THE DIFFERENT IMPACT OF DIFFERENT EUROPEAN POWERS

A legacy that lives on.

THE IBERIAN POWERS

1. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL: TRAUMA

THE SPANISH WORLD VIEW

THE POWER STRUCTURE

The big question is, once you have conquered the indigenous people, and secured the resources, how to you, the King, stop your conquistadors from stealing the rug from under you?

You make them fabulously rich, then they should be happy, and you do this by giving them immense stretches of the best land, and power over the natives to work it.

He then does the same to the people under him, and so on.

This is the patronage, latifundia system that prevails to this day.

LATIFUNDIA

INFORMAL EMPIRE

LAND REFORM PARALYSIS

THE “BACK YARD”

THE CAUDILLO

CHANGE AT LAST?

PAST RADICAL REFORM ATTEMPTS

THE AFRICAN EXPERIENCE

THE AFRICAN EXPERIENCE (UK/FRANCE)

On this c19 map of Africa, the interior is largely left blank because the interest of the Europeans was entirely coastal, picking up slaves and en route for the Indies.

The countries of West Africa all run inward from

The coast, where all the capitalsWere, or are. The railroads do

The same being collecting systemsFor exports.

THE ERA OF TRANSITION

ELEMENTS IN BRITISH AND FRENCH COLONIALISM

The slave trade (abolished 1807) Phase 1 “Scramble for Africa” phase 2 UK: The role of the “Chartered Company” Gold and diamonds Agricultural exports and industrial raw

materials (“cash crops”) Settlers where appropriate Late-phase colonialism

So, in the first phaseOf the Industrial Revolution,

The Europeans were happy toLeave Africa to large capitalists

AFRICA WAS A TABULA RASA AFTER SLAVERY

In fact, the European Powers sat down and carved the whole continent up.

There was a rush to establish prior claims.

SETTLERS

In Latin America, immigrants basically displaced the indigenous population from the best land. Costa Rica, for instance, has no indigenous population.

In Africa, settlers were introduced, starting with the Dutch in South Africa, into selected “healthy” areas such as Kenya, parts of Algeria, Zimbabwe.

THE SETTLER TERRITORIESAlgeria: the pieds noirs

Eastern Congo: Belgian plantation ownersKenya: White HighlandsRhodesia, now Zimbabwe

South Africa: Boers and British

Many “poor whites” settled in the Portuguese colonies.

Elsewhere, Africans were brought into the cash economy by means of tax.

The pattern of small farmers growing cash crops was established. Plantations were rare. Colonials provided infrastructure and market.

PROBLEMS

In settler countries, the Whites have left, or been forced out (Algeria, Zimbabwe). What will happen to South Africa?

The forcing of natives onto “Reserves” led to heavy pressure and erosion of land. This continues with rapid population growth.

Lots of small countries all trying to do the same thing. Political instability.

THE ASIAN DRAMA

Here, the main players are, once again the British and the French, but with the addition of the Dutch in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia)

China was never formally colonized but was subject to “informal” or “invisible” imperialism through Western arms and control of trade.

THE COMPANIES

The “Chartered Companies” dominated in the period from 1600 to around 1850. These had little interest in land or farming—they were traders. However, they would encourage the cultivation of the things they knew they could trade, e.g. tea plantations.