V.

History of Colonialism

The Greeks and the Romans both had colonies, which they dominated by establishing military posts in conquered territory. The Greeks controlled most of the islands in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and later the Romans controlled the whole area from Constantinople (now İstanbul) in Turkey, to Palestine and North Africa, to Gaul (France) and Britain. The Romans developed a theory of colonization. They believed that a garrison (military post) must include women who could work in fields and bear children. The post could then become a settlement capable of supporting and reproducing itself. Centuries later, English settlers put this theory into practice in their colonies in Ireland and Virginia.

The Vikings, people from what is now Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, established colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland, but the settlements failed because the Vikings were unable to supply them. The Vikings were more successful in establishing colonies in parts of Europe, including northern France, Sicily, England, and Ireland. Eventually the people who settled in these areas were called Normans.

From the 11th century to the 13th century, Christian Europeans launched military expeditions, called Crusades, against the Muslims in Palestine. The Europeans wanted to recapture Jerusalem and other places to which Christians made religious pilgrimages. The Crusades were the first military expeditions that Western Christians undertook far from home. They also marked the first time that significant numbers of European Christians carried their culture and religion beyond Europe.

In the steppe (grassy plains) regions of Central Asia, the Mongols created a vast empire during the 13th and early 14th centuries. The Mongol Empire controlled the expanse of territory from the Ural Mountains in Russia across Asia to the Pacific Ocean. Every adult male was a mounted warrior, and the Mongols were a nation of cavalry. The Ottoman Turks were also originally a steppe people. They took over most of North Africa, the Middle East, and the Balkan Peninsula. The Ottoman Empire, founded in the late 13th century, was a significant world power until the early 20th century.

There were also militarily aggressive peoples in sub-Saharan Africa and in the Americas. The Fulani in the western Sudan established a series of kingdoms in the 19th century, and the Zulu dominated much of southern Africa during the early part of that century. In the Americas, the Inca and Aztec peoples dominated large geographic areas when Europeans arrived.

A.

Age of Exploration (1450-1700)

In the 15th century, Europe was divided into a number of emerging nation states that competed intensely with one another. This competition was one factor that drove these states to expand. In contrast, during the same time period, China was a strong, unified power that possessed both the technology and the economic base for expansion, but did not do so. China had conducted overseas voyages but decided to end them after a bitter debate at the imperial court in the early 15th century. In contrast, Europe was not a single entity, and its various states competed fiercely for advantage over their neighbors.

Each of the European states ventured beyond its borders at different times: first Portugal, then Spain, then the Netherlands, England, and France. Their attempts to expand overseas were linked very closely with their struggles for political and economic power. Trade was considered a form of war, and trading stations were called forts. The search for a variety of products to trade drove the Europeans’ explorations.

The Portuguese began a race to build a commercial empire in the early 15th century by exploring the coast of West Africa. There they established a trade in gold and slaves; by the 16th century African slaves were commonplace throughout southern and western Europe. Other trade items encouraged exploration of other areas. In the North Atlantic Ocean, an enormously valuable trade in fish encouraged boats of all European nations to search for fishing grounds farther from Europe. Spices drew explorers around the tip of Africa to Southeast Asia. Europeans, lacking refrigeration, needed spices to preserve the meat they ate. By trading directly with the East, Europeans could avoid costly customs duties, or taxes, charged by the rulers of every country between Egypt and Europe for letting spice shipments pass through.

Religion also played an important role in the increase of exploration. Early modern Europeans, especially Catholics, gave high priority to converting people with other beliefs. The Spaniards in particular incorporated religion as a vital part of their colonial movements, and they sent many missionaries to the Americas, as did the Portuguese. In early English and Dutch settlements, chaplains primarily ministered to the settlers instead of converting the indigenous peoples. The British missionary movement did not develop significantly until about 1800, although some early settlers left England for the Americas so that they could be free to practice their particular religious beliefs. For example, Plymouth Colony, in what is now Massachusetts, was founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, a group of Puritans who had been persecuted in England for their religious beliefs.

A pivotal point in European expansion occurred at the end of the 15th century. In 1492 Italian navigator Christopher Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic in an effort to reach Asia by a new route. Basing his voyage on his calculation of the earth’s size (an estimate that turned out to be wrong), Columbus reached the Caribbean islands off what would later be called North and South America. On that journey as well as others that followed, Columbus claimed the areas and established outposts for Spain, which financed his voyages. Although at first he insisted the area was part of Asia, Columbus eventually realized that he was exploring what he called a “New World,” as yet unknown to Europeans.

