Figure 7: Africa Before Colonization

Figure 8: Expanding European Empires

Figure 9: 1910 Map of Africa

Colonial officials were masters at dividing up the society they moved into, preventing a unified response, and ruling through the divisions that they created. In doing so, the colonial state worked to solidify the tribal divisions in Africa as well as the caste and religions divisions in India. In many cases, they ruled directly, such as in the princely states of India and Muslim areas of French West Africa. In other areas, such as half of India and in other British areas, the colonial state ruled through local rulers such as Indian prince, Muslim leaders or local chiefs.

Many people resisted the incoming colonial state; fighting occurred in India, Vietnam and Islamic states of French West Africa. While effective in short time, they could not stop the spread of colonial rule. After ten-fifteen years of colonial rule and the implementation of colonial taxes, denial of human rights and rule through traditional enemies led to increased resistance to the colonial state. For example, the Maji Maji Rebellion in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) took place as anger grew against German taxation combined with the use of hated Arab overseers and led to the defeat of the peoples of central Tanganyika and the depopulation of the entire area. Most profoundly, the Indian Rebellion of 1857-pushed by a fear of soldiers going overseas, the pork and beef fat on cartridges and long term resentment towards British rule, threatened the colony to its very core. Anti-colonial organizations, with links to each other and using the education provided by the colonial state, then became the primary method of resistance. The goals were to overcome the divisions of the colonial society and work to end colonial rule either through negotiation, non-cooperation or outright resistance.

Figure 10: Colonial African Soldiers in Action in Tanganyika/Tanzania

Through the creation of intermediaries, groups that worked to facilitate colonial rule largely out of their own self-interest, European rule was cheap and effective. Farmers in British, French and Japanese colonies realized that money could be made from growing crops for exports. Clerks and interpreters helped with the running of the state, midwives were trained to improve health (and also the workforce), and merchants generated profits. All groups made money or gained some degree of authority from their association with the colonial state. Additionally, the colonial state would sometimes choose the group they wanted to work with to help control areas. For example, the Belgians preferred to work with the Tutsis in Rwanda over the Hutus because they were seen as more noble (due to being taller, raising cattle and having a less sloped forehead). As a result, the Belgians gave this group power at the expense of other groups and ensured the loyalty of the Tutsis. Working to maintain already existing tribal differences and other local animosities (caste, ethnic or religious divisions) helped the colonial state maintain its dominance at a local level. In Africa, this solidified tribal divisions and colonial writing pushed the idea of indigenous and unchanging tribes and tribal identities. The colonial state would even pick people to become chiefs or enhance the power of already existing ones. The general trend was that colonial rule favored the old over the young, men over women (working to push patriarchal laws) and already existing groups at the expense of incoming outsider groups. The colonial state solidified male political domination as a rising patriarchy was a major change from the precolonial era when females enjoyed a great deal of authority and autonomy. as they traditionally enjoyed important roles as chiefs or dominated separate female cultural, economic and political spheres. Despite promising a great deal of change through its ‘civilizing mission’ the colonial states were generally quite conservative and focused on economic growth.

Figure 11: French Colonial Troops in action

Imperial rule, driven by a faith in free trade and with limited resources, transformed local society. New demands, including devoting land to the production of cash crops and paying taxes in currency rather than goods, and the rise of less forgiving or flexible foreign creditors (enforced by colonial courts) combined with environmental issues to create famine conditions throughout the colonized world in the 1870s and 1880s. The effects of this global famine were perhaps the most severe in India, where British taxation and the commitment of governor generals to free trade ideology were quite strong. Colonial administrators and missionaries described the effects of the famine in chilling detail.

One administrator quote: “I picked up five bodies; one being that of an infant which its dying mother had firmly clasped, ignorant of the child being no more; the cholera patients were lying about unheeded by those around”

Men and women attempted to steal food, for which they were immediately punished, and even sell their children into slavery so to ensure their survival. Many starving colonized subjects, especially in Africa, flocked to cities, mines and mission stations for help. The declining population and abandonment of the countryside caused diseases such as the tseste fly to spread (despite being under control during the precolonial era and where its still being battled). Pictures of ‘stagnation and decay’ only served to reinforce stereotypes of Chinese, Indians and Africans as starving, helpless, and in need of outside of assistance (only furthering the justification for colonial rule).

Figure 12: Starving Colonial-Era Indians

Missionaries and the colonial state established hospitals and schools as part of the civilizing mission mandate; however the limiting funding for schools only provided access for small numbers of people (less than 10% of the population). In colonized areas without a strong settler presence, Indian and African elites quickly emerged as graduates from local primary and secondary schools as well as universities. Education contributed to the lasting influence of European languages, ironically needed for various colonized groups to communicate with each other. Education in both Africa and India included the mental, physical, and spiritual development of the student. Missionary or ‘bush’ schools along with some government schools provided a basic education for many Africans, but access to secondary and post-secondary education was extremely limited and extreme regional disparities quickly became evident. Certain ethnic groups such as the Kikuyu in Kenya or the Bengali elite in India possessed access to more elite-government run schools while other groups, such as in Islamic West Africa, did not, and actively shunned European schools. Females educated in colonized areas remained very limited with extremely few females in India or British Africa having access to schools and, for those who managed to enroll, had to deal with a highly gendered curriculum that pushed Victorian-era values.

Thomas Macaulay (1800-1859), On Empire and Education: We have a fund to be employed as Government shall direct for the intellectual improvement of the people of this country. The simple question is, what is the most useful way of employing it? India, English is the language spoken by the ruling class. It is spoken by the higher class of natives at the seats of Government. It is likely to become the language of commerce throughout the seas of the East. …Whether we look at the intrinsic value of our literature, or at the particular situation of this country, we shall see the strongest reason to think that, of all foreign tongues, the English tongue is that which would be the most useful to our native subjects.

The spread of global religions, specifically Christianity and Islam, provided perhaps the most profound and enduring social changes to colonial societies-including promoting monogamous relationships, giving access to missionary schools to groups previously denied political power or otherwise marginalized. Helping the colonial state fulfill its mission of uplift, missionaries provided much of the ground-level interaction between the colonizers and the colonized. Condemning of the excessive demands of the colonial state, they hoped for additional converts as they established schools and hospitals. At the same time, many missionaries condemned African practices such as witchcraft and female circumcision, greatly exaggerating their negative effects and furthering exotic images of Africans in fundraising efforts. Both missionaries and the colonial state officials struggled to comprehend the complexities of African and Asian life and instead simplified it and portrayed it as unchanging, primitive, and savage.

In an unexpected manner, the spread of Christianity helped further resistance to imperial rule. In modern day Malawi, Christianity fueled anti-colonial resistance as John Chilembwe used his position as a preacher to highlight the poor treatment of Africans before starting an armed uprising in 1915. Attacking European centers and estates in 1915, Chilembwe and his followers killed three Europeans and several Africans. However, Chilembwe’s popular support remained limited and he fled to neighboring Mozambique before being killed a month later in February 1915 with his followers quickly suppressed as well. Ironically, colonial rule helped spread the Islamic faith while also being targeted by it. Colonial state largely lived in fear of a unified Islamic uprising. Conversion to Islam became a sign of anti-colonial resistance, existed largely outside of the colonial scope, and provided an alternative worldview and global connections that existed outside of European empires.

Figure 13: The Vision of Cecil Rhodes

Figure 14: African Stereotypes seen in the Hottentot Venus