Western Expansion and Colonialism

An Introduction, plus some really cool videos.

Jul 15, 2024

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It’s impossible to understand the history of the last two hundred years plus of Asian history without having some idea of what Western Expansion and Colonialism were and their impact on the region. This is also true for understanding African history. Western Expansion and Colonialism and the response to it just transformed so much. Unfortunately, as Western Expansion and Colonialism are things that few Americans, in my opinion, really understand, it seems well worth writing about the subject. It should provide context for multiple future pieces that deal with Asian history.

What were Western Expansion and Colonialism?

Western Expansion is an event, a process, a period of history that began around the 15th Century, when Western nations such as Spain, Portugual, Holland, and others began exploring the globe, finding lands that were new to them, and making their presence known, and engaging in actions that helped the Western individuals involved, the companies that sponsored or employed them, and their home nations. It’s a little difficult to say when it ended, or even if it has, but it continued for several centuries in different ways.

Colonialism, as I am defining it here, is when a more technologically developed nation gains control of a less developed place, region, or nation, installs itself as the ruling government, and begins making major changes. These changes are normally for the perceived benefit of the ruling nation, and often include sweeping changes to the society and people who live there, often completely altering their entire culture and way of life.

In some cases, the colonial power ultimately basically removes or exterminates entirely the pre-existing people entirely, replacing them with people from the colonial nation. The United States, Canada, and Australia are such places.

In other cases, the colonial nation does not exterminate the native peoples but instead finds ways to create a social structure where the local people often are subservient to the people who came from the colonizing nations and their descendants. Most of Latin America was this kind of colony. The indigenous people are still there, but their descendants are often no longer speaking indigenous languages but instead Spanish or Portuguese (usually) and are (usually) practicing a Western religion imported by the colonial power, in this case usually but not always Roman Catholicism. The African and Asian colonized nations would generally fall in this category too.

Where did Western Expansion and Colonialism take place?

Quick answer. Pretty much everywhere. Colonialism was a huge thing, and undoubtedly one of the most important events in the history of the planet.

The animated map below gives a pretty good idea of how big this whole thing was.

The Scope of Western Expansion and Colonialism

The planet has seven continents. Six of these are considered inhabited, with Antarctica being the exception. Antarctica is the kind of place where for centuries if anyone went there and tried to do anything at all, the climate and conditions were so hostile that it was considered heroic. It had no native peoples, just penguins and such. Without indigenous people or any nice places to live independently and grow food, Antarctica was never considered suitable for colonization. So much for Antarctica.

Europe, for reasons that I will explain later, was basically the continent where most of the colonizers came from. Just remember this is where all the famous early explorers of the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th Century came from. (Someone is going to ask me about Zheng He ( Cheng Ho),1 the Ming Dynasty commander of the great fleet that went to Africa. Fascinating history, but I don’t really seem him as so much of an explorer as a diplomat seeking tribure, if that makes sense. Hopefully, I can write more about it later.) These European exploratory expeditions, unlike Zheng He’s were eventually followed by attempts to put the knowledge of these new found discoveries to use. While some nationalities or ethnic groups might disagree (for instance perhaps the Irish), Europe is generally seen as the place where Colonial powers came from, not as a continent that was colonized.

This leaves five other continents. In no particular order, North America was colonized by a wide variety of European nations soon after its discovery, but in the end, everything north of Mexico and the Rio Grande became a homeland to English speaking people with pockets of French speaking people the largest in Quebec, obviously Spanish speaking people most but not all of whom came relatively recently, with the original indigenous cultures and languages often destroyed or in other cases marginalized. South of the Mexican border, Spanish was the most prevalent language, and even in the cases where I have skimmed over things blithely, knowingly ignoring some complex linguistic situations (i.e. the Caribbean, English speaking Belize, and others), few would argue that any of the languages of pre-Colombian North America are now terribly important in economic terms in North America, although they could easily be considered as important cultural and linguistic treasures.

So, North America was colonized, its original languages largely replaced and its original ethnic groups either rendered extinct or culturally transformed, often made into obscure and exoticized minorities in their own homelands.

South America, basically the same thing, except the languages that became dominant were Spanish and Portuguese. (And, yes, Quechua and Guaranyi are still important.) So yes, South America was definitely colonized too. The fact that the indigenous people survive in much greater numbers than in the USA or Canada, and that the existing governments of Latin America are often modelled on governments intended to maintain the subjugation and exploitation of their nation’s inhabitants explains much, although some nations like Argentina and Brazil have become home to many immigrants seeking to settle as well.

