CARIBBEAN COLONIAL

EXPERIENCES
CST 112
Lecture # 2 Remi Anderson
09/27/2011
Colonization; definition and reasons:

Definition:
 Colonization was by and large a process

of territorial acquisition and extension of

European power and influence over other
areas of the world.
 Across the Caribbean, the process of

colonization could be placed into two

broad categories:
 Colonies of exploitation
 Colonies of settlement
Colonization in the Caribbean can be described as one
form of Overseas settlement colonization
 ‘It takes the form of external recruitment of labor after

the expulsion/ decimation of indigenous populations by

force, and thereby compelled to import slaves to supply
labor to the plantation economy that came to
characterize the region (Osterhammel, 2005)
 Settlement colonization has seen three different types of

expressions: such as occurred the New England region

of the USA; Africa and Caribbean
 Colonization in the Caribbean is described as exploitative

because it never attained the same level of settle ment

type expression that occurred in Africa in places such as
Kenya, Rhodesia [Zimbabwe] or South Africa
Reasons:
The emergence of Nationalism in Europe led to exploration, in search of
new trade routes to the empires of the east, and colonization.
In turn the onset of European nationalism gained expression through:
 Territorial unification and consolidation of power under the central
authority of the Monarchy. For example the Tudors of England,
Bourbons of France, Hapsburg of Austria and Spain supported by a
rising merchant-middle class who sought to protect and preserve their
position.
 Territorial unification allowed for tax system that helped to provide
resources to fund exploration and colonization.
 Newly unified nation-states sought avenues to increase their power
and influence through expansion overseas (as the middle class sought
avenues for trade and investment)and competition for prestige.
 Hence the commercial revolution expressed through the search for
new routes to commercial trade in spices with the East / Asia which
led to exploration and eventually colonization.
 Additionally the reasons for exploration and eventually
colonization can be subdivided into the following three
categories:
 Glory: Individual and nationalistic motives ; tales of

earlier travels Marco Polo the East evoked curiosity and a

spirit of adventure
 God: Religious motives; spread of Christianity

 Gold: Economic motives; expanded trade in spices and

gold
African Slavery, reasons and impacts:

Reasons:
 Part of a broader scheme of European search for global

influence and power

 The agricultural economies of the colonies, based on the

plantation system initiated by the Spanish, required

extensive labor.
 The shift from tobacco to sugar cultivation required a larger

labor force.
 Indigenous labor was argued to be decimated under the

Spanish system of Encomienda creating the need for a new

labor force.
 African labor proved to be more economical compared to the

indigenous Indian or even white indentured servants.*

 Culture of slavery existed both in Western and African

societies.
Impacts: these can be subdivided into short term/ immediate
and long term.
 In the short term African slavery lead to:

 Increased productivity and profitability of the sugar plantation

 Changed the ethnic make-up and contribute to
multiculturalism/pluralism/ population composition and structure/
social and class stratification in the Caribbean.
 Security concerns associated with militarism of the slaves and ex-
slaves after emancipation and therefore the institutionalization of a
wide range of control mechanism with short and long term political,
social and economic effects specifically localized to the Africans.
 Lead to an emergence of African village movement and peasantry,
particularly in the larger territories where land was available.
 Introduction of new crops by the early African peasantry.
 Lead to the introduction of Indian, Portuguese and Chinese
indentured immigrants after the Abolition of slavery which
demanded new and reliable sources of labor.
 Over the longer term African slavery lead to:
 The political economy of the region being
characterized by the plantation system of agriculture.
 Mono crop based and structurally dependent
economies.
 Sugar still dominate the economies of some territories.
 Expansion of industrialization in the West due to the
economic exploitation of the colonies.*
 Argued to have contributed to a changed disease
ecology of the Caribbean region. *
General causes of Portuguese, Chinese
and Indian immigration:

 The causes of immigration schemes, after the abolition of

slavery, can be subdivided into 2 groups:

1. Internal/pullfactors to the Caribbean colonies

2. External/ push factors from Europe and Asia

 There is the argument for a third cause, and this transcends

the aforementioned, that immigration schemes are part of the
larger capitalist world economic system where capital
accumulation is supported by labor surplus drawn from less
productive / progressive to more productive / progressive
parts of the world. *
 Internal factors:
 Economic factors - struggle between the plantocracy and free labor.

Indentured immigration was necessitated by the abolition of the

slave trade and the forsaking of the plantation by the ex slaves. The
planters could not depend entirely on the newly freed labor force to
meet the needs of the plantations.
 Industrial action by the ex-slaves.

Successful strikes by the ex-slaves strengthened the commitment to

indentured immigration after 1842. The aim was to control labor by
dictating wages and conditions. Greater supply than demanded would
have driven down wage rates.
 Demographic factors – high mortality among the working creole

population and low fertility among both the creoles and immigrants.
Hence the need for immigrant replacement labor. Immigrants argued
to have survived longer than the creoles.* Shortage of female
immigrants together with conditions in the colonies militated against
fertility.
 External factors:
 Unsatisfactory conditions of slaves and immigrants in their

homelands.
 Other types of immigration schemes- for example Madeira-

provided examples for the scheme that became established

later in the West Indies / Caribbean.
 Accumulation of liberated Africans in Sierra Leone were

available to be sent to the West Indies as immigrants.

