Europeans
were able to come to dominate only some lands: where and why did they
fail?
China, Korea, Japan had strong
civilizations of their own and
agriculture and diseases much like Europe--Europeans were unable to
take over
Africa had many parasites and diseases Europeans were not resistant to, and were occupied by large numbers of natives
Tropical Africa was more than Europeans could conquer until their technology improved--the native people had the ecological advantage (technologies: jeeps instead of horses, understanding of the germ theory of disease)
European livestock did better in South America than in Africa--the disease and parasite problems both for humans and livestock were less, though they brought some from Africa with the slaves to work on plantations after the natives were nearly eradicated.
Europeans did better in places that hadn't been exposed to European diseases and didn't have a lot of diseases of their own
Europeans were at a disadvantage in tropical areas, unless they were isolated
Only a few exceptions, like Queensland, Australia. Not many diseases made it there.
Why was Europe able to colonize more places after 1800?--improved technology
What are these areas like today?
- this provides a kind of natural experiment
- science is a good method for accumulating predictive knowledge because of the use of experiments
- simplify the situation so you can understand underlying laws
- experiments also set up artificial situations to test a particular point
- but you can't set up
experiments in history but maybe sometimes you can find them
- we can explain success and
failure partly based on the initial conditions and the choices people
make
- we sometimes fall into the idea of historical determinism: whatever happened was inevitable
- but history shows us that
there are choices, there are different possibilities
- they weren't used to the climate--didn't know how to live there (technology)
- hostile natives
- in Asia fairly close to equal in military power to the Europeans
- large numbers of people are hard to conquer even if they are way behind in technology
- Europeans were ahead in technology
- political
explanations--Europeans were better organized and believed in
nationalism and capitalism
- Japan resisted European control and influence
- they generally weren't
interested in the new ideas and technology the Europeans brought--they
thought their own ways were better
- Japanese resistence to western ways such as guns (alternative view)
- a society can choose not to use a technology
- different cultures choose
and use different technologies
- China was only opened by the opium trade
- India was more divided and therefore easier to take over
- Europeans could only get control when there was political instability they could manipulate
- but Crosby would argue that
the explanation isn't complete until you consider disease
- Europeans did not build up a large population of colonists because of fear of diseases
- European diseases already
existed in Asia so the natives didn't die in large numbers of European
diseases
- There were plenty of areas
in Aftica and the tropics that politically and militarily would have
been easy to take over
- Europeans didn't go to very dry areas in any significant numbers
- They had some success in the highlands (and other temperate areas), but couldn't necessarily displace the native people
- They saw potential for wealth in the hot wet lowlands, but usually failed there
Africa had many parasites and diseases Europeans were not resistant to, and were occupied by large numbers of natives
- European
diseases were already present in Africa (and their immune systems were
developed to fight it)
- human
diseases such as malaria and cholera and a whole long list of
others--colonization was much more successful in hot climates (such as
parts Australia) where there were fewer natives and these diseases were
not present.
- Africans
(and some Mediterranian people) had genetic resistance to malaria
(sickle cell trait and thalassaemias)
- European women were reluctant to move to tropical places with many natives, making it hard to create viable colonies
- European
animals died of tropical diseases such as trypanosomiasis--Europeans lost their military
technological advantage if their horses died
- European crops didn't grow
in tropical climates (but they were interested in tropical crops like
sugar cane)
- Even American-born former slaves who were sent back to Africa died in very large numbers of tropical diseases
Tropical Africa was more than Europeans could conquer until their technology improved--the native people had the ecological advantage (technologies: jeeps instead of horses, understanding of the germ theory of disease)
Annual death rate among British soldiers in
early 1800s:
|
European livestock did better in South America than in Africa--the disease and parasite problems both for humans and livestock were less, though they brought some from Africa with the slaves to work on plantations after the natives were nearly eradicated.
Europeans did better in places that hadn't been exposed to European diseases and didn't have a lot of diseases of their own
Europeans were at a disadvantage in tropical areas, unless they were isolated
Only a few exceptions, like Queensland, Australia. Not many diseases made it there.
Why was Europe able to colonize more places after 1800?--improved technology
- faster ships and reliable navigation--more people can get to more remote places
- better medicine (not much
until after about 1890)
- industrial revolution (starts in England late 1700s, development of factories) strengthens trade
- development of
factories, better transportation, urbanization, more cash-based
economy
- IR in England first (around 1800) centered around factories to make cotton cloth, but cotton doesn't grow in England
- for factories to be profitable you need bigger markets
- made colonies profitable as sources of raw material and a place to sell finished goods
- industrial revolution
made colonies more economically important and increased the
technological advantage of the Europeans--enough to overcome the
ecological disadvantage
- Machines to replace animal power a better understanding of how to prevent disease didn't come in until late 19th century
- in some places the
Europeans were never able to take over very effectively
- in some places the
Europeans took control but the indigenous people eventually threw off
the colonial powers (eg. Kenya)
- in some places the settlers
took over from the indigenous people (who survived only in very small
numbers) and now run the place--how was this possible?
- in some areas Europeans and native people mixed
- in South Africa, for a while, whites who were descendents of settlers continued to control the indigenous people