Colonialism

Colonialism as a Social Issue

The seminal modern critical work in colonialism, published by Jean Paul Sartre in 1964, framed discursive parameters of colonialism, neocolonialism, postcolonialism, and postmodernism, generating a robust exploration of European colonialism, influencing Jean-François Lyotard, Frantz Fanon, Pierre Bourdieu, and Jacques Derrida. In his advocacy of violence as an instrument of political goals of freedom, Sartre's work was a touchstone not only for the dissolution of the French colonial empire but also for colonialism itself as a legitimate social concept. Theorists such as Homi [Page 348]Bhabha, Mikhael Bakhtin, Anne McClintock, Edward Said, Ella Shohat, Gayatri Spivak, Sara Suleri, and others have examined the colonial and postcolonial experience from diverse critical perspectives, giving rise to an interdisciplinary field of colonial/postcolonial scholarship that casts new light on history as well as on the legacy of colonialism embedded in the contemporary global political economy of nation-states and multinational corporations perpetuating structural disparities of wealth, freedom, and power among the world's human communities. The legitimate exercise of power by wealthy, Western nations remains a moral challenge as long as the residual effects of colonialism are experienced by smaller, poorer nations whose interests are not as effectively positioned on the world stage.

Ancient Origins of Colonialism

The antecedents of European colonialism are evident in the classical cultures of the ancient Mediterranean. The linguistic roots of colonialism reflect centuries of practice among early peoples who established settlements, trading networks, and colonies along the Mediterranean coastal areas. The English term colony, drawn from the Latin colonia, refers to a town or settlement, landed estate, farm, or dwelling. The German city of Cologne bears permanent witness to its origins as a Roman colony established during Julius Caesar's campaign against the Gauls. The semantic field of colonia (colony), colona (country woman), and colonus (farmer) suggests a connection to the land and agriculture. The Romans built their empire by establishing colonies, following the earlier practice of Phoenicians and Greeks, who established colonies throughout the Mediterranean, Aegean, and Black Sea before the end of the second millennium BCE. Rome traces its own mythic history to descendants of the defeated Trojans, and much of the Italian peninsula was settled by Greek colonists in the early first millennium BCE. The Greek term for colony, απoικια, linked to the Greek word for household, oικoς, suggests a strong original connection to the household and the family. Major ancient cities such as Tunis, Carthage, Syracuse, and Marseille were established as colonies. Greek colonies were typically established as independent city-states, although some of them, such as Syracuse, maintained active economic, cultural, and social ties with their parent cities.

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