 Surplus of labor in the older British colonies such as Antigua

and Barbados.
 Belief that immigrant labor in the British colonies might

help to check / compete with the expansion of slave grown

sugar in Spanish Cuba and elsewhere that the sugar
revolution came to at a later date .
 Notions of “get rich quick” in West Indian colonies.
Causes specific to the
Portuguese:
 Political clashes between the
Constitutionalists and Miguelists; military
and civil unrests motivated Madeirans to
migrate.
 Wine industry in Madeira suffered during
1820s and 1830s; life became difficult,
some peasants opted to migrate.
 Notions of opportunities to gain wealth-
for example- tales of El-Dorado in British
Guiana.
Causes specific to the
Chinese:
 China had been forced to open its ports to
foreign traders as a result of the 1842 treaty
of Nanking which came after the opium wars.
 Perceived weakness of the Chinese
government and the poverty of the peasants
at the time suggested that the China might be
a possible supplier of labor.
 Chinese considered to be cheaper than
Spanish European immigrant labor, could be
contracted for longer periods and subjected to
plantation discipline much like the slaves were.
Causes specific to Indians:
 India was turned to after interrupted /failed immigration schemes
with the Chinese, Portuguese, Freed African and European.
 Annexation of India as a British colony; inclusion of India into the
capitalist world economy and the reorientation of the Indian
economy, in particular, agriculture which aided the displacement of
workers and associated with widespread poverty.
 Internal weakness of the Indian political system that made India
attractive to labor recruiters who in turn manipulated and lured /
trapped Indians into migrating both legally and illegally.
 Political unrest that created displaced and unemployed workers the
economy could not absorb and who were prime targets for
immigration.
 Would be immigrants had an arguably misinformed but nevertheless
romanticized and distorted perception of the Caribbean.
 Widespread poverty in the districts of Southern and Northeastern
India where most emigrants were drawn from.
General consequences of Chinese
Portuguese and East Indian
immigration:
 In the long term immigration lead to the same consequences, later
addressed under Impacts of Colonization.
 In the short term however immigration shaped culture and
helped to define the architecture of class stratification within
the Caribbean.
 Used as pawns in a system fraught with prejudice,

discrimination and mistrust among the immigrant communities,

each isolated and cut off from the main stream labor society
and subjected to divide and rule tactic of the dominant white
planter class; seeds of present day Pluralism / plural societies.*
 Contributed to the growth in peasant farming, huckstering, shop

keeping and other petty businesses.

 Replaced the African creoles in retail trade.

 Lead to the early development of social infrastructure such as

building of hospitals and the establishment of medical services.

 Introduced new skills such as leather works.
 Provided a solution, albeit temporary, to the labor

needs after the abolition of slavery.

 Introduced new crops/ promoted the rice industry.

 Caused a decline in wage rates.

 Immigration schemes eventually morphed into

settlement schemes to avoid repatriation after the

contracted period.
 Lead to skewed sex ratios due to planter demands for

more male dominated labor force and relatively lower

female immigration among all groups ,in particular,
the Chinese and East Indians.
Impacts of colonization:
 Socio cultural diversities
 Political fragmentation
 Economic underdevelopment
Socio-cultural diversity:
 There is rich cultural variety in Caribbean
societies.
 Multiculturalism
 Acculturation / creolization
Political Fragmentation:
Political fragmentation can be observed regionally and
nationally:
 No homogenous identity across the political landscape of region.

Some are independent states, others are dependencies and

associated states* yet others are democracies while others exhibit
various degrees of socialist orientation.
 With the weakening of imperial control the colonies tended to

consolidate power independently; failed attempts at British west

indies federation and later attempts at integration favored deeper
more narrowly focused than the wider more inclusive groupings.
Where the narrow political corporation exists, the former British
colonies tend to be the main players. Political and economic rivalries
play out within the confines of these regional groupings.*
 Colonialism created mutations of the modern state. In the British

West Indies many of the states possess political systems modeled

after the British West Minster model, some are republics some
possess unicameral while other possess bi-cameral legislatures,
executive presidents and ceremonial heads of state.
 At the national level, the hall mark of
Caribbean culture – multiethnic societies
and multiculturalism as distinct from
acculturation or creolization have tended
to provide fertile breeding ground
internal political fragmentation.
 Historical prejudices that lead to mistrust
among Blacks and East Indians in Guyana
and T&T for example
Economic
underdevelopment:
 Economic exploitation and plantation dependence are
argued to have caused Caribbean nations to end up large
numbers unskilled workers capable of performing menial
agricultural tasks and not much else.
 Sugar production was controlled by the planter class/
colonizers. Much of the profits were expatriated back to
the mother country. Little capital was invested in
systemic development of the Caribbean outside of the
sugar and related industries.
 Dependence on imported food.*
 Vertical economic ties were developed with the metro
pole which set in motion a relationship of the colonies
functioning as the primary producers of the raw material
for the value added manufacturing and industrial sectors
of the colonizers.
 To explain this relationship;
 World systems theorists such as Emmanuel
Wallerstein speak of center periphery theory.*1
 Dependency theorists such as the Latin American
Andre Gunderfrank and the Caribbean
Dependency school [featuring the likes of Lewis,
Beckford, Thomas and Girvan] speak of
dependency and underdevelopment as a colonial
legacy.*2
 Economists speak of path dependence*3 set by
historical experiences and the difficulties of
diverting from that path for example trade
linkages with former colonizers.