october 16 – 25 “colonialism and its legacies” · introducing colonialism take up the white...

October 16 – 25“Colonialism and its Legacies”

• Visiting Speaker:Mojtaba Mahdavi, (Political Science)Case Study - Palestine

October 16“Overview of Themes and Issues”

Introducing Colonialism

Involvement of Europe in Middle East, Africa different origins:

• Middle East: medieval crusades, Mediterranean trade, ‘silk road’ commerce• Ottoman empire: Suleiman the Magnificent attracted Europeans• Ottomans ‘ally’ in Europe’s political formation through 19th

C.• Ottoman empire embraced North Africa -- Europe drawn into region from 16th c. • extension into Sahara for commerce


• Africa: known through Middle Eastern travelers, gold-slave trade across Sahara • sub-Saharan Africa: known through coastal trade 15th C. begining with Portuguese, then British, French, Dutch• interest in slave trade (mid-15th C), relations with African kingdoms reaching peak in 18th c.


19th century changes:

• Ottoman empire declines ‘Sick man of Europe’• government taken into ‘receivership: Britain, France • Oman (under British influence) moves capital to Zanzibar: East Africa -- Middle East tied across Indian Ocean• European exploration of Africa increases – no longer “Dark continent”• source natural resources (eg oil, minerals, agricultural products)• market for European industrial goods


• area for spread Christianity: missions and missionaries• “place in the sun”: object of European political competition (Britain, France and Germany) • 1884 Berlin Conference - leading to ‘the scramble for Africa’• “White Man’s Burden”: combination of religious and social impetus• role Islam important: fundamental difference between Europe’s involvement in ‘sub-Sahara Africa’ and the Middle East


Take up the White Man's burden—Take up the White Man's burden—

Send forth the best ye breed–

Go, bind your sons to exile To serve your captives' need;

To wait, in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild–

Your new-caught sullen peoples, Half devil and half child.

By Rudyard Kipling McClure's Magazine 12 (Feb.1899).

[see full poem in ‘Readings’]

Introduction to Colonialism

Regions come ‘together’ in Europe’s ‘colonial world’: • World War I:

-Ottomans enter the war on side of the Axes powers: links to Germany, grievances against Britain, France (cultural, religious, economic)

- Africa: (food, manpower; exploited for needs of war• Suez Canal:

- routes to India: Britain concerned to protect- secret negotiations with Arabs (Arabian Peninsula-

‘Hijaz’)- troops into Egypt (Africa) and Iraq (ME): temporary

occupation’ became effectively colonies - Zionist Jews settled Palestine, promised ‘homeland’

in exchange for support


End of War/Post war agreements:• Wilson’s 14 pts:

- promised ‘right to self governance, end to ‘colonialism’ (referring to Ottomans, Germans in Africa)

- incited Arabs and Africans -- both disappointed

• Ottoman territories:- ‘carved up’ between Britain, France; ‘international

control’- united Arab state not forthcoming- Mandate system: ‘protectorates’, Europeans to

support, promote modern ‘state’ -- then withdraw• strongly opposed in Middle East [see ‘mandate’ in Readings]


End of War/Post war agreements:

• Africa: no end to colonialism – colonies remained• disappointing for 1000s who fought, died in war• German colonies (Namibia, Tanganika, Togoland) became mandates • South Africa ‘officially’ entered colonial world as ‘overseerer’ of Diamond rich Namibia • Tanganika became British Mandate• Togoland divided ( Nigeria, Cameroon) Mandate


Colonial Perspective (Britain, France) :

• ‘colonial world’ became much bigger – more expensive• home populations recovering from war• colonialism supported as ‘duty’ (Christian), international ‘obligation (strategic – counter American interest), economic potential (identify, develop natural resources)• rhetoric about ‘Development’: human resources (education, health etc)• in fact most African and Middle Eastern populations became labour force, small elite benefited.


Colonial powers differing ideas of when colonialism would end:

- British began to talk about it in the 1930s (depression)- French only in crisis of WWII (when France fell to Germans, required support from African allies)- Belgium and Portugal – not at all!

