Chapter 18 Colonial Encounters in Asia and Africa 1750-1950

The colonial rule in Asia and Africa would occur in the nineteenth century from 1750-1914. Colonial Rule was controlled by mainly Europeans which were the British, French, Germans, Italians, Belgians, Portuguese, Russians, or Americans.  This European imperialism would involve not only colonizers, but colonized people as well who all would get caught up in the flood of change. Once countries became under European rule during the nineteenth century it was not easy for many people and places to incorporate themselves into a European colony where life would no longer be the same. The people affected most during the European colonial empires were small-scale societies for there was a loss of life, homes, cattle, crops, and land which greatly calamitous. Men like Nguyen Khuyen who was a senior Vietnamese official, would leave everything behind to live back in his ancestral village where he would farm and write poetry after the French conquest. Within his poems there is expressed is anguish of how much the way of living had changed and no longer there was any enjoyment to life because of the European colonialism. Many people began to do the same as Nguyen Khuyen where they would withdraw into a private life and fake an illness so that they would not have to serve in a public office under the French. The oppression of the French rule caused many people to suffer from seeing their people no longer ruling themselves and being told what to do. It is sad how people began to lose all hope in themselves and felt like there was nothing they could do. The people forgot that if they stayed together unified they were stronger in speaking out for their own right to rule themselves then trying to individually make a difference. Due to european rule many individuals began to willingly cooperate with colonial authorities to their own advantage. By joining European-led armed forces men would find themselves employed, have status, and security. Colonial rulers had to rely on local intermediaries because there was a shortage and expense of European administrators. So this made it difficult to communicating across cultural boundaries. People who benefited from this situation were Indian princes, Muslim emirs, and African rulers, elite or governing families, who were able to keep their status and privileges at the same time gaining wealth by exercising the authority they held. European education was promoted by both colonial governments and private missionary organizations. Due to this occurring there would be a small Western-educated class, whose members would serve in the colonial state, European business, and Christian missions as teachers, clerks, translators, and lower-level administrators. The Western-educated class began to be more depended on by the Europeans as colonial governments and business enterprises became more sophisticated and the more traditional elites began to be left out. This shows that even though the colonial rule was not great for the people there were some benefits of the Western-educated class getting a proper education and being able to begin to gain some control by being depended on more by europeans.