Tag Archives: slavery

Blog 4: Colonization of Sudan vs. American

The colonial history of Sudan began with the Turk-Egyptian rule. The ruling lasted from 1820 until about 1885. This began when Muhammad Ali arranged for two military expeditions, one to the south and the other into the western section of Sudan. The main motivation for invasion was an attempt to obtain black men for his army and to find gold. From the start, the government was already set up for failure. Those in charge were terrible in public communication whether it be delivering speech, or simply reaching out to potential followers. Wherever they went, no one showed interest in associating with them and ultimately just wanted the armies to leave. A rebellion against the government by religious leader Mohamed Ahmed El Mahdi took place in 1881, for both religious and political reasons. His triumph was successful, although he passed away shortly following his reign a year later.

After the Turk-Egyptian ruling, the British-Egyptian Rule took place when General Kitchener invaded Sudan from 1896 to 1898. The British are one of the original reasons for the current Southern and Northern Sudan separation, from when they began requiring a passport to travel between the two countries and setting a ban on the slave trade. From 1951-1953, the British and Egyptians finally evacuated Sudan. Unfortunately, in November of 1955, Sudan redeclared total independence from southern Sudan, initiating a Civil War between the north and south.

During the colonial time period of America, Europeans were arriving in America to become wealthier and spread their influences across the world. The Spanish arrived first among the Europeans. Colonies began to establish amongst the northeast, contracting approximately 2 million colonists by 1770. Towards the end of the colonial American era, most profit was arriving through food products, stores amongst the ships, rum, and slaves. A common misunderstanding is the origin of these slaves during the colonial period. A majority were coming from the Caribbean, not Africa.

(The post would not let me upload pictures so I will attach the websites I found the pictures off of that I would have liked to use, sorry!)

Colonial Sudan:
http://southernsudan.prm.ox.ac.uk/images/midsize/1998.204.11.20_O.jpg

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb176fDtbe1rqkjy0o2_1280.gif

Colonial America:

http://my-ecoach.com/online/resources/6767/colonists.jpg

 

 

Background and thoughts Algeria’s colonization by France and colonization in the US

french algeria

What do Algeria, the United States, Canada, Haiti, South Africa, Brazil and almost any country you can think of have in common? All of these nations were at one point places of colonial rule by foreign powers. More specifically, Algeria and the United States were both controlled at one time by European countries. And in fact, both were colonized by the French at certain points, though, the United States would later be unanimously controlled by Great Britain.

As in colonization of any area, the country of power who comes in and encroaches upon a land in some way. Imperialism is no coincidence, and is a vicious, unfair vehicle for the controlling nation to extract some kind of resource tactical or material out of occupying a land.

In the case of Algeria, the French sought out to establish a tactical foothold, as well as a colony for entrepreneurs to exploit. Here in America, when the French were here, they established fur trading posts in Detroit and established a major port in New Orleans. In New England there was much timber trade by the British. And in the South Tobacco was a big cash crop for Great Britain.

In Both America and Algeria, the economies were propped up by the use of slavery. Although the difference here, is that the French enslaved the Algerians, while the British transplanted people from East Africa and brought them to an unfamiliar land. Both are gross travesties. And, even after their abolitions, created major dividing lines, between whites and native, darker skinned people. The outsiders, as in all imperialist situations, were seen as the people in the right, in charge, to be looked up to. After all, they inflicted violence upon the natives if they didn’t.

In the first half of the 1800s there were many pirate attacks on European shifts along the Mediterranean. Much of North Africa offered safe havens for these pirates.

The land which now constitutes Algeria was a part of the Ottoman Empire in the 1830s. The United States were also controlled by other countries before the English established the thirteen colonies, such as, the French, the Spanish and the Dutch.

In France, Napoleon had been out of power for some time, the Bourbon Restoration was going on. It was a time of conservatism and in general, the nation needed to prove it was strong again.

France’s ruler of the time, Charles X, used a petty disagreement between a French consul and an Ottoman leader, as a springboard to invade Algeria. And so they did. In what was supposed to be a civilized overtaking, women were raped, goods were stolen, people were arrested for arbitrary reasons, and people were killed for no good reason.

The French installed many of their own rulers. Over their occupation, the French changed power multiple times. For a brief period, Algeria was actually considered part of the nation of France. They moved in many citizens, some who were entrepreneurs looking to buy land, and some who were peasants and sought to live cheaper and start anew in Algeria.

Much like America, beyond perhaps a few figurehead local leaders, Algerians had no representation, and were being mistreated by French authorities. AND much like in America, as when the British controlled and when the United States won its independence, genocide occurred. Many Berbers in Algeria were killed in order to deal with insurrection or unwillingness to move out of land, much like the United States killed off many Indians.

