POLS241 Midterm Flashcards
What are some defining features of colonialism?
-It is a relationship of domination between indigenous majority and a minority of foreign invaders.
-Relationship in which an entire society is externally manipulated and transformed according to the needs and interests of the colonial rulers.
-Main functions: Secure control through guaranteed law and order and create an economic framework. Had a divide and conquer policy.
What are some different types of colonial structures?
-Settlement Regime: Carribean and African slaveholder type. Unchecked dictatorship of planters in Jamaica and the British Carribean Islands.
-Bureaucratic-Patrimonial State: Centralized, assertive and in conformity with legal standardized rules (e.g. royalization of early conquistador powers in Spanish empire).
Proconsular Autocracy: Rule was bound by law, even, at times, by constitutional law. Rule was essentially unlimited by counterforces in the country itself.
Types of colonial class hierarchies?
-1.Ethnic class hierarchy present and cooperative ruling class
The first case where it’s a society with ethnic hierarchy or class hierarchy. In that case, the colonial state replaced a few upper-class posts, but it kept the upper class empowered by extending privileges such as positions and financial aid.
-2.Ethnic class hierarchy present but opposing ruling class
The second case is one where there is a hierarchical class but where the ruling class strongly opposed colonial regime. In that case, the elite class was stripped of power completely and the colonial regime resorted to creating new upper class (e.g, Vietnam and Burham).
-3.No evident ethnic/class hierarchy present
The third case is one where there was no obvious hierarchy. In such situations, colonials created kings and chiefs through legal regulations. Examples of this include Punjab and many places in Africa.
What are some consequences of prolonged colonial autocratic rule?
Manipulation of ethnic groups: favoring some, not others. The idea of the centralized state, the idea of territoriality and nationalism are major contributing sources to ethnic conflict in the continent.
Border drawing and inter-ethnic mixing: In Africa, above all defining state borders was one of the most consequential activities of the Europeans.
How did the bureaucratic-patrimonial state differ from colonial sovereign organizations?
-1.It was unique to have church subordinated to secular power for the purposes of colonial politics (clergy became effective tool of Spanish penetration of America)
-2.System had been exposed to rapid creolization and external delimitation by colonial Spanish which could affirm the local interests of “settlers” in increasing opposition to the imperialist views of Madrid.
-3.Increase in corruption created disparity in the low pay of civil servants at all ranks.
-4.Spanish system had an extremely complex systems of checks and balances, division of powers of office, and supervision by “councils” and other collegiate authorities.
What types of colonies were there?
-Exploitation colonies: result of militairy conquest and based around economic exploitation. Insignificant colonial presence in the form of civil servants that returned home after job had been finished (e.g, british egypt and India)
-Settlement colonies: Result of military supported colonization processes. Utilizes cheap labor, land, of social, religious and cultural life that are under pressure in the mother country. presence in the form of permanent residents.
-Maritime enclaves: Result of fleet actions, means indirect commercial penetration of hinterland and or contribution to the logistics of a maritime deployment force
What are some details on autocratic colonial rule?
-Backed by force, power is concentrated in the office of the government.
-No distinction between legislature, judiciary and executive branches.
-Was a government by decree of the governor and his staff.
-Repression was more severe in settler colonies as displacement and genocide was common (for example Africa).
-Example: India in 1858-1921, all power was in the hands of governor general as the supreme authority.
In autocratic colonial rule, what was the “district official?”
-Had the role of tax collector, police chief and judge.
What are the three categories of autocratic rule?
-Categories:
Protectorates, indirect rule colonies and crown colonies.
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Describe autocratic legal systems.
-Introduced two tier law system, one for the settlers and another for the indigenous.
-In Algeria for instance, double standard of race meant they were subjected to harsh and demeaning “code de indigent”
Describe the colonial state’s economic policies.
–1. Land policies: Forcibly seized means of production (specialization of export products, plantations and crops of Indigenous farmers). EX. Algeria and South Africa.
-2. Resource: Africa’s significance for the world economy was in mining. In the Americans, Peru and Mexico, mining for silver was quite insignificant.
-3. Impeding industrialization: domestic industries were destroyed to make colony more dependent on exports of colonizers. For instance, British government banned Indian textile exports.
-4. Tax and trade: Without exception, foreign trade in the colonies was in the hands of foreign businesses, royal officials or specialized colonial agencies. High taxes were required in the establishment of colonial economy.
What were the different views of national identity?
-Primordialist view: Holds that national identity is natural, based on deep-rooted features such as race, language, religion, and other cultural features. Such features lead national boundaries to form naturally.
-Constructivist view: Argues that national identity-like other group identities is a social construction. It is sometimes use interchangeably instrumentalism but the difference is the emphasis instrumentalism places on the role of elites in constructing national identity.
What is neo-colonialism?
-Essense of neo-colonialism is that the state which is subject to it is, in theory, independents and has all outward trappings of international sovereignty.
-Neo-colonial control is exercised through economic or monetary means. Result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of less developed parts of the world.
What is a nation and how is its definition misused?
-Nations are peoples liked by unifying traits and the desire to control a territory that is thought as the nation’s homeland.
- When we speak of a ‘nation’ we refer to the self-identification of a people based on the language they speak and the values, allegiances or historical memories they share.
-Collective of peoples united by shared features and the belief in the right to territorial self-determination.
-Misuse: To equate nation to a state of a country or the interchanging of the term with ethnic group or ethnicity.
What is nationalism and how is its definition misused?
-Nationalism is a process. It is thought of as the creation of the unifying features of the nation, or the actions that result from the beliefs of the group.
-Promotion of ones own culture, asserting interests of ones own nation above the interests of all.
-Perceived national “homeland”.
-Control over one’s own state is the goal for most nationalists.
-Nationalism is a theory of political legitimacy requiring that ethnic boundaries within a given state- a contingency already formally excluded by the principle in its general formulation should not separate the power holders from the rest.
-Misuse: To equate it with patriotism, just as a nation is a group of people and not a state, nationalism is first and foremost about the nation, not the state.
