The two topics, "Varieties of Imperialism and Colonialism in the Indian Ocean, 19th and 20th centuries" and "Asian and African Nationalisms and their Legacies," overlap and form a continuum. Lynn Lees analyzes the factors of societal changes in the 19th and 20th century by considering the movement toward modernity introduced by European contact. She focuses on the creation of ports and cities, their demographic growth, the relationship between the ports and the hinterland cities, the introduction of the steam ships, the construction of railways and roads and the scramble for East Asia.

Colonialism was indeed a global phenomenon in some aspects but had some specific local consequences. The question of sanitation in towns and cities was an important socio-economic issue in India and its environs just as it was in Britain. Another comparative development with the oncoming of colonialism was the rapid growth of population in many cities during the 19th century as people moved to the new industrial centers such as Calcutta which became a center for jute manufacture. But the rapid growth in population density created land scarcity leading to labor migration to new areas to create new plantations for some trade commodities such as palm oil and rubber. This happened in Java under the Dutch. Migration was male dominated over 70% of the migrants were male until the 1920s. And this had an adverse effect on population growth in some communities.

Lee Cassanelli widens the perspective of colonialism to include industrialization of Egypt under Muhammad Ali, the construction of the Suez Canal, the establishment of the Omani Sultanate in Zanzibar, the unsuccessful attempts by some Africans such as Jaja of Opobo in Nigeria to break the European commercial monopoly and the introduction of new currencies by the colonial governments; this last factor tended to integrate the domestic economy into the world economic system. Colonialism introduced the concept of a state according to European ideas and it created a new situation in which the several communities in the new state competed with one another for the control of power over the economy and the government infrastructures and institutions. This often led to conflicts between ethnicity and nationalism. Patriotism for one's ethnic group often went against that of the new state. National identity could be defined by religion, language and culture. It is necessary to distinguish between anti-colonialism and independence movement.

BA

Reading List:

Broeze, Frank. Brides of the Sea (Hawaii, 1992)

Dalrymple, William. City of Djinns

Home, Robert. Of Planting and Planning: The Making of British Colonial Cities

Stoler, Ann. Capitalism and Confrontation in Sumatra's Plantation Belt, 1870-1979 (Ann Arbor, 1997)

Tinker, Hugh. A New System of Slavery Turnbull, C. M. A History of Singapore, 1819-1988 (2nd ed., Oxford, 1989)

Yeoh, Brenda. Contesting Space: Power Relations and the Urban Built Environment in Colonial Singapore (Oxford, 1996)

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Lynn Hollen Lees

Professor of History

University of Pennsylvania

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