Characteristics of Colonialism: Political

Colonial rule involved some form military conquest:

• In Middle East: securing region during WW1 • In Africa: alliances with local groups against former enemies (promises of trade, exploiting local rivalries etc)• too few European troops to conquer successfully – Used africans• too few to rule: challenge to establish recognized authority, ‘legitimacy’


Challenges to Legitimacy:

• Middle East: resentment of Mandates led to popular revolts (eg Iraq, Syria)• increased difficulty of establishing rule and developing ‘modern state’

• Africa: resentment of failure to deliver on Wilson’s promises led to uprisings all over the continent, • Local ideologies/religions served as unifying force (Islam/Arabism; animist ‘spirits’)


Increased need for force, recognized authority:

• underlined importance of local alliances- Middle East: find right ‘monarch’, support elite

around him; - Africa: Muslim areas rule ‘through’ local

bureaucracy - elsewhere, create/choose ‘kings’

• everywhere: challenge to chose or create effective elite to administer, levy taxes, impose law


Increased need for force, recognized authority:

•both Middle East and Africa -- need to ‘buy’ loyalty: - often involved creating local armies-military at first ‘arm’ of government, later becomes opposition, alternative -emergence of dictators like Idi Amin (Uganda), Sadam Hussein (Iraq) connected to role of military- relation of military to coup-d’etats and government change in both Africa and Middle East repeated


• cultivate respect for ‘national’ concept – but no history of national state to build on• notion of ‘nation’ Western European import• European boundaries seldom respected indigenous frontiers • undermined new ‘nation’ by emphasizing regional ethnic (sometimes religious) ) identities• arbitrarily attached ‘pieces’ of land, people, to new political units (eg Palestine/Trans-Jordan, Togo mandate)• created potential for social problems, boundary disputes, black-market trading, smuggling (of arms, commodities, people)


Gov’t : needed taxation and effective administration: • required European trained, educated local elite EXCEPTION: areas with natural resources (agricultural, mineral, forest) drew Europeans into territory• settlers demanded political rights, social privileges • facilitated western-style gov’t• BUT problem when priorities differed from those Colonial State • ‘Settler regimes’ had own issues: European ‘ex-pats’ –social, political issues (eg Iran, East Africa, Algeria, South Africa, Israel)• racism and race-related policy dominated

Characteristics of Colonialism:

Characteristics of Colonialism: Economic

Initially different interests drew European powers into Africa- Middle East but post-war concerns similar:

• whether colony or mandate, territory had to pay for itself • some infrastructure investment necessary to develop economic potential• Mineral wealth difficult: required infrastructure, capital investment (eg South Africa – gold and diamonds; Gold Coast - gold; Sierra Leone – diamonds; Nigeria – coal; Iran -- oil)


•Agriculture needed modern cultivation, fertilizers, specialization • ‘mono-cropping’: whole areas became specialized in commercial crops• labour demands shaped population migration – creation ‘labour pools’• roads, railroads needed to bring commodities to market• Markets NOT in Africa/Middle East but international (European): ports had to be built• traditional economies re-shaped, urban communities developed


Focus on commercial commodities created food problems:

• undermined ability of regions to feed themselves • left population dependent on market for food, basic necessities• tied them into cash economy • traditional farmers, pastoralists pushed into wage economy


Urbanization: fundamental change to way of life

• Cities had own requirements: housing, water, sanitation, transport • became magnets for young affecting traditional family, labour structure, • centres of ‘modernity’ (cultural as well as economic significance), • centres Political activity, gov’t administration

Characteristics of Colonialism: Social and Cultural

Colonialism ties Social, Cultural change together:

• Africa: Europeans, colonialism - synonymous with Christianity• earliest schools mission directed • early ‘educated elites’ Christians: clothing, language, behaviour, values• fortunate educated abraod for university - Britain, France, America • Christian=Western=modern=successful: access to politics and wealth


Social and Cultural change not synonymous but colonialism ties them closely together:

• main difference in North Africa/Middle East -- lack of association with Christianity • other features the same: elite usually educated in Europe• some areas had ‘secular’ schools not associated with religion but focusing on language (19th in Ottoman empire): to be modern was to speak English or French, wear European clothing, travel, eat European food, appreciate European culture - live like Europeans

Characteristics of Colonialism:


•Goal educated elite: independence from Europe, maintaining lifestyle, political, economic systems • some differences: those who prefered more socialist regimes (eg Iran – Mossedegh; Tanzania – Nyerere; Mozambique – Machel)• parallel growth pan-Africanism and Islamism/Arab nationalism: tension between ethnic/religious unity and national identity!!• social class differences similar to Europe – ‘poor’labourers; middle class merchants, professionals; upper class politicians and immediate circle of friends (businessmen, some professionals, international contacts)


