User:JREverest/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge/Seminar group 2/Imperialism

Introduction to Imperialism

Imperialism vs Colonialism

In order to investigate the application of imperialism in different disciplines, it is useful to first distinguish imperialism from colonialism, as these two terms often used interchangeably due to their fairly close meanings.

The word imperialism, derived from the Latin imperium meaning empire, is a policy of extending a country's power and influence through colonisation, use of military force, or other means. A country is merely expanding it's power in other areas of the world. This is distinct from colonialism, which is defined as acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

Both imperialism and colonialism involve the expansion and domination of one country over another territory and thereby exerting said country's cultural, political, and economic influence in that territory. Where both terms generally are distinguished is the extent of settlements by the imperial country into the territory, often for economic reasons. The territory where the imperialists have settled is therefore called a colony: a country or area under the full or partial political control of another country and occupied by settlers from that country. Whereas settlements are not a defining factor for imperialism.

Imperialism Over Time

Old Imperialism

From the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century, during Europe's Commercial Revolution, European nations were determined to find a direct trade route to the Far East and so began establishing colonies in the Americas, India, South Africa, and the East Indie as well as securing territory along the coasts of Africa and China. These European nations set up trading posts and sought to protect European economic interests by working closely with local leaders. This is now referred to as Old Imperialism.

In the early nineteenth century, imperialism was losing popularity due to Europe's investment in The Napoleonic Wars, the struggle for nationalism and democracy, and the costs that came with industrialisation. Many felt the costs of maintaining colonies exceeded the benefits of having them. However, mid-nineteenth century, with the Industrial Revolution and a widespread European economic revival, many countries' ambition and confidence in aggressive overseas expansion was reignited.

New Imperialism

From the late 1800s to the early 1900s, Western Europe pursued, what would come to be known as, New Imperialism. This rise of New Imperialism was due to many factors, the first being economic. With industry thriving, Europe was need of cheap foreign labour, raw materials, access to a global market, and new areas in which to invest. The imperialists believed that setting up colonies under direct their control in these areas was essential for the industrial economy to function effectively.

Military and Political interests also played a huge role in this new form of imperialism. European nations felt that their colonies would be vital for national security, nationalism and military power (in particular naval, which required access to more water).

Due to Social Darwinism, which was emerging at the time, imperialism was rationalised by the suggestion that groups of people (i.e., the white race) were more advanced than others. Europeans were convinced that they were dominant and that, as nature’s mechanism to improve humankind, they should conquer the “inferior” people. Many also believed they were civilising those overseas by sharing with them the 'gifts' of Western civilisation such as medicine, law, and Christianity.

Ultimately, the technological advancements taking place in Europe played the most significant role. New forms of medicine allowed Europeans to survive tropical illnesses, their developed boats and vehicles enabled unprecedented mobility, and their weaponry ensured their military advantage whilst also forcing the conquered to accept Western rule.

"New Imperialism" has also been used as a term to describe the degree of state influence that economically puissant Western countries, in particular the US, maintain over global processes following World War II. The force of this imperialism however, is executed under the pretence of "political, economic and cultural acts of coercion" as opposed to more classical tactics of military force and invasion. Furthermore, its power hinges on a global capitalist structure (Calderone & Rhodes 2010, p. 9).

Education

Imperialism's Educational Influence

Education is often described as tool a of independence, capable of freeing people from ignorance by arming them with knowledge. However, throughout history, education has also been used to reinforce imperialistic ideals, and to integrate "other" societies into the new rule. For example, in Australia, aboriginal children were taken to boarding schools to be taught "modern" education. This mentality is not confined to the past; currently, in the USA, the Federal government has invested around 10 billion dollars into educational programs for Native Americans. Examination into these programs has revealed that their goals are homogenization of Native American culture into the 'mainstream', ignoring the educational needs of indigenous people.

Imperialism and Neutral Knowledge in Education

After the establishment of universities in Western Europe in the 13th century, initially, expansion of the universities over the European continent and secondly, oversees expansion of universities took place. The oversees expansion of universities was aimed at improving education of colonizers in colonies and extending the influence of Western science in the colonies themselves. There are plenty examples of colonized countries happily accepting the establishment of these universities, so that the native inhabitants of the colony would become acquainted with this Western knowledge and use it as a resource to eventually use this as a starting point for further research. This development can be used as an example of Western imperialist influence in non-Western educational systems and therefore we might question the neutrality scientific research from all over the world.

