POLB90
Lecture 7
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Pre-colonial Societies and the Impact of Colonization
• Post-colonial thinkers alert us that the expansion of Europe had profound impact on the attitudes
of the colonized Europeans.
• Modernization perspective operated from the premise that simple derivatives making transition.
o What happened? Why very developed cities were ‘behind’?
Trading Empires with ComplexAdministrative Structures
• Africa
• From 1083 AD, trade betweenAfrica and China
o Silver and gold through Mozambique
• African trade with India andArabia
• Trading Empires:
o In order to become a trading empire, you have to have a complex administrative
structure. Keep order of exports, organize merchants, and regulate trade.
Katanga (Zaire)
Mexico (Aztecs)
India [dynamic and textile industry]
China [had gun powder and printing press]
Societies with Significant TechnologicalAdvances
Example:
• The Meroes Empire
o 8 Century BC
Engaged in iron work
23 character alphabet
Meroitic Finery
Other Examples
th th
• Nok Empire (northern Nigthia, 4 thd 5 centuries
• Mali Empire, Africa, 12 and 13 centuries
o Theory that the Mali Empire was able to sell toAmerica.
o Found images of black people in CentralAmerica.
th
• Maya, CentralAmerica, 11 century
o Had calendar more advanced than theAmerican calendar.
o Had written language
• India (exporter of textiles)
• Sophisticated agricultural systems: India, China, Peru (Inca)
o Can’t move on until able to produce agricultural surplus
Features of Some Pre-Colonial Societies
• Complex administrative structures
o Maintenance required extensive administrative work
• Skill and competence counted
o It was where you were born and what social group you were born into.
o Particularly in pre-colonial societies, competence and skill were taken into account.
• Provision of basic needs POLB90
Lecture 7
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
o Some of them were very good at providing basic needs to people
o Stem from concept that disappeared with colonial rules – sharing obligation
o No concept of private property (can often interfere with distribution of basic needs and
living standards of lower part of the system)
o Cannot sell or throw lower cast off the land. Moral obligation to ensure the lower cast.
o Peru (Inca): land was given to family in accordance to their needs and their ability to
• Imperialism
o Political control and acquisition of resources of conquered societies
1400: European Expansion begins
• Rise of trade, decline of feudal Europe.
• Emergence of artisanal industries (particularly in textiles)
• Began to expand
o Food (soil began to deplete)
o Trade routes
o Bullion (gold, silver)
Expansion of Europe
• 1400-1500 – Portugal – North and NortheastAfrica
o 1480s Portugal took over Indian Motion Trade.
o Establish direct trading relations with India
o Cohesion required, civilization East ofAfrica began to decline
o Portugal increased taxes.
o Trade declines in region due to all the fighting and warfare.
o Involved in theAmericas (Brazil). Competed with Spain to controlAmerica
• 1500-1600 – Spain – theAmericas
o Facilitate by
diseases (Americans were not resistant to European diseases)
weapons (steel and horses)
• Motivations wealth, religious conversion
Consequences of the Conquest of theAmericas
• Destruction of pre-colonial civilizations
• Drastic drop in population
o Encounter of Spanish and Portuguese.
• Emergences of mixed-blood population (mestizo)
o Consequence of intermingling of Spanish conquest and indigenous population
o Majority of the country are mestizo.
• Complete economic re-organization
o Mass amount of gold and silver for the European market.
o Organize labour to extract all of this.
o Emergence of enormous land holdings POLB90
Lecture 7
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
o Concentration of wealth
Conquest assumed that the conquerors had the right to extract enormous amount
of wealth.
Ultimately not Spain, most were shipped to Spain created inflation, manufactured
goods pricing went up and couldn’t compete with British manufactures goods.
Profits flowed to Britain instead.
1650-1800: British Hegemony and the Slave Trade
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