Colonialism and Colonies

B

2

Nationalism

Nationalism is not easy to define. Nations are ideas, imagined communities. They may derive in part from characteristics that members of a group have in common, such as language, religion, race, political state, or historical experience. Even in Europe, virtually no nation is completely homogeneous. Typically a country contains several ethnic, religious, and perhaps other kinds of divisions, which could claim to be nations in their own right. The same is true of colonies and former colonies, only more so. Some colonies contained a hundred or more different tribal groups with histories of long and bitter conflict and weak to nonexistent economic links. Often they had nothing in common except their incorporation into highly artificial colonial units made up by Europeans.

Colonial nationalism often developed in response to the need for a more encompassing network of resistance. The Indian National Congress filled this role in India’s struggle against British colonialism, as the African National Congress did on behalf of black African rights in South Africa. Nationalist movements against colonialism have typically been led by doctors, lawyers, journalists, or other professionals, often educated in Western nations. Nationalist leaders who have helped their countries overcome colonial empires include Nigeria’s first president (1963-1966), Nnamdi Azikiwe, and Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the first prime minister (1964-1966) and president (1966-1994) of Malawi, in southeastern Africa.

C

Contested Settlement Colonies

In general, the longest and most violent revolutions were in contested settlement colonies, where local whites had become powerful, and the European government no longer had complete control of the colony. Examples of this kind of resistance against colonial rule include Algeria’s struggle for independence from France and the resistance of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to British rule.

In Algeria, the colons (French colonists) held most of the authority. When an Algerian revolutionary group known as the National Liberation Front (Front de Libération Nationale, or FLN) launched a bid for Algerian independence in 1954, a violent three-way struggle resulted among the Algerian nationalists, the colons, and the French government. Although the French government had upheld a repressive set of laws to govern Algeria and restrict the rights of native Algerians, it had begun moving toward providing equality for some native people. The colons refused to give up power or political rights to native Algerians and began counterterrorist measures. As the violence escalated, the government sent in troops to subdue both Algerian revolutionaries and the colons. In 1958 the colons and a group of army officers caused a change in government in France, which brought to power General Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle, however, recognized that France was in an unwinnable situation in Algeria and negotiated Algerian independence. In 1962 Algeria voted through referendum for independence from France.

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In Southern Rhodesia, as in Algeria, white settlers wanted to limit the power of the black majority. In 1923 the British government granted self-government to the white settlers in Southern Rhodesia. During the following years, black African unrest grew into a widespread nationalist movement opposed to the rule of the British settlers. African nationalists conducted strikes, protests, and guerrilla warfare. The British settlers, who by the late 1950s numbered more than 200,000, wanted to restrict the political power of the African majority, including strictly limiting the voting rights of black Africans. In 1965 white Rhodesians declared their independence and formed a minority government that faced severe criticism from nations around the world, including Britain. International sanctions were invoked against the minority government of Rhodesia to encourage its leaders to negotiate with the black majority. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s guerrilla groups—including the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), led by Joshua Nkomo, and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), led by Robert Mugabe—fought the white regime. In 1980, after more than a half-century of struggle, Zimbabwe achieved its independence.

D

Informal Empires

Much anti-Western sentiment in places that were never formal European colonies, such as China, can be regarded as anticolonial. China’s two Opium Wars against Britain during the mid-19th century can be viewed as primary resistance to colonialism. Although the British did not attempt to occupy the entire country, their victory over China did result in possession of Hong Kong. For more than 150 years Hong Kong was a British dependency, returning to Chinese rule in mid-1997. The Boxer Uprising in 1900, led by Chinese nationalists known to Westerners as the Boxers, was a rebellion against foreigners, representatives of foreign powers, and Chinese Christians. The uprising resulted in part from resentment over economic and political exploitation of China by various Western powers and Japan.

VII

Conclusion

Were colonies worth the costs to the colonizing country? The answer to that question varies. A visit to London or other centers of British trade reveals the docks, shipping and trading firms, merchant banks, and even street names that were closely related to commercial ventures with India, Malaya, the West Indies, and Africa. But profitability was by no means constant, and the mother country was responsible for administrative and police costs.

Especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, colonial relationships undoubtedly helped the Netherlands, Britain, and other European countries accumulate capital for industrialization. Even then, however, the bulk of the capital was raised internally from the profits of agriculture. In the 18th century, before the abolition of slavery, Great Britain’s colonial relationship with the West Indies was much more lucrative than afterwards, when those slave-based colonies became a liability. Some experts believe that the long-term decline of the British economy that set in about the 1870s was cushioned by its colonial empire. Without colonies, the long slide might have been more like a sudden crash. A crash, however, might have encouraged the British to create a more modern, efficient industrial plant, as Germany and Japan did after their disasters in World War II (1939-1945).

On the other hand, colonialism caused many problems for former colonies. The economics of old colonial systems linger, especially in former exploitation colonies, where these nations struggle to overcome depressed economies and archaic class systems. Also, one of the most controversial legacies of colonialism is cultural intolerance. White settlers who conquered nonwhite peoples often held the attitude that ethnic and cultural differences define some people as superior and others as inferior. Some colonizing countries began education programs that maintained white superiority by distancing native students from their own culture and history.

Although imperialism in one form or another remains an issue, by the late 20th century colonialism had become obsolete. In 1970 the United Nations General Assembly, which by then was dominated by a huge majority of former colonies, declared colonialism a crime. After that, even though Western societies continued to intervene in other countries' affairs—for example, the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989—the idea of establishing formal colonial control had become unthinkable. The remnants of colonialism were confined to a few small islands, such as Bermuda, a self-governing dependency of the United Kingdom.

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