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Forms of Government: Colonialism

A topic guide with resources on the major forms of government and political thought.

Colonialism

Colonialism is defined as "domination of a people or area by a foreign state or nation : the practice of extending and maintaining a nation's political and economic control over another people or area" or "the policy of or belief in acquiring and retaining colonies" (Merriam-Webster).  

Research & Reference

Colonialism and the Independence Movement

From Ghana to Algeria to Indonesia, many European colonies came under the influence of Marxist theories of self-determination. The result was a new generation of native leaders who either admired or reviled the Western capitalist movement. Go inside the post-World War II economic battle between communist and capitalist economic systems in the newly disputed colonial territories.

Source: Kanopy

Perspectives

Colonialism and Its Legacies

Colonialism and Its Legacy brings together essays by leading scholars in both the fields of political theory and the history of political thought about European colonialism and its legacies, and postcolonial social and political theory. The essays explore the ways in which European colonial projects structured and shaped much of modern political theory, how concepts from political philosophy affected and were realized in colonial and imperial practice, and how we can understand the intellectual and social world left behind by a half-millennium of European empires. The volume ranges from the beginning of modernity to the present day, examining colonialism and colonial legacies in India, Africa, Latin America, and North America.

God's Empire: Religion and Colonialism in the Brith World, c.1801-19008

In God's Empire, Hilary M. Carey charts Britain's nineteenth-century transformation from Protestant nation to free Christian empire through the history of the colonial missionary movement. This wide-ranging reassessment of the religious character of the second British empire provides a clear account of the promotional strategies of the major churches and church parties which worked to plant settler Christianity in British domains. Based on extensive use of original archival and rare published sources, the author explores major debates such as the relationship between religion and colonization, church-state relations, Irish Catholics in the empire, the impact of the Scottish Disruption on colonial Presbyterianism, competition between Evangelicals and other Anglicans in the colonies, and between British and American strands of Methodism in British North America.

History, Heritage, and Colonialism

History, heritage and colonialism offers an internationally relevant examination of the nexus between empire and colonial identity, by exploring the politics of history-making and interest in preserving the material remnants of the past in late nineteenth and early twentieth century colonial society. It covers both indigenous pasts, and those of European origin. Focusing on New Zealand, but also looking at the Australian and Canadian experiences, it explores how different groups and political interests have sought to harness historical narrative in support of competing visions of identity and memory. Considering this within the frames of the local and national as well as imperial, the book offers a valuable critique of the study of colonial identity-making and colonial cultures of colonisation, which to date have tended to focus almost exclusively on the idea of 'the nation', and given particular weight to so-called 'high' cultural forms such as art, literature and poetry. History, heritage and colonialism, by comparison, seeks to highlight the complex network of separate and often conflicting influences upon national identity, ranging from the individual, to the community, to the national, to the transnational. The study of colonial nationalism, furthermore, needs to be understood in relation to the importance of identity in so-called 'new nations', where parallel to conscious efforts to establish legitimacy through the identification of a distinct heritage, the cultural baggage of imperial ideologies typically saw settler societies view themselves as countries 'without history'. Offering important insights for societies negotiating the legacy of a colonial past in a global present, this book will be of particular value to all those concerned with museum, heritage, and tourism studies, and imperial history, at undergraduate and postgraduate level, as well as among scholars in these fields. It will also be of interest to a wider public interested in heritage and the history of museums.

Postcolonialism: a Very Short Introduction

This innovative and lively book is quite unlike any other introduction to postcolonialism. Robert Young examines the political, social, and cultural after-effects of decolonization by presenting situations, experiences, and testimony rather than going through the theory at an abstract level.He situates the debate in a wide cultural context, discussing its importance as an historical condition, with examples such as the status of aboriginal people, of those dispossessed from their land, Algerian rai music, postcolonial feminism, and global social and ecological movements. Above all,Young argues, postcolonialism offers a political philosophy of activism that contests the current situation of global inequality, and so in a new way continues the anti-colonial struggles of the past.

Empires in World History

Empires--vast states of territories and peoples united by force and ambition--have dominated the political landscape for more than two millennia. Empires in World History departs from conventional European and nation-centered perspectives to take a remarkable look at how empires relied on diversity to shape the global order. Beginning with ancient Rome and China and continuing across Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Africa, Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper examine empires' conquests, rivalries, and strategies of domination--with an emphasis on how empires accommodated, created, and manipulated differences among populations. Burbank and Cooper examine Rome and China from the third century BCE, empires that sustained state power for centuries. They delve into the militant monotheism of Byzantium, the Islamic Caliphates, and the short-lived Carolingians, as well as the pragmatically tolerant rule of the Mongols and Ottomans, who combined religious protection with the politics of loyalty. Burbank and Cooper discuss the influence of empire on capitalism and popular sovereignty, the limitations and instability of Europe's colonial projects, Russia's repertoire of exploitation and differentiation, as well as the "empire of liberty"--devised by American revolutionaries and later extended across a continent and beyond. With its investigation into the relationship between diversity and imperial states, Empires in World History offers a fresh approach to understanding the impact of empires on the past and present.

Imperialism: Crash Course World History

 

In which John Green teaches you about European Imperialism in the 19th century. European powers started to create colonial empires way back in the 16th century, but businesses really took off in the 19th century, especially in Asia and Africa. During the 1800s, European powers carved out spheres of influence in China, India, and pretty much all of Africa. While all of the major (and some minor) powers in Europe participated in this new imperialism, England was by far the most dominant, once able to claim that the "sun never set on the British Empire." Also, they went to war for the right to continue to sell opium to the people of China. Twice. John will teach you how these empires managed to leverage the advances of the Industrial Revolution to build vast, wealth-generating empires. As it turns out, improved medicine, steam engines, and better guns were crucial in the 19th century conquests. Also, the willingness to exploit and abuse the people and resources of so-called "primitive" nations was very helpful in the whole enterprise.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alJaltUmrGo