Cartography

Mercator Projection

Cartography is defined by the English Oxford Dictionary as "the science or practice of drawing maps". However, although maps are often perceived as objective reflections of the external or "Scientific" world, they are often tainted by the geopolitical context in which they were born. In acknowledging the cultural and political prevalence that underpins most maps, the study of cartographic history was born. In his 1997 text Mapping an Empire, map historian and geographer Matthew H. Edney states that "technical knowledge cannot be neutral”.

With the rise of imperialism, maps became vital to sailors aiming to navigate across oceans. The Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator was one of the first cartographers who made a world map, the Mercator projection. This map has a clear imperialistic rhetoric, with Europe being central as well there being inaccuracies in terms of land masses - Europe and North America appear much larger than they truly are, especially when compared to Africa. In Rhumb Lines and Map Wars: A Social History of the Mercator Projection Mark Monmanier suggests that people's ideas of geography are still based on Gerardus Mercator's map instead of accurate world maps.

Peters Projection Map

An alternative to the Mercator Projection, for example, is the Peters Projection Map. In contrast to the Mercator Projection, this map aims to picture the actual size of countries. When comparing the two, one can note the considerable difference in countries' sizes on the two maps. The Peters Projection Map aims to eliminate the domination of Western countries in cartography and claims to be a neutral map, representing the true size of all countries and continents. Comparing the Peters Projection Map to the Mercator Projection allows us to investigate the extent of Western influence on cartography and where imperialism - and the Western dominant position in this - plays a role in cartography.

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History

In the last two decades the number of studies on imperialism has greatly increased as academics begin to uncover the scale of it's problematic influence for the first time. The interest in imperialism and colonialism arose when empires had already lost their legitimacy and role in world-politics. Studies and writings on it are being made to ensure we don’t forget about the past. Is it possible to understand and change today’s world by reflecting on the history of imperialism?

European empires were made from their colonies and the colonies’ past and ex-colonies’ future depend on our understanding (which makes the topic relevant). People who take out the historical component of colonialism and imperialism focus on stance not process providing an unrealistic picture of the effect they have on our world today. It is challenging for the historical analysis to consider the problem fully and in the right way.

The reason we should take the last two decade’s critical thinking and integrate it into history is because imperialism and colonialism were defining factors in every discipline and field from 1492 up until the 1970’s. Empire was considered ordinary up until the early 20th century such as slavery was in the 18th century.

But then the question arises: ‘How can one study colonial societies, keeping in mind the fact that the tools of analysis we use emerged from the history we are trying to examine?’.

‘The point of historical analysis is not to commend one kind of politics or to condemn another but to spell out the range of possibilities, the different consequences that could ensue from each, and the possibilities from different trajectories following upon particular combinations of actions.’ – says Frederick Cooper in his book Colonialism in Question: Theory, Knowledge, History.

Decolonisation raised many issues (e.g. poverty, inequality) that is why this aspect of history can’t be ignored. History won’t give any solutions to these problems and historians won’t be able to predict the future but understanding history from a colonial/imperial aspect can help in the understanding of post-colonial issues: ‘The value of the story is in the telling’.

Anthropology

Anthropology, as the study of human societies, they attempt to document differences between groups of people. The view held of "others" was often through an imperialistic lens, where people from difference cultures were considered unhuman or subhuman. This is reflected in the idea of the "homo-monstrous," where people from other cultures were depicted as monstrous creatures. The first use of the word "race" was by a French biologists called Georges Cuvier, and it was used to describe sub-types of human. He classified that there were three races: the Caucasian (white), Mongolian (yellow), and Ethiopian (black). These initial racial classifications established the hierarchy of races as they deemed that race was a way to define rights and social status based on skull size, behaviour and religious practices. Georges Cuvier wrote on his book: Tableau Elementarie De L'histoire Naturelle Des Animaux, (1798) that the Caucasian were civilized people and are "superior to others by its genius, courage and activity", while stating that the Negro race "have always remained in the most complete state of barbarism" .