Gender issue: • colonial dovetailed with traditional patriarchy (Islam, kingship patterns) • while fundamentals of ‘tradition’ challenged by Western life, role of women carefully constrained• economic changes altered gender roles (eg migrant labour, mono-cropping, commercialization, urbanization)• in ‘settler societies’, class overlapped ‘race’ differences: Race determined by skin colour but also (in places like Algeria) by Religion. •Legal restrictions on habitations, pass laws: women became new domestic labour force

Decolonization and Legacies:

Process of decolonization shaped legacies of colonization:

• British (both Middle East and Africa): independence more from need to disengage than planned process – earlier in Middle East than Africa• post WWII world: Europe broke, America new ‘imperialist

• African demands unavoidable • New generation educated elite rejecting Western nation, capitalist economy – seeking something ‘African’• how to create unity and democracy among peoples with no history of Western democracy?


Process of decolonization shaped legacies of colonization:

•Ghana (former ‘Gold Coast’) first state following independence of India (1957)• others followed rapidly• Not necessarily ready (eg Nigeria, Uganda) – pushed into independence without national structure • national political parties formed in response to independence, rather than leading countries to it


Settler societies in Africa resisted:

• Rhodesia: declared independence; civil war 1960s-1970s • Kenya: Mau Mau emergency (1951-4), forced independence 1960• Algeria: ‘civil’ war (1954-62) affected France (brought down government) as well as Algeria [case study next week]• South Africa: voted in Nationalists and Apartheid in 1948;by 1960 forced out of Commonwealth


Settler societies in Africa resisted: •Wars defined by race, ethnicity• fought both European and ‘local’ colonialisms: exacerbated hatred, violence, atrocities• impact on ‘coloniser’ as well as colonized. • Continues today: social and cultural ‘issues’ in former colonial centres (immigration issues, France the question of religious symbolism etc) as well as in countries themselves (racial issues still front and centre in places Kenya, South Africa, most Middle Eastern countries • in Palestine/Israel - ‘race’ has been translated as ‘religion’ [case study next week]


Legacies:• unstable political structures: predominant form ‘government change’ is coup d’etats, often led by the military (or the military supporting a particular ethnic or religious group)• culture of political violence, lack of trust in government• government way to get rich quick – corruption, lobbying both domestically and internationally (especially with resources exploitation eg oil)• tendency to dictatorships, difficulty implementing democracy


Legacies:

•strengthened sense of ‘regional’: religions, ethnic identity born of process of colonization and decolonization – undermines ‘nation’ building• re-emergence unifying ideologies of early colonial states – (eg Islamism, fundamentalist Christianity, ‘Africanism’, socialism - until failure Soviet Union, will re-emerge)


Shift in government did not automatically change basis of economy:

• mono-culture, dependency on one, two resrources (egOil, cocoa, fruit)• vulnerability to world markets• oil today’s ‘black gold’: serves role similar to colonialism, drawing in international capital, ex-pats, environmental damage, local economic imbalances, long term vulnerability


Globlisation labour market exacerbates colonial structures:• where one region of west, central or southern Africa served as colonial ‘labour pool’, now whole countries do (African labour in Mid east, Middle East to Europe)• notable ‘colonisation’ of labour in places arguably still colonial (eg Israel/Palestine)• new forms of ‘slavery’: driven by poverty, child workers, women prostitutes• NOT unique to Middle East and Africa but common background of colonialism created conditions for contemporary forms of ‘colonialism’ on global scale

Decolonisation and Legacies

Cultural/social expectations:

• frustrated – especially in settler/ex-pat societies• prosperity, living styles/standards not achieved • racism continues• security often worse – post-colonial state more restrained in resources, more inclined to corruption than colonial state• some wish Europeans would return• various ‘elites’: educated, wealthy, powerful (including army) each seeking to make state work for them – rather than them working for state


Military re-emerged as power in many areas Middle East – Africa:• training, arms in rebel armies challenging governments, each other • tactics used against colonial armies (guerilla warfare, urban violence, torture) used against local populations• use of mercenaries moving from one post-colonial war to another• growth of international arms escalating conflicts• rebels often better manned, armed than national governments


• colonial obligation now ‘post-colonial duty’: contemporary rhetoric about bringing democracy to African and Middle Eastern world no different from “mission civilisatrice” or “white man’s burden”• continued intervention (French, British, American, international forces) in both regions (Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan)• ‘post colonialism’ creating new region of influence re-uniting Africa and Middle East in terms of relations with Western World

october 16 – 25 “colonialism and its legacies” · introducing colonialism take up the white...

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