In late 1497 Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa and in the spring of 1498 became the first European to reach India by a sea route. Columbus’s and da Gama’s explorations helped spur a vast movement towards exploration and European colonialism during the 16th century.

A.1.

Spanish Colonies

Within a few years, Spanish conquistadors (conquerors) overwhelmed the powerful Aztec and Inca Empires in what are now Mexico and Peru. These conquistadors claimed the land for Spain, and settlements were soon established. This was the beginning of the Spanish Empire, which became the most powerful empire of its day.

Individual Spanish settlers received large areas of land called encomiendas, as well as the right to control the labor of the people who lived on the land. On these encomiendas, the Spaniards raised cattle and sheep, but the most important product of New Spain, as the Spaniards called their claims in the Americas, was silver. The indigenous people, overseen by the Spaniards, mined silver in the mountains of Peru and in Mexico, often at great risks that resulted in death. The silver that reached Spain helped finance that country’s trade with other European nations, and it fueled massive inflation in the price of goods that lasted until well after 1600 throughout Europe.

Much of the silver from the New World ended up in India and China. Europeans could not sell their goods in Asia, because Asian manufactured goods, particularly textiles, were more advanced than those of the Europeans. For this reason, Europeans used the gold and silver acquired from their colonies to pay for Asian spices, silk, and cotton cloth.

A.2.

Portuguese Colonies

Meanwhile, the Portuguese were starting settlements in Brazil. Like the Spaniards in other parts of the Americas, they took over land and forced the native population to work it. Also, Portuguese explorers were establishing a very different sort of commercial empire in the Indian Ocean. This system was based on trade and war, rather than on taking large amounts of land and dominating its people. At first the Portuguese had no competition: the Chinese had called their fleets home; Indian and Arab ships did not carry guns; and other European nations had not yet entered the field.

By the early 16th century the Portuguese had established a string of strategic bases, including Hormuz at the tip of the Persian Gulf, Goa on the western coast of India, and the Straits of Molucca, the gateway between the Indian Ocean and the China Sea. From these bases, the Portuguese could control and monitor the sea-going trade of the entire region. Portuguese power, however, was entirely naval, and they were unable to threaten the internal strength of land-based empires. Moreover, when larger European nations arrived in the area, Portuguese naval supremacy vanished.

A.3.

Dutch Colonies

By the early 17th century, the Dutch had replaced the Portuguese as the primary European colonial power in Asia. They took control of the Moluccas (now part of the Republic of Indonesia) and instituted a new system that would have great significance for areas in other parts of the world: the plantation system. The Dutch plantations in Indonesia were like Spanish encomiendas in that they employed native labor. There were, however, important differences. Plantations were usually more compact and were dedicated to the production of a single cash crop, a crop produced primarily for market. The plantation was much like a modern factory; it was an early and highly profitable form of industrial capitalism. On a plantation, labor was a commodity, a cost of producing a crop; consequently, slave labor, the most mobile system of labor, quickly became associated with the plantation system.

The Dutch also colonized parts of North America. They based their claims on the explorations of Henry Hudson, an English mariner employed by the Dutch East India Company. In 1609 Hudson entered present-day New York Bay and explored the river that now bears his name. During the next few years the Dutch dispatched several trading vessels to the region, which they named New Netherland. A few permanent colonists began to arrive in 1624, when a trade outpost was built. The town was named New Amsterdam (now New York City) in 1626, and the first large wave of settlement there occurred the same year.

A.4.

English Colonies

England began exploration during the same period as the Dutch. In 1600 England granted a charter to the East India Company to establish overseas commercial and trade interests. The English government granted the company a monopoly of English trade with the “East Indies,” which the company eventually stretched to include the lucrative opium trade in China. Similar companies were established for the trade with Africa, Virginia, and elsewhere in the Americas.

English colonization in the Americas, however, remained almost unknown in the 16th century because England was at war with Spain. The first English colony in North America was established on Roanoke Island, off the North American coast. This colony failed and the English did not attempt further exploration and colonization in the Americas until 1604, after they made peace with Spain. During the 17th century, the English established colonies in the Caribbean and North America that became the foundations of the British Empire. In the West Indies, the English established sugar plantations, and in 1655 they conquered the Spanish colony of Jamaica, the first English colony taken by force. The English established a string of colonies along the eastern seaboard of North America.

A.5.

French Colonies

The English faced competition in upper North America as the French colonized parts of what is now Canada. In 1608 French explorer Samuel de Champlain founded the colony of Québec as a fur-trading center, strengthening French control of the St. Lawrence River. The French were also interested in converting the native peoples to Christianity, and they used the fur trade to fund their missionary activities.

