The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism

1443 Pages·2016·7.83 MB·English

by  Immanuel Ness

T H E PA L G R AV E
E N C YC L O P E D I A
O F I M P E R I A L I S M &
A N T I - I M P E R I A L I S M
GENERAL EDITORS
IMMANUEL NESS &
ZAK COPE

SENIOR EDITORIAL ADVISOR
SAËR MATY BÂ
VOLUME I
THE PALGRAVE ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
IMPERIALISM AND ANTI-IMPERIALISM

THE PALGRAVE
ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
IMPERIALISM AND
ANTI-IMPERIALISM
Edited by
Immanuel Ness
Brooklyn College, The City University of New York, USA
and
Zak Cope
Independent author and scholar
VOLUME I
© Immanuel Ness and Zak Cope 2016
Individual articles © Respective authors 2016
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First published 2016 by
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Contents
Preface vi
Editorial Board ix
List of Contributors x
Entries A–Z within the following sections:
Volume I
Biographies 1
Country and regional analysis 249
Culture and the arts 471
History 543
Volume II
History (continued) 746
Movements and ideologies 805
Political economy 975
Themes and concepts 1191
Index 1396
Preface to scholars and students of the humanities
and the social sciences. Yet whereas impe-
rialism is an indispensable element of con-
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and
temporary political analysis and scholarly
Anti-Imperialism presents prominent themes,
investigation, a primary academic reference
epochal events, theoretical explanations, and
work on the subject has up to now been sorely
historical accounts of imperialism from the
lacking. As well as its academic relevance,
beginnings of modernity and the capitalist
imperialism is of profound concern to anyone
world system in the 16th century to the pre-
interested in international history, politics,
sent day. Important scientific and scholarly
sociology and economics. The Encyclopedia
interpretations of imperialism have in the last
of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism was con-
twenty years reshaped the way intellectuals
ceived and designed to fill this gap for schol-
analyse and map human history. The present
ars and students across academic disciplines
work takes these innovations a step further,
and beyond the confines of the university.
offering a body of comparative research that
In its broadest definition, imperialism is
both challenges and enhances our under-
the military, political, legal and/or economic
standing of the world we live in.
control of one people’s territory by another
Starting from a shared commitment to
so that the subject territory is made to relin-
internationalism and social justice, we have
quish resources, labour and produce for
taken care to include essays that elucidate
little or no compensation. Almost all socie-
the historical and contemporary centrality of
ties have been subject to various forms of
imperialism to all aspects of society. In doing
imperialism at one time or another, trans-
so, we have attempted to present imperial-
forming their established political order and
ism from a range of perspectives. As such,
socioeconomic activities, prohibiting old
we do not agree with all of the interpretations
customs and imposing new ones, dislocat-
or conclusions reached by all of the authors
ing inhabitants from their communities and
whose work appears herein. Indeed, we differ
in some instances settling and occupying
profoundly with some of the assertions made,
territories afresh. In the process, imperial-
the most questionable of which tend to reflect
ism has imposed national, racial, ethnic,
typical ideological prejudices of imperialist
and class domination on disparate popula-
society. Nonetheless, we believe that a glar-
tions. This work examines how imperialism
ing inattention to the transfiguring effects of
has impacted societies in the Third World,
imperialism on the political structures, eco-
(i.e. the former colonies of Asia, Africa,
nomic institutions, cultures and psychologies
Latin America, and the Caribbean) as well
of both imperialist and oppressed nations can
as how it has shaped social relations and
be found across the political spectrum. We
popular perceptions in the First-World coun-
consider this oversight a major obstacle to the
tries of Europe, North America, and Japan.
understanding and progressive transforma-
It describes imperialism’s shifting mecha-
tion of society and hope that the Encyclopedia
nisms of international wealth transfer and
contributes to its overcoming.
reveals how super-profits derived from super-
While post-colonial studies has from the
exploitation, accumulation by dispossession,
1970s onward described the perseverance
and debt usury (none of which can treated in
of forms of cultural domination, clearly an
isolation from the others) have come to form
important marker of imperialist influence,
the very taproot of the global profit system.
critical geopolitical and economic analy-
‘Imperialism’ is a term that is politically
sis is absent in much of the research. At the
charged. For some, it signifies the glory of
same time, whereas formal imperialism has
Empire, the march of progress, and the tri-
largely been abandoned (though not com-
umph of civilisation. In recent years there
pletely, as the examples of Afghanistan, Iraq,
has been a dramatic surge in pro-Imperial
and Palestine show), free-market globalisa-
discourse, epitomised in Britain by the
tion has stimulated a new era of neo-colonial
work of scholars and commentators such
imperialism, reinforcing divisions in wealth
as Niall Ferguson, Robert Kaplan, Andrew
within nations and across borders. Given a
Roberts, William Dalrymple, Daniel Kruger,
renewed popular and academic interest in the
Keith Windschuttle, and Dennis Prager.
subject, attendant to its increasingly obvious
In the 1990s, US political scientist Samuel
real-world import, a comprehensive collec-
Huntington famously decried the inherent
tion on imperialism is an invaluable resource
Preface vii
barbarism of all non-Western cultures in his agreements, tariff barriers, trade routes, pro-
The Clash of Civilizations and found an eager tected markets for investments and manufac-
mainstream audience in the context of the tures, and sources of raw materials. Leaving
so-called War on Terror and the discourse of aside excess deaths caused by economic
‘humanitarian interventionism’. Meanwhile, dependence on foreign monopolies, we may
the state and corporate media monopolies also consider imperialism as responsible for
dominating public discourse around the the deaths of tens of millions of people in
world present phenomena associated with interventions by the major imperialist powers
