Colonial Empires

Introduction

For four hundred years stretching from the 1490s to the present, global geography has been transformed by the far-reaching effects of European expansion and colonization. European economic power and culture have influenced people everywhere, sometimes in the form of trade and the sharing of ideas, but more often through the imposition of European control by force. With the recent collapse of the Soviet Union, the remnants of the last great European empire have broken free and the colonial era has essentially come to an end. The lingering effects of colonialism, however, exert an ongoing influence on the patterns of global geography.

Learning Objectives

This activity is designed to help you understand the following:

Setup

In your browser, open the mapping program URL: http://geogserver1.fullerton.edu/webmaps/empiresjava_2/empires.html
If the map fails to appear, try the alternate site http://geography.fullerton.edu/webmaps/empiresjava_1/empires.html
When the map appears, resize the browser window to make the scroll bars disappear. Note: your browser must be Java-enabled for the program to work properly.

European Exploration

The European colonial era arose in the 1400s when Spain and Portugal attempted to set up trade links with remote areas of Asia. Let’s look first at the basic geographic nature of early attempts at trade:

This view reveals that Europe is roughly at the center of the landmasses of the Earth. This central location was important in facilitating colonization of the rest of the world. Notice that the direct distance from Europe to South Asia is about the same as between Europe and South America. If the view were expanded you would see that ocean travelling distance between Europe and Southeast Asia and between Europe and the west coast of Middle America are roughly the same.

Europeans knew little or nothing about the existence of the Americas. They knew that valuable products came from Asia, but they had little practical knowledge of Asian geography. The basic story is well known. Trade with Asia meant travel eastward through the Mediterranean Sea, then across the deserts of Southwest Asia to the Indian Ocean. Trade monopolies along this route barred the growing economies of Spain and Portugal from participating in this valuable trade with Asia. In an attempt to avoid those barriers, Portuguese explorers set sail southward around Africa into the Indian Ocean. Spanish explorers set off westward hoping to reach the Indies across the Atlantic Ocean.

Spain and Portugal are circled near the center of the map. The question mark indicates the general goal of the early travels. The red zigzag lines suggest the impenetrable barriers facing Spain and Portugal to the east. The lines of exploration show Portugal heading southward, Spain westward. Note how the Americas stood between Spain and Asia. Note also how even as early as the 1490s, Portuguese explorers had expanded westward from the coast of Africa to the shores of South America. Above all, note the vast distances that were involved right from the very beginning of this exploration.

Use the Scantron form to respond to the numbered questions below:

Let’s return to a more conventional view of the world and map out the early impacts on the Americas.

Early Empires: Spain and Portugal

It’s clear that the early explorations had a global reach right from the start. In fact, within a few years, Spain and Portugal, with an assist from the Pope, essentially divided the entire world between them. Each agreed to bring Catholicism and European influence to half the globe, and to avoid infringing on the other’s half. The results of that division are still visible in the human landscape today.

Now see if you can find the imprint of the Spanish-Portuguese division.

If we extended our view across the Pacific, we would find that the Spanish half of the world extended as far as the Philippines, which remained part of the Spanish Empire until the end of the nineteenth century. Portugal was less successful in its half of the world. Portuguese attempts to colonize Asia were generally unsuccessful, though it did retain major colonies in Africa until the mid-twentieth century.

 Overseas Imperial Rivalries: Britain and France

By the 1700s, Britain and France had emerged as important colonial powers. This was the era of Mercantile Capitalism in Europe. Individual countries attempted to become wealthy and strong by building up positive trade balances. Countries feared that their independence would be threatened if their neighbors became too wealthy. Britain and France saw resources from colonial empires as a key component in their drive to create wealth.

Ultimately, Britain came to dominate all other colonial powers and built the largest of all colonial empires.

This map overstates somewhat the extent of the British Empire. Not all areas were colonized at the same time, and in a few cases, British control was shared or incomplete. However, it does give a sense of how large an area was ultimately influenced by Britain.