Later in the century, the French became interested in expansion. In 1673 explorer Louis Joliet and Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette reached the Mississippi River and traveled down it as far as the Arkansas River. In 1682 explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle led an expedition down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, claiming all the land drained by the river for Louis XIV, king of France, and naming the region Louisiana. As the French gained more control in North America, they developed a rivalry with England that would come to a head during the 18th century.

B.

European Merchant Empires (1700-1815)

The foundations of European sea-based empires were laid during the 16th and 17th centuries. By the 18th century, these empires had become powerful. To understand these empires, it is helpful to break them up into regional networks or world systems. A world system is an area where different cultures are related through commercial and other interactions. The boundaries of a world system are not restricted to territory controlled by any one country. The Atlantic Ocean is an example of a world system, as is the Indian Ocean.

For the Atlantic Ocean, it is helpful to think of two fairly distinct, but connected, world systems. The North Atlantic system included Western Europe, Russia, the Baltic, Scandinavia, the abundant fishing areas near Newfoundland and New England, and what became Canada and the northern states of the United States. Its main products were timber, fish, and fur. The South Atlantic system included the Spanish colonies in South and Central America, the Portuguese colony of Brazil, the sugar-producing islands of the Caribbean, West Africa, and the southern colonies in North America. Its most prominent products were silver, sugar, tobacco, African slaves, and, after 1800, cotton.

The North Atlantic world system relied heavily on the French, Dutch, and English colonies in North America. By the beginning of the 18th century, conflicts between competing European powers had intensified in that area. Territories along North America’s eastern seaboard changed hands as the British gained control of Dutch areas, and the French and British entered a series of wars. Following the French and Indian War, Great Britain gained control of Canada and all French territories east of the Mississippi River. The British also gained Florida from Spain, which had been an ally of France. The war determined that British, rather than French ideas and institutions would dominate North America.

In the South Atlantic world system, slavery was crucial as a source of labor. Millions of Native American people had died because they lacked immunity to diseases introduced to the area. Death rates reached as high as 80 to 90 percent of the native population during the first century of contact with Europeans. Also, relatively few Europeans migrated to the New World until the late 18th century, providing few workers for new industries.

The shortage of labor became particularly acute after the Europeans introduced the plantation system, which became the main form of agricultural production in the South Atlantic system. The plantation system was particularly prominent in the sugar-producing areas of the Caribbean islands and Brazil and in the southeastern colonies of mainland North America, where cotton and tobacco were important.

Around the world, in the Indian Ocean world system, British power was growing. By the beginning of the 18th century, the powerful Mughal Empire, centered in north India, began to decline. The English East India Company, which had established a presence in India during the 1600s, had a fort in Calcutta (now Kolkata). The company used this fort as a base to gradually take over the entire Indian subcontinent. The company accomplished this by hiring an Indian army, overseen by British officers, which was paid for with taxes collected from Indians. This army formed the main British military weapon in Asia, until India achieved independence from Britain in 1947.

In the Indian Ocean world system, trade was primarily in spices, silk, and other luxury goods. This trade had existed for thousands of years, providing Asian countries with economies featuring large, sophisticated markets, credit systems, and manufacturing techniques. Before the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th century, Europeans produced little that Asians wanted, so they were able to participate in the Indian Ocean world system only because they possessed a great deal of silver from America. The Industrial Revolution (the shift from hand manufacturing to large-scale factory production) allowed Europeans to increase productivity of labor by about ten times. Consequently they were able to cut costs substantially while maintaining or even improving product quality. Europeans had another huge advantage: military power. More than any other people, Europeans had made fighting a profession, one that helped them expand their commercial activities.

C.

Imperialism of Free Trade (1815-1870)

During the mid-19th century, Britain was the dominant economic and political power in the world. Britain faced little competition from other European powers. The French were recovering from the French Revolution (1789-1799) and the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815). The Dutch, although still in control of Indonesia, had declined in power and were not a serious threat. Left unchallenged on the seas, the British were often able to extend their power through informal influence without necessarily asserting formal political control, which would add administrative and defensive costs and responsibilities.

This push for informal influence became known as the imperialism of free trade. The British did not establish many formal colonies, but they controlled other nations in order to increase their economic power. In China, for example, British commercial expansion resulted in the Opium Wars (1839-1842, 1856-1860) when the Chinese government attempted to stop British merchants from illegally importing opium. Britain also gained a great deal of informal power in Latin America after Spain’s colonies became independent between 1807 and 1824. Because Britain’s power and influence were so vast, a popular saying was, “The sun never sets on the British Empire.”