ongoing imperialist machinations and pro- (the USA, especially) all over the Third World
cesses in a consistently and universally since 1945.
benign light, except where a rival might be In light of the above, we believe that it is
held culpable. impossible to properly understand imperial-
This volume does not attempt any exhaus- ism without reference to the struggle against it.
tive account of the human toll of imperialism; Anti-imperialism took shape in the West
that would require dozens of thick volumes to with mass opposition and national libera-
cover the spectrum in any detail. It is impor- tion struggle leading to the dissolution of the
tant to state, however, that the development Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and
and maintenance of industrial capitalism Russian Empires following World War I. Its
was made possible, inter alia, by the plunder appeal grew considerably with the impact of
of Indian gold and silver from the Americas, the Russian and Chinese revolutions and the
the wholesale theft of Indian land by force subsequent erosion of the British and French
of arms and the resultant 50–100 million empires in the aftermath of World War II. In
deaths from war, overwork, overcrowding, the English-speaking metropoles, the strug-
economic ruin, starvation, malnourishment gles of Black Americans and Irish, as well as
and related diseases; by the slave trade the struggles of the Palestinians in the 1960s
(1500–1869) which resulted in the deaths of and 1970s popularised anti-imperialist resist-
perhaps 20 million Africans, the loss of up ance still further. With the disintegration of
to 100 million Africans from their home- the Soviet Bloc and the imposition of neolib-
land and hundreds of years of agonising eral regimes everywhere, the struggle between
toil, wanton mistreatment and early death East and West has shifted primarily to that
for them; by the Cromwellian conquest of between North and South, exposing the abject
Ireland between 1649 and 1650 that resulted divisions of income and opportunity within
in approximately 618,000 deaths as well as the world system. We present here a range
the colonial exploitation that led to the Great of biographies and movement studies that
Famine of 1845–52 resulting in 1 million exemplify the rich and ongoing tradition of
deaths and 1 million emigrants; by Britain’s national liberation theories and practices.
plunder of India that resulted in about 29 mil- By highlighting the centrality of imperi-
lion deaths from famine between 1877 and alism to present and historical social reali-
1902; by Belgium’s colonisation of the Congo ties, the Encyclopedia provides a multifaceted
which between 1880 and 1920 resulted in at corrective to the myopic (inter)national-
least 10 million deaths through starvation and ism espoused in the global North by both
slaughter; by Japan’s colonial wars leading to the political right and its ostensible foes on
perhaps 30 million deaths; by the killing of the left. Undoubtedly, the class interests of the
half-a-million Iraqi children under five years labour aristocracy have been reflected in the
old who died between 1991 and 1998 from analyses and propaganda of the European and
sanctions imposed by the US and UK; and by North American left for which imperialism
investors’ ongoing dispossession of the land is too often understood either as a historical
of the world’s poorest peoples which results or cultural throwback or as benefiting only
in needless hunger, preventable disease and (some) capitalists or a narrow upper stratum
curable disease leading to the unnecessary of workers in specific sectors of the economy.
deaths of 100 million children every decade. Under capitalism, however, the privileges of
Added to these figures must be those deaths the metropolitan workforce relative to the
occurring during the First World War (37 mil- proletariat proper (exploited, value-creating
lion) and Second World War (at least 50 mil- wage-earners) are afforded only by imperial-
lion), wars instigated by imperialist rivals as ism and can, therefore, only be maintained or
a means of each securing preferential trade extended by the same means. Ultimately, this
viii Preface
ensures that the pursuit of short-term eco- goals, tactics, influence and outcomes over
nomic advancement by what is thus consti- time and space. We have not, unfortunately,
tuted as a mass labour aristocracy must entail been able to include all of the biographies
open or tacit compromise with capital. Those that we would have liked to (for example, of
within the upper echelons of the global work- such anti-imperialists as Jose Maria Sison,
ing class who aim to determine their destiny George Padmore, Bhagat Singh, George
free of capitalist diktat must advocate the abo- Habash, Hassan Nasrallah, Gerry Adams,
lition of global wage scaling, the sine qua non Michael Collins, Sitting Bull, Robert Mugabe,
of imperialism, even in the certain knowledge Daniel Ortega, Fidel Castro, Muammar
that this will mean a lengthy and considerable Gadaffi, Rajani Palme Dutt, Lin Biao, Enver
reduction in their compatriots’ purchasing Hoxha, Abimael Guzmán, Charu Majumdar
power. and Subhas Chandra Bose, amongst oth-
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and ers), or essays on all subjects relating to
Anti-Imperialism is divided into seven sections: imperialism. We encourage readers to use
Biographies; Country Analysis; Culture and this resource as a spur for further investiga-
the Arts; History; Movements and Ideologies; tion. Nonetheless, we are confident that The
Political Economy; and Themes and Concepts. Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-
It provides a comprehensive examination and Imperialism is the most comprehensive schol-
overview of its subject, covering many of the arly examination of the subject to date.
most significant social, cultural, political, and We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we
economic aspects of the imperialist project. enjoyed editing it.
Essays chronicle the ways in which imperial- Immanuel Ness, New York
ist domination has unfolded, tracing its roots, Zak Cope, Belfast
Editorial Board
General Editors
Immanuel Ness
Brooklyn College, City University of New York, USA
Zak Cope
Independent author and scholar
Editorial Advisory Board
Christos Mais Eric Draitser
Universiteit Leiden, Political Analyst
The Netherlands
Godfrey Vincent
Amiya Kumar Bagchi Tuskegee University, USA
Institute of Development Studies
Kolkata, India and Monash Norman Markowitz
University, Australia Rutgers University, USA
Radhika Desai Gregory Zucker
University of Manitoba, Canada Baruch College, USA