Hot answers tagged colonization
11
I take it you mean why was there no "Scramble for China" in the 19th century. Excluding Hong Kong, ceded to Britain after the First Opium War.
The Second Sino-Japanese War makes an excellent case study of the problems of invading China. In 1937 China had a completely out of date military and an ineffective industrial base, and was fighting a civil war. ...
11
In fact during the Age of Discovery, Africa had been the principle objective.
It really begins with Prince Henry the Navigator, a son of the King of Portugal who had an intense fascination with Africa. In particular he was taken with the legend of Prester John, said to be a descendant of one of the Three Magi who presided over a magical land with marvels ...
9
The British East India Company did not set out to conquer and rule India, nor did that situation manifest itself overnight, nor by any single battle or treaty.
The British
built ties with stable commercial interests in India, leaving the freedom to
act opportunistically in Indian politics as the Mughal Empire crumbled
outmaneuvered European rivals in ...
7
If by "colonize", you mean ethnicly and culturally take over the territory, like was done in North America and Austrialia:
This is one of the questions touched on by Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. The basic thesis is that Eurasians had an advantage due to their large shared pool of (termperate-climate) domesticated crops/animal technology, and ...
7
Many 17th century settlers in what is now the United States were indeed indigent or criminals, but not all, and we should understand the "criminality" in question.
Many English farmers lost their livelihood due to enclosure, which had reached new heights during the Tudor years. Some ran themselves into debt and faced debtors' prison (indeed, Georgia Colony ...
7
There are a good number of reasons why the British were able to do so, and in fact rule over India effectively for over a century.
Disunity among Indian princely states. India was more a collection of warring princely states, at loggerheads with each
other. The British sucessfully used this to play off one state
against another. Add to it there was no ...
6
The United States did not have an official colonial policy, however, the US had colonial aspirations that probably date back to the idea of "Manifest Destiny." This starting point is problematic though because typical colonial powers sought to utilize the local populace in some manner (as a captive market, extracting resources, etc.) whereas the US wanted to ...
5
Algeria was more then a colony, there were French Départements in Algeria, from 1848 on until 1962 it was an integral part of the French motherland.
See Wikipedia or the french wikipedia article for the French départements in Algeria
This does not mean, that Algerians were full citizens.
See also Process of Colonization:
Algeria was formally ...
5
If you'll allow me to be a little crass here, I think the meat of your question boils down to, "This looks racial. Is it?" I'm gonna say, No.
I think it would be more comprehensive (and perhaps accurate) to say the more successful former colonies are mostly populated by direct descendents of the colonizers, rather than the indigenous population at the time ...
5
Fire-hardened spears, hardwood clubs and maces and shark-tooth "swords" were pretty much state-of-the-art for both Aboriginal and Polynesian cultures. The Polynesians had the advantage of advanced stonemasonry and oceanic navigation, neither of which would do them much good in a war of conquest, the native Australians had a spear-thrower, the woomera, which ...
5
Well, as a matter of fact yes. It seems a little odd today, but during the period of European supremacy (aka: The colonial era), it was quite common for companies to band together to exploit European military superiority for financial gain when, for whatever reason, the country they were operating in had scruples against doing so itself.
In fact, Wikipedia ...
5
The wikipedia article you cite has a Chinese equivalent which explains the origin of the surname.
平原河昔日的英文名稱（River Ganges）與印度的恆河相同，這是英國在租借新界後派遣印度籍的測量師所命名的。
Which translates roughly as
The former English name of the Ping Yuen River (River Ganges) came from the river Ganges in India, because Indian surveyors were sent there after the British lease of ...
4
Read the journals of David Livingstone, Henry Stanley, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, Olaudah Equiano, Quobna Ottobah, Ignatius Sancho.... You will learn more about slavery and what the world was like a few hundred years ago from these journals than from second hand historical accounts. Slavery has no color or nation. From early times, small tribes beat up ...
4
Algeria was considered a "back door" to France, from the south. In the hands of a hostile country, England, Germany, or even Libya/Egypt, it was seen as a potential invasion route to France. On the other hand, if France retained a foothold in Africa through Algeria, it could continue to influence its former colonies in "French West Africa" (which it does to ...
3
If the question is, why wasn't China colonized by westerners like India, there were several reasons.
China is much larger in land area (although comparable in population) to India, and therefore harder to swallow.