Australia (and New Zealand). Were these colonized? Hint, they are English speaking nations full of immigrants. So, yes, definitely. (If you want to see an entertaining film based, I assume loosely, on a real interaction between Indigenous Australians and Asian Cultures and society, check out the link below for info on the 2013 film, The Sapphires.]

But what about the last two continents, Africa and Asia?

This is where things get interesting, at least in my opinion. Despite the fact that African languages and cultures have survived much better than most indigenous American or Australian cultures or languages, the African continent was heavily, heavily colonized. Much more so than most Americans realize.

While its somewhat definitional, most historians say that there were only two nations in all of Africa that were never colonized by Europeans.

The first of these is Ethiopia. While the Italians did try to colonize Ethiopia and sent an army to invade that nation and conquer it, in 1894, the Italian army was destroyed by an army of Ethiopians at a battle called Adowa (sometimes spelled “Adwa.”). Interestingly this is one of the few, some say the only, time in history when a European army was destroyed by a native power, and the European nation did not return to avenge the defeat and later claim victory. (Although Musolini did try, for exactly that reason, a few decades later.)

The second independent nation on the map above is Liberia, yet here the history gets even more interesting and things a bit murky. From at least the middle of the 18^th Century, some White intellectuals, moral reformers, and others in North America began discussing ending slavery. One part of the discussion was to ask what the best thing was to do with the enslaved people of African ancestry. It was considered frightening and undesirable to take a subjected, racially, and often culturally distinct people and let them roam freely after such serious mistreatment. If nothing else, they might be angry about their mistreatment and seeking revenge.

One possible solution some advocated was to free the enslaved people and then send them “back” to Africa, a place where many of them had never been. (As an aside, after the American Revolution, the British ultimately encouraged many of the freed slaves who had assisted their defeated forces -usually as laborers— to resetttle in Sierra Leone.) For the Americans, Liberia was one suggested place that formerly enslaved people of African descent could or should live. Ultimately, Liberia became home to not just native Black Africans but also many newly arrived Black Americans of African descent who set up institutions that often benefited them at the expense of the local people, and sometimes did so with the assistance of the United States government. So, in a way, Liberia was a colonized nation, although it was colonized by racially similar people from the USA. Its capital, Monrovia, is named after the United States President James Monroe, and its flag, shown below, has an obvious similiarity to the American flag.

The Liberian National Flag

It should be mentioned though that when the Dutch began settling in what later became South Africa in the 17th Century, around the same time that they also settled in what later became New York and established a short lived settlement in Taiwan, of all places, their attempt in both places was to build a homeland for the new settlers and do so without incorporating the native peoples but instead keeping them largely outside of the new colonies.

In the late nineteenth century, the Germans, a recently unified nation seeking colonies and homelands for excess populaiton, tried to do the same thing in Namibia, hoping to turn it into a nice homeland for German settlers, but for several reasons the attempt ultimately failed although there was much violence, including the Herero War, along the way. Some see the German treatment of the native peoples of this region, and their conscius plan to replace them with Germans, as a precursor to the later attempted genocides attempted by Germany in World War Two notably against the Jews and the Romani.

What about Asia and Colonialism and the Effects of Western Expansion in Asia?

Which brings us to Asia. What was the effect of Colonialism on Asia? As this is a topic I plan to return to again and again in the future, I will keep it brief. With just two exceptions, all of the nations or regions of Asia were colonialized by one colonial power or another.

The first, best known exception is Japan, which somehow recognized what was happening ahead of time, did a complete cultural and national recalibration and adjustment, consciously decided to adapt the best techniques and technologies that Western civilization had to offer, learned all it could about science, and ultimately became a colonial power itself, seizing Taiwan in 1894 and Korea in 1905 or 1910, depending on one’s exact defintion of seizure. Along the way, it actually fought a war with Russia in 1904-1905, and beat them, thereby inspiring many Asian people whose experience had previously led them to believe that White, Western nations could never be defeated in battle by Asian nations or peoples. Japan kept expanding its efforts to develop its empire, and continued doing so right into World War Two, a time after many, but not all, in Europe or the USA considered it unfashionable, unseemly, and unethical for powerful nations to seize control of less powerful ones, despite the fact that France and Great Britain spent a great deal of time and effort after the end of the war trying to keep as many of their colonies as they could. —which for the record, is not to excuse or dismiss the many Japanese atrocities of World War Two. However, it is important to remember that the Japanese were not the only nation trying to build and maintain a vast empire in Asia at the time with themselves at the helm. Just saying.

