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Colonialism
How did Colonialism become the defining feature
of the 19th century?
Colonialism: 1800-1880
• How do we go about explaining such a complex and abstract topic?
• What?
• How?
• WHY?
What?
What processes are taking place?
• A Dramatic change in the early to
mid 19th century
• Transition away from Trade
Corporation control and Missionary
work
• To protect trade, missions, and from
other European empires, and
institute formal, direct rule
The World Before 1800s
The World in 1914
How? …. Industrial Revolution!
Gave birth to innovative inventions:
• Steamship
• Train
• Telegraph
• Gin and Tonic
Steamship, 1839
The Railroad, 1830
The Telegraph, 1837
Gin and Tonic, 1820s
Why?
Rule of Colonial
Difference
• Seeking to uphold universality of Enlightenment Project principles.
• European men reason they have escaped nonage, differentiate world into those who
have and have not.
• CREATES difference where there is none; ELABORATES pre-existing difference.
• How do they do this? — Knowledge Production!!
• Gender and Sexuality
• Institutions and Laws
• Race
Orientalism and Colonial Justification
Case Study: How Europeans historically produced knowledge about the Middle East
Emphasis on knowledge production, gender, and power in the 18th and 19th
centuries
Why does this happen?: They are results of how
production of knowledge about Islam has been
represented in the Christian world for centuries
• Get into the headspace of the
average Euro/American man of
the mid 19th century:
• You hear that Muslim men can
have up to 4 wives and rich ones
can have unlimited concubines
• Do you:
A. Do you make a big deal about how it
is against your Victorian-era morals?
B. Fantasizing about how having 4
wives is like having sex slaves,
without once actually humanizing the
women
C. Do (A) in public and (B) behind
closed doors or at the pub, thus
creating opposing stereotypes about
Muslim women without ever actually
interacting with one and asking how
she felt
Creating Stereotypes
Concluding Thoughts
• The type of Empire and colonial ventures that we see from 1800-1880
is different in the way the ENLIGHTENMENT principles are used to
justify it.
• The Industrial Revolution facilitated direct rule in the colonies.
• The production of knowledge of other cultures inevitable established
stereotypes that that still impact our perceptions of people today.
