Colonialism Definition: political, social, economic, and cultural domination of a territory and its peoples by a foreign power Context (1500s-1900s): seeking sources of precious goods empire-building, expansion of capitalism, Industrial Revolution Goals of colonizers appropriation of land, labor, natural resources …plantation economies control of trade, taxation, state monopolies expansion of markets – new infrastructure mission civilisatrice – “civilizing mission”

Nations & States Nations – group identity tied to territory States - defined territory (borders) – often from colonial era Monopoly on legitimate use of force (armed forces) Central government Authoritarian? Democratic? Administrative structures and units (states, republics, provinces) Management of resources projects of “development” issues of environment and “conservation”

THE NATION-STATE This is obviously a hybrid word, linking the idea of the “nation” with the idea of “state”. While the former refers to what might loosely be termed “people”, that is, to a cultural entity often defined in terms of ethnicity, the latter refers to a set of institutions through which public authority is exercised within a particular territory….’ (Robert Holton 1998)

COMMUNICATIONS  STATE State: exercise of authority on a territory (sovereignity) Nation: cultural identity Examples ? Communications are essential for running a state Benedict Anderson: communications create the state ‘Imagined communities’: ‘[the state] is an imagined political community... It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in their minds of each lives the image of their communion’ (Anderson 1983)

Nations & States, cont. Production of conflict Problems: Mixing, splitting of ethnic groups (e.g. Kurds) Colonial era policies favoring one group How to manage ethnic diversity Granting local autonomy Policies of assimilation and control Production of conflict

Indigenous Peoples and the State Definition descendants of earliest settlers live in, but do not control gov’t of the state Marginalization, stigmatization State policies and conflict intervention, control, takeover, resettlement, cultural modification

Indigenous Peoples, cont. Genocide/Ethnocide/Ecocide New diseases, killings Disruption of subsistence economies and trade relations Extraction of resources, damaging ecosystem Loss of political autonomy Direct rule/indirect rule – new power structures and categories “Superiority” of Europeans – mental colonialism

Indigenous Peoples, cont. Cultural modification Language, schooling in dominant language Religious conversion Laws affecting gender & family Laws affecting customs ISSUE: clash between small-scale cultures and commercial cultures mobility extensive land use, questions of “productivity” communal property rights worldview Ethnocentrism: what is progress?