COLONIAL EXPERIENCE OF FEW COUNTRIES

Introduction

The term colonization refers to “the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial control over another country, occupying it with settlers and exploiting it economically” (Oxford dictionary). After the emergent of discovering, most of the European countries entered to make colonies. The colonialism made benefits and also the disadvantages to the countries which were undergone of the control by foreign countries. So this paper will discuss selected countries in Asia that were faced colonial experience brought by European countries. The paper consists of three countries India, Malaysia, and Indonesia that had governed by several Europeans such as Portuguese, Dutch, British etc. and the impacts of the colonization on those countries. 

The Dutch identified that coffee bushes grew well in East Indies and introduced coffee, tea, rubber and sugar to those countries. The Europeans de- industrialized the Asian countries by introducing export of raw materials to their countries. (Gage, 1946)      

The Colonial Experience of India

As a result of discovering new sea and trade routes especially by a Portuguese, Vasco Da Gama in 1498, the English, French, Portuguese, and the Dutch went to India for trade. European and British traders had originally travelled to India for trading purposes. They entered into India to acquire raw materials for their production purposes and to find a market to sell the finish goods. British officials established their power over India by wars, forced treaties, annexation of and alliances with the numerous Indian regional powers. (Gage, 1946)

In 1600, England accomplished controlling of the trade in India and established “East India Company” which is supported by the British government. Then in 1615, they established the first factory in India (Surat) and after all spread them in different areas in India. And started interfere the political affairs of Indian rulers. (Impact of British Rule on India)

Economic Impact

Industrial revolution that began in England encouraged the mass production and they produced more products and benefited more from trading. They wanted to get more raw materials from India and sell their finished goods. In earlier period India had a huge market for hand loom in Europe. But after the industrialization India became an importer of machine made textiles from Britain. So the main target of the British was to change India from the position of exporter to importer of England. The hand loom industry had a threat from Britain textiles which were sold at a cheaper price as foreign goods were free of duty and thus, could enter freely to the market of India.  When Indian hand looms were exporting they were taxed heavily, and Britain had imposed tariff on Indian textiles to protect their own manufacturing and trading industry. That led to create unemployment in Indian economy. (Impact of British Rule on India)

Under the British control the Indian cultivators had to pay immense tax on land. Early Indian people in India engaged in agricultural activities as their main career. British governors had imposed many direct and indirect approaches to get revenue from the Indian farmers.

Permanent Settlement (1793) - the settlement was introduced to the Bengal and Bihar. The landlord had to deposit a fixed amount of money in the state treasury to be the heredity owners of the land (Impact of British Rule on India). When the landlord couldn’t pay the fixed revenue the land was sold to another Zamindar. This worked in two ways. (Sarwar, 2012)

Mahalwari Settlement (1822) - this was introduced to the North Western provinces, Punjab, the Ganga Valley and parts of Central India. The product of mahal (the village or a group of villages) regarded as the foundation for the revenue to be transfer to the government by the all landowners of the Mahal. The villages were jointly responsible to pay the land proceeds. (Sarwar, 2012)

Ryotwari Settlement (19^th century) - this was introduced to many parts of Bombay and Madras. The individual cultivators were directly asked to pay the revenue to the government and then they could be the owners of their lands. Aim is to collect revenue from cultivators directly. (Sarwar, 2012)

Introduction of commercial agricultural crops. Include Tea, Coffee, Indigo, Opium, Cotton, Jute, Sugarcane and Oilseed. The peasants depended on the merchants.  (Roy)

Introduction of new industries- British had introduced new large scale industries that based on machines, such as cotton textiles, jute and coal-mining industries. (Roy)

The railway was introduced to the India and opened in 1837 with plan of getting the support for the British trading activities. And it was developed through the years.  (See Figure 1)

Social Impact

·         Ruin of old Zamindars- the Zamindars, the land lords who collected taxes, running courts, governed the small territories etc. After the British engagement of ruling India, the Zamindar control was ended and the new system of Landlordism was set up. (Roy)

·         Racism had increased. (Gage, 1946). Impact for economy and political stability (Meena, 2015)

·         The British rule had done a major change to the social and territory of the India. In 1947 British had made the partition of India to “India” and ‘Pakistan” (Joshi).

Colonial Experience of Malaysia

Ø  Rule under Portuguese (1511- 1641)

Portuguese had identified Malacca as an important destination as same as other colonized countries. The reasons were identified as a good place for the trading activities such as spices, silk etc. and they had identified Malay as a strategic location and they wanted to spread the Christian religion.

Ø  Rule under Dutch (1641- 1825)

Ø  Rule under British ( 1786- 1957)

The British governing system had introduced new economic modifications to the Malaysian economy.  They had established,

·         huge rubber estates

·         oil palm states

·         tin mines and

·         large scale industrial sections

Also had developed proper infrastructure systems such as roads, towns, schools etc.They exploited Malaysian natural resources to use for the sustain of their country’s development.

And British had tried to disrupt the relationships among different races in Malaysia. Malaysian people got the chance to learn English.

British had redesigned the political structure of the Malaya and the Malaya government authorities lost the power of control. And it caused insecure due to the diminishing power of the traditional rulers. (Yaakop, 2014).

 Also the British governors let Chinese, Indian people to migrate to Malaya. Those people were engaged to the cultivation of tin and rubber. (Yaakop, 2014) 

Japanese invasion-The military administration system, state administration including forming new Malaya. They had introduced industrialization to the country and also new currency. (Wikipedia)

Got independence on 31^st August 1957 and became “Federal of Malaysia” in 1963. See (Figure 2)

Colonial Experience of Indonesia

In 1511 B.C. Portuguese had entered to the Indonesia with the same intention of spreading Christianity and acquiring spices. They wanted to get the control of spice trade of the country. But Dutch had arrived to Indonesia in 1595. They had searched the natural resources. In 1814 the British had arrived to Indonesia and got the colonial power. Japanese Invasion (1942-1945)

Impacts of colonialism

·         Effect on income- Under the rule of Dutch Indonesian natives (Javanese) had to provide one fifth of their total crop to the Dutch. Those peasants could get only a permanent amount of payment for that crop and it was not enough for the value of the crop.

·         Sugar and coffee became the Java’s most efficient and dominant export sector and Java was the most important area in 18^th century.  (See Table 1)

·         Japanese rule made a hard era of Indonesia as the people had to face problems of food, clothing, and medicine. The labors had to work under cruel conditions (Indonesia –Investments).

·         Introduction of Military law and Colonial laws under the Japanese invasion. Japanese prohibited the use of Dutch and English. They promoted their own language of Japanese. (Beck)

·         Chinese immigration in Nineteenth century (Fredrick & Worden, 1993).

Table 1

Financial Results of Government Cultivation, 1840-1849 (‘Cultivation System’) (in thousands of guilders in current values) Indonesia

	1840-1844	1845-1849
Coffee	40 278	24 549
Sugar	8 218	4 136
Indigo,	7 836	7 726
Pepper, Tea	647	1 725
Total net profits	39 341	35 057

Source: Fasseur 1975: 20.