While not the greatest map, this does give some idea of how the nations surrounding China had fallen under the control of European powers or in the case of Taiwan and Korea, Japan, and in the case of the Philipines, the USA.

The second Asian power that was never colonialized was Thailand. Thailand managed to escape being colonized by managing to play the different colonial powersm particularly England and France, off of each other throughout the entire colonial era. They continued this so long, that at some points during World War Two, no one was quite sure which side of the war the Thais were on. (Early, they fought the Vichy French in Vietnam and so-called Indo-China. Later they fought the allies.)

Source and commentary: The High Colonial Age 1870-1914

China was not entirely colonized but it was unable to control its own borders or territory, its own destiny, and was faced with constant challenges and impositions posed by Japan and the West. Among other issues was that from 1854 to 1950 the British ran the Chinese Customs Service for them. Much more can be said about this and much more will in future publications.

A map of foreign territories and areas of foreign control in China circa 1914. It really should include Taiwan which was a Chinese territory from the mid-17th century until the Japanese seized it in 1894 following the First Sino-Japanese War and made it into a Japanese colony. (Which should not be taken as a sign that I am advocating that Taiwan should be considered or is currently a part of China. I think the people of Taiwan should have a right to make that decision on their own.) Note that the boundares of China, are the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 boundaries and not the current boundaries of the People’s Republic of China.

News Round Up — Scattered Reports

And, as always, the weekly random reports or offerings relating to Asia and Asian related subjects that have caught my attention or seem worth sharing. This week several have to do with Western Expansion or Colonialism, but not all.

Chinese Food and New World Crops

Chinese Cooking Demystified is one of my favorite YouTube Cooking videos and this one is on the subject of how New World Crops, crops from the Americas including pepper and corn, influenced Chinese food. It’s very informatitve and well done. Please check it out.

The Sapphires film trailer ( 2013)

One element of Colonialism was that once a nation acquired a few colonies, they could often send people or supplies from one of their colonies to another to do what they wished to have done. For instance, a surprising number of the “British” troops that fought in China over the years were actually Indians from India, while the “French” police in Shanghai were often Vietnamese.

And we did discuss how the English and English speaking Australians displaced and marginalized the indigenous people.

And I am not even going to comment on the Vietnam War here (like so much, some day, some day), except to say that in 2013, a delightful little movie was released called “The Sapphires.” Based on a true story, it tells of how in 1968, a somewhat sleazy Irishman recruited a quartet of Indigenous Australian women who had been singing in a church choir and arranged for them to go to Vietnam and sing soul, rhythm, and blues songs to entertain the often African American troops. It’s a fun, little movie, and while I have no idea how accurate all the details are it was written by one of the singer’s sons based on what his mother told him about her experiences, so it should at least have the right feel. If you watch it, I suggest you take the time to check out the extras where we learn such things as during the 1960s, African American soldiers on R & R in Australia, and there were many, were not supposed to associate with White women of Australia and it was not safe for them to do so, therefore there were a lot of interactions between the African American troops and Indigenous Australian women. In fact, the son who wrote a play and later the movie, is half Black.

And what about Indigenous, non-White Russians in the far eastern reaches of that nation ?

Speaking of Western Expansion and such . . .

Just FYI, Russia expanded eastward centuries ago and as it did it absorbed several non-Russian indigenous Asian peoples. These indigenous Asian residents of Russia formed a band. Well some of them did. Oh, probably several bands, but this one I stumbled across on YouTube one day. I have no idea how authentic this music is, and hope to explore and dig deeper some day, but in the meantime isn’t it really, really cool? Enjoy please. Let me know what you learn if you dig deeper before I do.

Finally, the evil Alice Guo, now identified as Guo Hua-Ping

If you have been following this publication at all, and reading or even scanning to the end, you should know that I am finding this the weirdest, scariest story I have heard in years.

Brief summary, in a town called Bamban in the Phillipines, the authorities raided a phone center, referred locally as a “POGO” or "Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator" and liberated several hundred people who had been imprisoned and enslaved by a Chinese crime syndicate and forced to make phone calls and internet communications to scam unsuspecting people out of their savings. Roughly 300 of these people were Filipinos, roughly 200 were Chinese citizens, and the other 100 were various other nationalities. Please check previous columns and their links for details or simply google the whole crazy affair.

Investigators wondered what the local mayor knew, began looking into her background, and basically discovered that she did not have a real background like ordinary people do. There were no school records, no know family or neighbors, and when asked she often was unable to provide convining stories about her own background and life. It recently, in the last week or two, has emerged that she is part of the crime syndicate and came to the Philipines at age 13 from China