracts of land

helped by colonial governments

much of which was previously home to African societies

Algeria, Kenya, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), South Africa, etc.

1913 law in South Africa: 88% of land legally belonged to white people (20% of population)

most of highland Kenya taken over by 4000 white farmers

what farmers did

stayed as “squatters”: worked for new landowners in order to remain on what was their land

displaced to “native reserves”: limited areas that could not support their growing populations; forced to work for wages on European farms

South Africa: called Buntustans; became greatly overcrowded → environmental degradation

soil fertility declined

hillsides cleared

forests shrank

erosion

Gold mines

labor migration throughout all of Africa south of Belgian Congo

worked largely as unskilled laborers

skilled, highly paid work left for white miners

Africans worked for fraction of wages

recruited on short-term contracts

lived in all-male prison-like barracks that were often surrounded with barbed wire

forced to return home periodically to prevent establishing permanent family near mines

Asians

29 million Indians, 19 million Chinese migrated

Southeast Asia,

South Pacific

East and South Africa

Caribbean islands

Indian Ocean basin

Plantations

Southeast Asia in later 19th, early 20th: huge plantations

financed from Europe

grew various crops

sugarcane

rubber

tea

tobacco

sisal (for making rope)

etc.

hundreds of impoverished workers came from great distances (India, China, Java, etc.) to work at these plantations

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