Use the buttons and mouse to answer the following questions about the British Empire. You can click on a country or region if you are unsure of its name. You can also use the Regions button to overlay the outline of the major regions on your map and the Zoom button to view the map in greater detail.

People, perhaps more than just territory, represented an especially valuable colonial resource. A large population represented both markets and labor—particularly agricultural labor. During the colonial era, South Asia and East Asia, along with Europe itself, were the world's most populous regions - as they still are today. Let’s map the extent of British influence in those two areas.

India in South Asia was the richest of all colonies in the British Empire. China was disrupted by European interference and later invaded by the expanding Japanese empire, but it was never effectively colonized by any European power.

Although Southeast Asia had fewer people than either South Asia or East Asia, it still represented a relatively rich area for human resources. Let’s look at the map.

Where else did France go as it expanded its empire? Let’s zoom out and take a look.

Much of the area colonized by France in North Africa was sparsely population desert. Southeast Asia was a more populous and wealthier region of the French Empire.

 Territorial Expansion: Russian Empire

The Russia of the colonial era is not the Russia of today that stretches from Eastern Europe across the entire expanse of northern Asia. Rather, Russia was a European country vulnerable to invasion from the non-Russian areas to its east. Let’s look at the map.

The area shaded in red shows the approximate area of Russia at the dawn of the colonial era. The green shading shows the area of Russian expansion. Much of that expansion involved the extension of Russia’s borders into the adjacent, lightly populated lands of northern Asia. That territorial expansion most closely resembled the expansion of the United States from its East Coast origins. Russia occupied additional territory to the south and southeast as it expanded its empire into non-Russian lands. Understanding this distinction between the historic Russia, the expanded Russia and the Russian Empire is crucial to understanding the nature of the Soviet Union and the states that emerged from its disintegration in the late 20th century.

 Africa Partitioned

So far, we’ve focused on areas occupied by individual empires: Spanish, Portuguese, British, French and Russian. To complete our overview of the empire building process, let’s look now at Africa, an area colonized by many different European countries.

Much of Africa was carved up and taken over by individual European powers in a final explosion of the imperial process during the middle of the nineteenth century. For some European countries like Belgium, Germany and Italy, this represented an aggressive effort to build a colonial empire before it was too late.

You certainly don’t need to learn the details of European colonization in Africa. But you should try to remember that Africa was essentially divided up and distributed among many different European countries which then established colonies with little regard for the interests of the local populations. In numerous instances, colonial boundaries were imposed with little regard for traditional tribal territories.

Before continuing press the Reset button

 Independence

Today, only a few remnants remain of the once extensive colonial empires. In general independence came in two waves, one during the late 1700s and early 1800s, the other not until the most recent era: the second half of the twentieth century. Almost without exception, European influences remained strong for those areas that achieved independence during the first wave. We can see this in the religion, language, politics and economies of the newly independent states.

Almost without exception, the post-independence religion of these areas was the Christianity brought by the Europeans, the languages were the Spanish, Portuguese and English of the Europeans, and the powerful classes were the European descendants.

Conditions were very different for the areas which received their independence during the period from 1945—the end of the Second World War—and the present. Now, self-determination was the dominant perspective with indigenous (pre-European) peoples reclaiming control of their nations. Many European influences remained, but the culture, economy and government reflected the return of power to the indigenous population.

 This map underscores a dramatic fact: most of the former colonies in Africa and Asia have only been independent for less than fifty years; areas freed from the Russian Empire have only been independent for less than ten years.

 The Colonial Legacy

It’s impossible to understand today’s global geography without recognizing the tremendous impact of European colonialism. Four points are particularly crucial:

Review Questions

 Exit the GIS Program

When you are finished:

Be sure to put you name on the completed Scantron form and hand it in to the lab instructor. Keep the activity questions.