The decline of colonialism

The era of industrial revolution: the shrinking of colonies

After the arrival of the industrial revolution era, the traditional colonial trade of sugar, tobacco and slaves is no longer of great significance. The demand for industrial raw materials such as cotton, wool, fuel, iron, copper, tin and coal in industrial countries has replaced the demand for consumer goods. At the same time, these countries urgently need to open up markets outside their own countries to digest their manufactured goods. Because the European market is saturated, we can only seek development space from America and Asia (before African colonization).

1776 After the independence of the thirteen states in North America, the British colonial cause suffered a great blow, so the focus of colonial management shifted from North America to India, which has more abundant resources and a bigger market. In addition, Britain also occupied Australia, New Zealand, Myanmar, Cape Colony, Hong Kong and other places.

Due to the influence of the concept of natural human rights advocated by the French Revolution and religious, humanitarian and economic reasons, Britain declared the slave trade illegal in 1807, and then the Netherlands, France, Sweden, Denmark and other countries also announced the prohibition of the slave trade. This measure made the strongholds of countries in the coastal areas of Africa shrink rapidly, and both Denmark and the Netherlands sold their commercial stations in the coastal areas of West Africa in the middle of the19th century. At the same time, due to the influence of the Napoleonic Wars, Spanish and Portuguese colonies in America declared their independence one after another, the demand for slaves dropped sharply, and the colonial power of these two countries in Africa also declined rapidly.

In North Africa, the French took advantage of Turkey's decline, and by eliminating pirates in North Africa, they infiltrated into Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisia and other Turkish dependent countries. Algeria, where pirates are most active, has been hit hardest. 18 15, the U.S navy defeated the Algerian navy. 18 19, the British-Dutch joint fleet shelled Algiers, and France also had many conflicts with Algeria.

During the period from 1825 to 1875, except for Britain and France, the activities of European countries to conquer new colonies basically stopped, and instead, they moved to overseas colonies. As far as the British situation is concerned, a sentence by British Prime Minister disraeli in 185 1 can be said to be the best summary of Britain's attitude towards colonies in this period: "Colonies are heavy millstones hanging around our necks". Take Gambia and Gold Coast as two small British colonies, for example, the business tax revenue is far behind the administrative expenses. On several occasions, the British Parliament suggested reducing the size of the colonies or giving them up completely. It was only because the Royal Navy West Africa Sub-fleet needed to set up a naval base in the Gulf of Guinea to ban the slave trade that Britain finally retained these two areas.

However, in order to resettle the freed slaves in the Caribbean islands, Britain established the Sierra Leone colony in the form of authorized companies during the colonial contraction, the American Colonial Association opened the Liberian colony at the same time, and France opened the Libreville (now Gabon) colony, all of which were used to resettle the freed slaves.

/kloc-from the end of 0/9 to the beginning of the 20th century: the climax of colonial occupation.

1870 After the Franco-Prussian War ended and Germany was unified, the German geographer Frederick Laczer began to study the expanding market of German industrial products at that time and began to defend Bismarck's imperialist policy with geography. He believes that with the development of the world, space will become more and more important for a country, big countries will gradually expand, and small parliaments will become insignificant. World history needs more and more space. This fact can be clearly seen from the evolution of important commercial countries: Venice is a city; Holland is a delta country; Britain is an island country; America is a continent. Great powers must conform to this absolute and inevitable trend and strive to expand their space through colonization, merger and conquest. Sir Half Makinder, a British imperialist theorist, also put forward a similar theory, pointing out that a country must achieve self-sufficiency if it wants to survive. Controlling the origin of raw materials and making it an export market for products has become a strategic demand of national interests. In the first 75 years of the19th century, western countries occupied an average of 2 1000 square kilometers of colonies every year, and in the last 25 years, they occupied an average of 620,000 square kilometers of colonies every year.

From the end of15th century to the middle of19th century, colonial countries only occupied 3180,000 square kilometers of land in Africa, and in the last quarter of19th century, Europe became more interested in Africa, occupying 25.69 million square kilometers of land in Africa. Due to the rapid industrialization and population increase in Europe, the demand for vegetable oil, plant fiber, rubber and some mineral resources has increased, and these products can be exchanged for cheap industrial products in Africa. The demand for new raw materials has led to fierce competition for African raw material producing areas.