Abd al Qadir emerged as a fighter of the people, and sought to create an independent Algerian state. He fought a Guerilla war, much like we fought in some of the mountains and valleys of New England, and the Indians fought against our forces.

He established a government in the areas not yet occupied by the French.  It provided military resources, collected taxes and had a focus on education. But in 1836, after a defeat to French forces, they allowed him to have territory they referred to as the Moslem State. Yet, three years later, they attacked and overtook territory that was supposed to belong to al Qadir’s state.

Fighting ensued back and forth until 1843. At this time the French had one third of its whole army stationed in Algeria.

Algeria would not gain independence from France until 1962. The United States can at least say that we’ve had a few centuries of independence. This enabled us to figure out what works and doesn’t work, it allowed us to fight for human rights for different minority groups (something that is still going on), and it enabled us time and infrastructure to take advantage of multiple periods of progress, development and modernization.

While Algeria is now independent, they still are not as stable as the United States. For a country to have only been independent for less than a hundred years, they have not had ample time to work out domestic issues and develop all of its potential socially and economically. They are still beholden to some foreign influence, and are considered a developing nation. Perhaps, had the French not been so ruthless in their control of Algeria, or never invaded, who knows how different things could have been.

Though it is important to note that there was never a nationalist move to make Algeria a nation of its own until French control. While the French killed many people and acted in no part in the interests of the Algerian people, in a way, their colonization, helped the Algerians come together and helped solidify their cultural identity.

sources:

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/algeria.htm

http://www.cairn.info/zen.php?ID_ARTICLE=CEA_195_0805

http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/essays/algeria-colonization-and-independence

Colonization and Slavery

AFR110- Blog Post #4- History or Colonization

In the 1600s, Great Britain began in Jamestown, Virginia with their colonization of America.  The British colonization of the Americas caused disturbance through military force, cultural manipulation and the introduction of diseases. The indigenous civilizations, even with their fast and furious warrior class, was no match for the colonial-style warfare of the British. However, trade remained an important part of the relationship between the natives and the British. The Americas remained colonized by the British until the American Revolutionary War, which ended in 1783.

Similarly to the Americas, the Europeans interest in Africa began in the late 18th century. Christian missionaries helped to spread Christianity and formal colonial conquest. Great Britain abolished the slave trade, but the transition from slave trade to commerce trade was not smooth for Africans. The Europeans thrived and their influence increased. By the 1900s, only Liberia and Ethiopia were not colonized. France and Britain colonized most of Africa. But Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, and Italy also participated in the colonization.

In the 19th century, the Europeans developed a great interest in Cameroon. The coastal region of feared that the more interior regions would start direct trading with the Europeans, which would weaken the coast’s power intermediary status. The chiefs of the coastal regions wanted to strike a deal with the British. But Britain’s delay to send a representative to compromise with Cameroon forced the chiefs to turn to Germany instead. Despite the diversity of the ethnic groups with distinct cultures, histories, and governments, and traditions, Germany colonized present-day Cameroon as Kamerun. Germany’s intent was to build the colony’s infrastructure and combine its rule by expanding into the interior and taking control of tribal strongholds. Germany’s plan was falling into place, until their defeat in World War 1 stopped any plans Germany may have had for the colony. Germany had to surrender its oversea colonies. France assumed control of 80% of the colony, while Britain gained the remainder. French and British rule of Cameroon lasted until after World War 2.

By definition is a system under which people are treated as property. Slaves can be bought, sold, and traded. Slaves can be held from the time of their capture, purchase or birth.  Slaves are deprived of the right to leave, option to work, and/or deprived compensation. Slavery is wrong, no matter who is being enslaved. Nobody deserves to be taken as collateral. The treatment of enslaved people was horrendous. No person has the authority to dictate another person’s action. Africans were enslaved and used throughout centuries. Africans should have never relied on slavery as a form of commerce. A person has never, and will never have equal value to any tangible goods. Colonization is like enslaving an entire area. Colonization settles a group and establishes political control over it. Europeans, and others who colonized, believed that they were more powerful therefore gaining the right to take possession of any area. Forcing the native civilizations of an area to merge takes away from the culture and uniqueness of the region. Individuals lose their identity from being colonized. Using violence, guns, and other weapons as a way to intimidate civilizations to comply with rules of colonization is unfair. Everybody has a decision on how to live their life, having that decision stripped from you due to colonization is not right. Even when nations thought they were helping, they left regions in a poor state; often in poverty, famine, and war. The Scramble for Africa should have never taken place. Whether the colonizing country was peaceful or violent, no country should be granted the right to seize and restrict a region. Europeans crippled the rich native African civilizations for their own political and economic gain. No matter the reason, no intelligence, knowledge, or technology permits one country to be able to overtake another.