Module 2. Due March 26
Chapter 18. Second wave of European colonialism. The “Scramble for Africa.” Identity and culture during the Colonial era. The ethics and legacy of Colonial relationships.
Please read the chapter titled “Colonial Encounters in Asia, Africa and Oceana (chapter 18 in the third edition).
Similar to the previous chapter, respond to 3 of the sidebar or big picture questions, or to questions about the images in this chapter. Each response should be approximately 200 words and must show evidence of having personally read the chapter. Post your 3 responses to your blog.
After the due date, go back and make thoughtful comments on at least 2 other students’ blog posts.
For your convenience, the sidebar and big picture questions from this chapter are copied below. Remember, you only have to respond to three of them!
1. In what ways did the Industrial Revolution shape the character of 19thcentury European imperialism?
2. The 19thcentury chart titled “European Racial Images” on page 791 depicting the so-called “Progressive Development of Man” from apes to modern Europeans, reflected the racial categories that were so prominent at the time. It also highlights the influence of Darwin’s evolutionary ideas as they were [erroneously] applied to varieties of human beings. Discuss.
3. What contributed to changing European views of Asians and Africans in the 19thcentury?
4. In what different ways was colonial rule established in various parts of Africa and Asia?
5. Spend a few minutes studying the map titled “Conquest and Resistance in Colonial Africa” on page 796. What is so striking about this map? If you were in a group discussion during class, what would be the observations you would share about this map?
6. Read the poem on page 798 by Nguyen Khuyen, a Vietnamese official during French colonial rule. If you had the opportunity to share a glass of his “fine wine” (or a cup of tea) with Mr. Nguyen, what would you say to him? How might that conversation go? Here is the poem for your convenience:
Fine wine but no good friends,
So I buy none though I have the money.
A poem comes to mind, but I choose not to write it down.
If it were written, to whom would I give it?
The spare bed hangs upon the wall in cold indifference.
I pluck the lute, but it just doesn’t sound right.
7. Why might subject people choose to cooperate with the colonial regime? What might prompt them to violent rebellion or resistance?
8. What was distinctive about European colonial empires of the 19thcentury?
9. How did the policies of colonial states change the economic lives of their subjects?
10. The young boys with severed hands in the picture titled “Colonial Violence in the Congo” on page 803, were among the victims of a brutal regime of forced labor undertaken in the Congo during the late 19thand early 20thcenturies. Such mutilation was punishment for their villages’ inability to supply the required amount of wild rubber. Discuss… what would you share in a class discussion group about this photo?
11. How did cash crop agriculture transform the lives of colonized peoples?
12. What kinds of wage labor were available in the colonies? Why might people take part in it? How did doing so change their lives?
13. How were the lives of African women in particular altered by colonial economies?
14. Study the picture titled “The Educated Elite” on page 815. Why are the people wearing European clothing? What does that say about their attitude toward European colonialism?
15. In what ways were “race” and “tribe” new identities in colonial Africa?
16. In what ways did colonial rule rest on violence and coercion, and in what ways did it elicity voluntary cooperation or generate benefits for some people?
17. In what respects were colonized people more than victims of colonial conquest and rule? To what extent could they act in their own interests within the colonial situation?
18. How would you compare the colonial experience of Asian and African peoples during the 19thcentury to the earlier experience of colonialism in the Americas?
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