The colonization of African continent by colonial countries began in the late19th century, with the gradual method initiated by France in Senegal as the starting point, that is, taking farms growing peanuts or oil palm as the forward base, using drugs to treat tropical diseases, using local aborigines to form hired troops and advancing to the hinterland along major rivers. This method is far more effective than the British coastal infiltration method, so it is imitated by other colonial countries. In the1870s, a large number of minerals, such as diamonds and gold, were discovered in South Africa, which stimulated other colonial countries to develop similar minerals in other parts of Africa. The land for competition is no longer limited to areas suitable for planting crops, but wasteland, swamp, desert and no man's land have all become the objects for competition. 1884- 1885 The Berlin Conference established the principle that "only actual occupation can prove the sovereignty of a colony". Britain, France, Portugal and other countries that have occupied the coastal areas of Africa quickly signed agreements and treaties with local chiefs to expand their influence inland. Germany, Belgium and Italy, emerging industrial powers, have also joined the fight for Africa.

From 1885 to 1900, European countries completed the division of Africa. Apart from Ethiopia and Liberia, two politically independent countries, traditional African kingdoms such as Ashanti, Dahomey, sokoto and Buganda, as well as countries such as Transvaal and Orange Free State established by European Africans, have all become colonies or protectorates of western countries. Egypt is nominally an independent country, but it is completely controlled by Britain.

In Asia, the Russian Empire accelerated its colonization and conquest of Transcaucasia, Central Asia, Siberia and the Far East in the 1960s, successively occupying Daruzi, Middle Luzi, Little Luzi, Shiva Khan, Bukhara Khan and Hao Han Khan, and infiltrated into Xinjiang, Outer Mongolia and Manchuria in China. By 1876, Russia had occupied170,000 square kilometers of land. France conquered Annan, Laos and Cambodia, Britain occupied Malay Peninsula and North Borneo, and controlled the Persian Gulf and the southern Arabian Peninsula. In Oceania, emerging Germany bought colonies such as Caroline Islands and Mariana Islands from Spain. In addition to directly conquering colonies, colonial countries also turned some economically backward countries into semi-colonies, such as China, Korea, Siam, Persia, Afghanistan and Ottoman Empire. And seized the customs, transportation, trade, road construction, mining, factory building, bank opening, military training and other rights and interests of these countries.

The Re-division of Colonies and Two World Wars

19 14 world colonies by the beginning of the 20th century, colonial countries and colonies had occupied 85% of the world's land area. The colonial distribution of countries is uneven. In addition to Britain and France, which are still powerful, Spain and Portugal, which have already declined, still control large colonies, while emerging countries such as the United States, Germany, Japan and Italy only occupy some "leftover land" with small area and poor resources. With the intensification of the means of fighting for colonies, major colonial countries were involved in a series of diplomatic and military conflicts from the end of 19 to the beginning of the 20th century, such as the first moroccan crises between Britain, France and Germany, the second Fashoda crisis between moroccan crises and Britain, the two Boer wars, the Spanish-American war, the Russo-Japanese war and the Italian-Turkish war.

From 1900 to 19 14, on the eve of the outbreak of World War I, various colonial countries formed extremely complicated conflicts of interest in order to compete for new colonies or protect existing colonies: Germany challenged Britain's world hegemony; Japan challenges Russia's hegemony in Asia; Russia challenges Britain's hegemony in Asia; Britain used France to contain Germany; Britain used Japan to contain Russia; France used Russia to contain Germany; Germany was surrounded by Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire in Russia ... In order to consolidate the existing colonies, two groups, the British-French Allied Forces and the German-Austrian-Italian Allied Forces, were formed successively.

World War I ended with the defeat of the Allies (Italy defected). As a punishment, Germany was deprived of all its overseas colonies, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, its territory was divided up by neighboring countries or formed into a new country, and the Ottoman Empire lost all its Arab territories.

With the modernization of economy, the adjustment of market, the development of urbanization, the progress of social culture and the upsurge of national liberation and anti-colonialism movement, the old colonial system has been greatly weakened by1920s, and colonial countries have realized that they cannot acquire new colonies by war. The colonies deprived by the defeated countries became the mandated areas of the League of Nations, and were managed by the victorious countries. Although it is still a colony in essence, the mandate clause of the League of Nations stipulates that the trusteeship must promote the welfare of the residents in the mandate area and establish an independent country in due course.

In the 1930' s, a new trend of thought of colonialism emerged-the fascist colonial view originated from geopolitical theory and the concept of "living space". After the Russo-Japanese War, Japan also began to put forward the slogan that Asian countries should resist the aggression of the white world under Japan's "leadership", and in the 1930 s, it evolved into the theory of "Greater East Asia * * * glory circle". Italy, Spain and other fascist countries also put forward the slogans of "fascist imperialism" and "Spain's Spain". In his book Mein Kampf, Hitler did not advocate that Germany should expand overseas, thinking that overseas expansion was not as good as European expansion, but he later approved the colonial requirements in the Nazi Party's "25-Point Program" and encouraged the activities of the German colonial movement after 1933.