This sort of thinking started the conversation of purity in race, and began to be used as a justification for racism. Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau, often refereed to as the father of racism, published An essay of the Inequality of the Human Races (1853). He argued that too much mixture leads to civilisational decline.

Ultimately, anthropologists concluded that race is socially constructed. They realized that it was created as an attempt to classify others and make sense of the world, and that it was influenced by imperialism. Race is not a genetic or biological fact which separates humanity by providing groups of people with differing capabilities. These advances were possible following the Human Genome Diversity Project which established that there was little genetic variation between different human populations.

Literature

The lingering impact of Imperialism can be seen not only in works published at the time, but interwoven throughout works of literature ever since. At the time, many of those who travelled the world in the 'service' of Imperialism kept journals or accounts of their travels. Though non-fictional, these works and the works of fiction writers of the period became increasingly entangled, as each read each other's works. It was also common for these explorers to go onto publish fictional works inspired by their experiences. Often these were children stories, and so a generation grew up being reading these works, and therefore taking on Imperialist rhetoric.

As opinions of Imperialism soured over the 19th century, the works produced too reflected this. An example is H G Wells' War of the Worlds, in which an attack by Martians is paralleled with the extermination of indigenous people in Tasmania by European colonisers. Some examples however, are less clear, for example Joseph Conrad's 1899 novella The Heart of Darkness is praised by some as a 'critique of the excesses of imperialism' , but has come under Post-colonial criticism. Arguably, its most vocal and well known critic is Nigerian author Chinua Achebe who described it in 1975 as "an offensive and deplorable book" that de-humanised Africans. There is debate as to whether including The Heart of Darkness in many European literature curricula encourages students of today to have an awareness of, and to critique the views of the past, or if other works tackling the same subject, such as Achebe's own Things Fall Apart should instead be studied as they are not written from a white European's perspective.

Visual Arts

In the 1880s, perhaps the most hectic times of the Industrial Revolution, European colonialists were very much interested in African resources, so they signed a treaty, without any representers from Africa, to share the continent among themselves and get full and legitimate access. Socio-political aspects like language, family, ethnicity were neglected while determining the borders. Therefore communal disturbance became inevitable. It could be said that this disruption was embodied through art, for being introduced to Western materials shifted the traditional sense of art making in Africa. The content of the artworks has also changed as the artists started to depict the barbaric and torturous treatments they underwent the during slave trade. Therefore, African art before the colonization period was highly appreciated because they represent their cultural identity in the most organic form without the commercial deeds of Western merchants.In fact, African art was considered to be underdeveloped until it was popularized with the notion of “ethnic art”, and it later influenced 20th century artists.

Similarly, art schools were opened in India during the British colonial period in order to raise creative individuals who would contribute to the manufacturing that would serve the British market. Accordingly, visual culture in India was assimilated by European aesthetics, rather than thriving with the diverse representations of the pristine Indian culture. For instance, Company Style (also referred to as Patna style) was developed as a watercolor technique in India under the influence of Western form during the early nineteenth century. These paintings demonstrate the commercialization of Native Indian art because the intention behind its emergence was to appeal the European patrons who disliked the Indian techniques in paintings. Although Western practices were adopted regarding composition, perspective and realism, the artworks illustrated scenes from the everyday life of India as the exoticness charmed the audience. Accordingly, art schools became missionaries that campaign the Western approaches in art making. In fact, dignitary individuals of the times, such as high ranked military officials, assigned art students and professional painters to customize paintings for decorative purposes. . The new wave art school has a significant impact on modern Indian art because of its ongoing motive of looking after the ancestry.

Ecology

The idea of ecological imperialism was first elaborated by Alfred Crosby in his book, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900. It can be considered as a strategic move of Europe to indirectly take hold of certain territories by introducing non-native species carrying contagious diseases. The locals’s lack of immunity to the pathogens resulted in significant population reductions, supposedly more than it would be by a military practice. (…)

Notes

9. Colonialism in Question: Theory, Knowledge, History By Frederick Cooper