D.

New Imperialism (1870-1914)

That lack of competition changed in the late 19th century, as European powers again became interested in expanding. This was particularly true of Germany, which had become a united nation in 1871 (see German Unification). Almost all the European powers vied with one another for colonies. This surging political rivalry drove New Imperialism.

Although European colonial expansion at the end of the 19th century was called New Imperialism, the motives of colonizers remained the same as in earlier periods. They usually sought economic advantages, but these were hard to disentangle from political and strategic motives. The main differences in this era were the number of competing colonial powers and the parts of the world they chose to colonize. Almost all European powers participated, and they sought colonies in Africa and in the Pacific.

In what is called the Scramble for Africa, European nations partitioned Africa at the Berlin West Africa Conference (1884-1885). The Germans got southwestern Africa, along with Tanganyika in East Africa. The Portuguese got Mozambique and Angola, in southern Africa. Belgium took the Congo, and France got Senegal, the Cameroons, and several other colonies in the western Sudan and Central Africa. The British got the rest, including Kenya and Uganda in East Africa, the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and the territory that became Nigeria in West Africa. The British already controlled Egypt, which they had occupied in 1882, as well as English-speaking Cape Colony and Natal on the southern tip of Africa. The British also dominated Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) through the British South Africa Company under the leadership of Cecil Rhodes. The result was that almost every part of the African continent was a European colony.

In the Pacific, the British, the French, and the Germans faced competition both from the Americans, who took over Hawaii and the Philippines from the Spaniards, and from the Japanese, who colonized Korea. The French took Indochina (now Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos), and the Germans colonized eastern New Guinea, in the South Pacific. In Asia, the British strengthened their hold on Burma (now known as Myanmar) and Malaya. Although China was never formally colonized, European powers established individual “spheres of influence.” When the Chinese rioted in Shanghai and elsewhere in 1900, in the Boxer Uprising, Western powers put down the revolt and imposed a huge indemnity (a fine to cover the cost of losses and damages) on the Chinese.

Both Africa and the Pacific were areas where trade, investment, and profits had all been comparatively low before the late 19th century. These were also areas where Western nations, with their advanced military technology, could easily conquer indigenous states. Imperial nations adopted the attitude that they should control these areas in order to protect what they viewed as weak peoples. In general, the citizens of the more powerful nations supported this view, especially because, with the exception of Japan’s control of Korea, the power holders were white and their subjects were people of color.

E.

Mandates and Trusts

The victors in World War I (1914-1918), particularly France and Britain, took over the colonial possessions of the losers—Germany and the Ottoman Empire—in Africa, the Pacific, and the Middle East. They managed these areas, called mandates, as trustees under direction of the League of Nations, an international alliance formed in response to World War I. Mandated territories were supposed to be managed in the interests of the indigenous peoples, as well as in the interests of the world at large. The indigenous peoples were thought to be “unable to stand by themselves,” to quote the League of Nations Charter. The nation that served as the mandatory power had to submit annual reports to the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations. After the war, neither the Germans nor the Ottomans were considered to be fit trustees. In general, a mandate was a colony under another name.

Colonialism was not solely a European phenomenon in the 20th century. During this time, Japan was growing as a major imperial power. In the early 1940s Japan founded the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, claiming to unite Asian nations against Western domination. In effect, this act brought much of Asia under Japanese control as part of Japan’s political and economic empire. Japanese conquests of the Philippines, Indonesia, Burma, Malaya, and Indochina ended Western colonial administration in these areas, but Japan’s administration during World War II (1939-1945) was more severe than that of the Europeans or Americans that it replaced. In Korea, for example, Japan imposed several measures designed to assimilate the Korean population, including outlawing Korean language and even Korean family names.

Following World War II, the United Nations (UN), successor to the League of Nations, replaced the Mandates Commission with the Trusteeship Council, and the areas that had been known as mandates became labeled as trusts. Under the old Mandate Commission, the European powers had assumed that a mandate would remain dependent on the administering nation, without ever becoming an independent nation. The charter for the Trusteeship Council, however, required the administering nation to set a target date for the trust’s independence. Several colonies, such as India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and Burma (now known as Myanmar), began their struggle against remaining colonial control. After achieving independence and becoming members of the UN General Assembly, several former colonies led a campaign against colonialism, pointing to the provisions of the Trusteeship Council charter. In this way, trusteeship accelerated the movement toward decolonization throughout the world.