193 1 year, the Japanese launched the September 18th Incident, occupied the northeast of China, and announced that the world division had begun again, followed by 1935 when Italy invaded Ethiopia. The cause of the Second World War is very complicated and cannot be simply attributed to the development of traditional forms of colonialism, but the theory of "living space" as a variant of colonialism and the struggle for "living space" are obviously one of the main reasons for its outbreak.

The independence movement of the colonies after World War II.

1939 World Colonies Due to the influence of World War II, the remaining major colonial countries after World War I, such as Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy, were weakened in the war. During the war, the national industries of India, East Africa, Nigeria, Belgian Congo and other unoccupied allied colonies developed to a certain extent, and the division of labor system within the colonial empire was broken. At the same time, because Japan and Germany weakened their allies by fostering colonial nationalist movements, the national liberation movement of the allied colonies also developed under the egg wing of the Axis countries in the war.

After World War II, colonial liberation movements broke out in Dutch East India, British Burma, French India and zhina, which were occupied by Japanese troops. Nationalists in these areas cooperated with Japanese occupation forces in the war to establish nominally "independent" puppet countries. On the eve of surrender, Japan handed over power and weapons to local nationalists, causing chaos to its allies. 1945 August 17, Indonesia was the first to declare independence, and Vietnam declared independence on September 2. The wave of colonial independence movement immediately spread to Myanmar, India, Malaya, the Philippines and other Asian countries and regions. 1953 After Cambodia became independent, the colonies of France, the Netherlands and the United States in Asia became independent countries.

For example, Britain was once a colonial empire. After World War II, it passed the "Westminster Act" and granted the dominion the right of independence. Some countries, such as Canada, declared independence, but these countries still belong to the Commonwealth. For example, in Australia's constitution, the King of England is the head of state.

After the 1960s and 1950s, especially after the 1955 Bandung Conference, with the encouragement of independent colonial and semi-colonial countries, this movement developed to Africa. 1956 After the Second Middle East War, Britain announced the policy of "retreating from the east of Suez". From 1957 to 1963, Britain successively withdrew from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Malaya, North Borneo, Straits Colonies (Singapore, Malacca, Penang), South Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait and Penang.

The wave of post-war African countries' independence began with the independence of Britain, Egypt and Sudan in 1956 and Ghana in 1957. /kloc-since 0/960, the African colonial independence movement has reached its climax. 1960, 17 countries in Africa declared their independence, which was called the "Year of African Independence". Among them, 13 countries were former French colonies, 3 countries were former British colonies (including Italy and Somalia), and 65438+. By the end of 1960, most colonies belonging to Britain and France had declared independence, and only Portugal still kept a large number of colonies in Africa. After years of war, these colonies also became independent in the middle and late 1970s. ..

[Edit this paragraph] The historical role of colonies

Because American colonies became independent earlier, the historical role of colonies was mainly reflected in Africa and Asia.

1853, Marx put forward in his article Future Results of British Rule in India that colonialism and colonialism have a "dual mission", that is, a destructive mission and a constructive mission, both of which have positive and negative aspects.

The "destructive mission" of the colony is mainly manifested in the destruction of the traditional social and economic structure of the colony. However, due to the different political and economic conditions of the suzerain country, the historical situation, colonial objects, natural ecological conditions and social groups of each colony are different, and the impact on the colonies is very different in quality. As a result of colonization, the disintegration and destruction of the traditional economic structure of American western colonies and British Indian colonies were enormous. However, in tropical Africa, most of the colonial areas have maintained their original agricultural and social structures, except for cash crops (8% in French West Africa and 5% in sub-Saharan Africa).

The "constructive mission" of the colony, that is, its positive significance, is usually manifested in the following aspects: the suzerain provided modern infrastructure such as ports and roads by exporting capital and technology to the colony, and the commodity economy of the colony also developed, the pace of urbanization accelerated, and railways, highways, telecommunications, telephones, hospitals and schools appeared, which made the originally backward colonial areas enter the market economy field. A typical example is Hong Kong.

There has always been controversy in academic circles about the evaluation of the historical role of colonies. Left-wing historians and historians of socialist countries generally believe that the colonies in Africa, America and Asia only played a negative and destructive role in local civilization, culture, economy and politics. There are also views that the historical role of colonies in different periods is different. Take Africa as an example. During the early slave trade, colonies played a devastating role in African culture. In the period of free capitalism, banning the slave trade in Africa was more successful than it; During the period of imperialism, the plundering of African resources became more and more fierce, and the contribution was greater than that; From the eve of World War I to the end of World War II, it was a period of colonial construction, which included both investment and development of colonies and suppression of colonial national movements. There are also views that the historical contribution of the colony is greater than the damage it caused to the local area.