European Colonialism since 1700 This masterful synthesis provides a much-needed, complete survey of European colonialism from 1700 to decolonization in the twentieth century. Written by an award-winning author, this advanced undergraduate and graduate level textbook bridges, for the first time, the early modern Atlantic empires and the later Asian and African empires of high imperialism. Viewing colonialism as a phenomenon of contact between Europe and the rest of the world, the author takes an entangled histories approach, considering the surprising ways in which the imperial powers of Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, France and the Netherlands displayed their identities in colonial settings, as much as in their imperial capitals. The author illuminates for students the common themes of colonial government, economic development and cultural contact across empires, and reveals the ways in which these themes played out, through contrast of the differing development, structure and impact of each empire. JAMES R. LEHNING is Professor of History at the University of Utah. His previous publications include To Be a Citizen: The Political Culture of the Early French Third Republic (2001), which won the Laurence Wylie Prize in French Cultural Studies in 2003 and, as co-editor, Europeans in the World: Sources on Cultural Contact (2 volumes, 2002).
New Approaches To European History Series editors William Beik Emory University T. C. W. Blanning Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Brendan Simms Peterhouse, Cambridge New Approaches to European History is an important textbook series which provides concise but authoritative surveys of major themes and problems in European history since the Renaissance. Written at a level and length accessible to advanced school students and undergraduates, each book in the series addresses topics or themes that students of European history encounter daily: the series embraces both some of the more traditional subjects of study and those cultural and social issues to which increasing numbers of school and college courses are devoted. A particular effort is made to consider the wider international implications of the subject under scrutiny. To aid the student reader, scholarly apparatus and annotation is light, but each work has full supplementary bibliographies and notes for further reading: where appropriate, chronologies, maps, diagrams, and other illustrative material are also provided. For a complete list of titles published in the series, please see: /newapproaches
European Colonialism since 1700
University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. Information on this title: /9780521741712 2013 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2013 Printed in the United Kingdom by Bell and Bain Ltd A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Lehning, James R., 1947 European colonialism since 1700 /. pages cm. (New approaches to European history) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-521-51870-3 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-521-74171-2 (pbk.) 1. Europe Colonies History. 2. Europe Colonies Administration History. 3. Europe Territorial expansion. 4. Imperialism. 5. Postcolonialism. I. Title. JV135.L44 2013 325.3094 dc23 2013009567 ISBN 978-0-521-51870-3 Hardback ISBN 978-0-521-74171-2 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
For all the Lehnings, Harrises, Moores, Mowers, Sullivans, Seppys, Zveares, and Hulicks in my family
Contents List of illustrations List of maps Acknowledgments page viii ix x 1 Introduction: writing the history of European colonialism 1 2 The European empires in the early eighteenth century 16 3 Restructuring the Atlantic empires 59 4 The new empires in Oceania and Asia 107 5 The Middle East and Africa 161 6 Imperial Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 210 7 Decolonization and post-colonial Europe 251 Index 304 vii
Illustrations 1 Plan of Santa Fe. The British Library Board (Add. 17622 M). page 35 2 View of the town of Olinda, province of Pernambuco, Brazil, 1647. From Franciscus Plante, Brugensis Mauritiodos libri xii. Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. 40 3 Caribbean sugar-processing plant, 1686. From Allain Manesson-Mallet, Description de l univers. Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. 77 4 Engraving of Charles, Marquis Cornwallis by George J. Stoddart, based on a painting by J. S. Copley. The British Library Board (P3177). 120 5 Planter family in Java, Indonesia, around 1865. Courtesy of KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies. 157 6 Government House, Bombay, 1810. The British Library Board (WD 315 no. 5). 232 7 Civil disobedience campaign against the salt laws in India, 1930. AP Photo. 259 8 Examination of papers of possible Mau Mau by an officer of the Kenya Regiment, Kenya, January 31, 1953. AP Photo. 268 9 Crowd gathers in Sharpeville, South Africa, March 21, 1960. AP Photo. 270 10 Charles de Gaulle speaking in Constantine, Algeria, June 5, 1958. AP Photo. 281 11 Congolese premier Patrice Lumumba and Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah meeting in Accra, Ghana, August 8, 1960. AP Photo. 291 viii
Maps 1 The Americas in the eighteenth century. Source: DIGIT Lab, University of Utah. Data sources: ArcWorld, ArcWorld Supplement, and ESRI data files. 2012. page 18 2 Oceania in the nineteenth century. Source: DIGIT Lab, University of Utah. Data sources: ArcWorld, ArcWorld Supplement, and ESRI data files. 2012. 110 3 South and Southeast Asia around 1900. Source: DIGIT Lab, University of Utah. Data sources: ArcWorld, ArcWorld Supplement, and ESRI data files. 2012. 117 4 The partition of Africa, 1905. Source: DIGIT Lab, University of Utah. Data sources: ArcWorld, ArcWorld Supplement, and ESRI data files. 2012. 166 ix
Acknowledgments It is a cliché, but true, that one incurs many debts writing a book like this one. It inevitably draws on the work of other scholars, and I am especially grateful to those scholars. To acknowledge all of my debts in footnotes would lead to a book that is mostly footnotes, and so the notes provide acknowledgement only where I have drawn specific information, or major interpretive points. More general works that have contributed to this book, however, are listed in the further reading sections at the end of each chapter. I have also learned much about colonialism by drawing on the expertise of friends and colleagues in other fields of specialization. The discussions of the Rocky Mountain Seminar on Early American History helped me to learn about Atlantic history, and I am especially grateful to Eric Hinderaker and Chris Hodson, the organizers of the Rocky Mountain Seminar. Eric urged me in 2008 to undertake this project, and he put up with my naïve questions about early American history while I was writing it. He also organized a year-long seminar on colonialism during the 2010/11 academic year that helped me focus my thinking on a wide range of issues. That seminar, and several history department lectures, brought to Salt Lake City a number of scholars of colonialism, and discussions and conversations with Eric Jennings, Durba Ghosh, Cynthia Radding, Ann Laura Stoler, and Mark Mazower challenged my thinking and helped me refine what I wanted to say. In conversations or by reading parts of the manuscript, Eric Hinderaker, Chris Hodson, Ben Cohen, Byron Cannon, Ray Gunn, Anand Yang, Rebecca Horn, Lauren Jarvis, Peter Von Sivers, and Hugh Cagle lent their expertise, and in so doing saved me from errors. The series editors and Michael Watson at Cambridge University Press gave me the opportunity to have my say about European colonialism. They, as well as the anonymous referees on the prospectus and the manuscript, provided valuable input and made this a much better book. Dean of Humanities Robert Newman at the University of Utah allowed me to finish the manuscript by supporting my request for a sabbatical x
Acknowledgments xi in 2011/12. Megan Southwick and the DIGIT Cartography Lab at the University of Utah drew the maps, and the John Carter Brown Library, the British Library, the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, and AP Photo provided images and gave permission for their use. Thanks to you all.