By being larger, China has more "hiding places" in the desert (Yenan) or mountains, (Chongqing) for "governments in exile." World War II was the ...
3
It had also promised to consider grant India complete independence
after the war (though this is more hotly disputed). Many British
historians believe that after this offer India's independence had
become inevitable and it could not be denied by any British
government.
Cripp's mission really did not make any difference in the outcome of Indian ...
3
This Wikipedia page has a nice overview on pre-columbian writing systems in mesoamerica. These are true writing systems, capable of representing spoken language. Some of them have been deciphered and translated.
Additionally, there are two other systems from outside mesoamerica, the Andean quipu and the Ojibwa wiigwaasabak, that may also represent writing ...
3
Overall, the primary reason the "status quo" was maintained was the availability of upward mobility and the level of political and economic freedom. Restrictions placed on these freedoms by the British Crown led to the Revolution.
The thing is that in Colonial America it was easy for a man to own land, thus showing an "interest" in colony and giving them ...
3
I think you need to start reading social histories about "mob" studies. Oliver Bringing the Crowd back in, 1985 is an example of crowd studies. Understanding the capacities of the paid and unpaid (slave) American pre-working class, the position of small farmers, and small shop keepers is important. (DOI: 10.1080/03071027808567427 ; DOI: ...
2
The answer to your question is one of timing, power and the types of colonies.
There were 5 countries that were the main competitors in the global colonization game. The Spanish, Portuguese, English, French and Dutch.
Simply said the Spanish and Portuguese were about 100 years ahead of the rest, Also known as the Age of Discovery. Portugal and Spain, due ...
2
The reason it was possible for "Britain" to conquer India was because it was so fragmented. There was a multi-way struggle between the British, French, and various Indian factions. For instance, after a small British force under Robert Clive "stood off" a larger French force at Arcot, the two European powers agreed to "live and let live." This enabled Clive ...
2
Since this was lost in some other answers, in regards to "the Strangers" this piece may be illuminating:
The rest of the passengers, called "strangers" by the Pilgrims, included merchants, craftsmen, skilled workers and indentured servants, and several young orphans. All were common people. About one-third of them were children.
Remember, even though ...
2
When you look across history, pretty much any society with enough trade to require bookeeping and stratified enough to support kings will have developed (or borrowed) some kind of writing.
The Advanced culture in Peru and the Andes in South America was too isolated from other such societies to borrow their systems, so what they came up with on their own ...
2
The other answers pointed out very correctly that Algiers was legally considered a part of France. What must be added is that there was a very large body of French colonists in Algiers, which was not the case with the other French possession, whatever their legal status.
2
Jack Rakove has splendid series of lectures on itunes that expands on @Samuel Russell's distinction between "resource extraction" and "Settler" societies, and compares the approach of French and English settler societies. The lectures hint at much deeper and broader scholarship, but (a) it is difficult to cite a podcast as precisely as a literary source (b) ...
1
There was nothing "inevitable" about the Cripps Mission. But it DID represent the "handwriting on the wall."
The mission was undertaken to get Indian cooperation against the Japanese in World War II. To secure this, the British had to offer the Indians meaningful concessions. The rationale was the same as the the British and Americans offering China a ...
1
Australia was a lot less hospitable area than Polynesians, Indonesians, and other islanders were used to.
Although technically in the tropics, the fact that people lived on islands meant that the sea was a moderating influence on the climate, and "temperate" weather crops such as breadfuirt and sweet potatoes could grow on them. Also, the sea provided a ...
1
The austronesian were great mariners and this brought them to far corner of the globe as far as Easter island and Madagascar. But why not Australia which lies south of Indonesia? I think the most plausible answer is because its already inhabited and when austronesian made landings, to Australia, it was by chance and composed of a handful of individuals. They ...
1
I don't really have any sources for this because I can't seem to find any. My answer is what I think makes logical sense given the situation in these countries.
Territorial expansion is often driven by a need for more resources, or by competition between neighboring peoples, etc. If you do not have enough food, or access to water then you as a people have ...
1
The main thing I think you should realise about immigrants to the New World is that they weren't a coherent lot that you can throw in to one mental box. In fact, your choice of the word "pilgrim" is kind of shaky in this context, as proper Pilgrims were a specific religous community that emigrated as a group to a colony in modern-day Massachusets.
There ...
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