Wednesday, April 27, 2005
- 9:51 pm
Nationalism and the Emergence of New States
1. WHAT IS NATIONALISM?
Feeling of belonging to a nation, identifying with a nation. According to Benedict Anderson (1983), a well-known scholar of nationalism and SEA, nation is ‘an imagined political community that is inherently limited and sovereign’.
o imagined: never meet all members, but can think of them, co-existing.
o community: a ‘we feeling’, connotation of common bonds, idea of some kind of equality, notion of citizenship (participation in a group, not a ‘subject’ of a ruler).
o limited: implicit recognition of other nations – may imagine your nation to occupy a larger space, but it cannot take in the whole whole world.
o sovereign: internally autonomous, political control exercised from within the nation, not by outside power. Thus cannot have modern nationalism without the idea of the modern, sovereign state.
National identity is different from other identities (family/kin; local community; political party; ethnic group; religious group; class). While these other identities all can be either local or transnational, possibly global. Therefore, national identity is fixed to a particular country, in aspiration if not practice.
2. EMERGENCE OF NATIONALISM AND PRO-INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENTS IN SEA
Pro-Independence Movements and Leaders
o Earliest nationalist groups in SEA were in the Philippines, in the late 19th C. Combination of educated youth and peasant movement, aim to free the Philippines from Spanish rule. Declared independence from Spain in 1898 – took the US several years to suppress them militarily, and co-opt local elites. Jose Rizal and others.
o Vietnam: some organized resistance as soon as French consolidated rule in 1885, but more pro-monarch than national. Ho Chi Minh and others.
o Nationalist groups established in several SEA territories early in 20thC. Young Men’s Budhist Association, 1906, in British-ruled Burma. Budi Oetomo, 1908, in Dutch-ruled Java.
o Numbers of groups rapidly incrased in the 1910s, 1920s: large rise in publications, newspapers, political organizations, ferment of activity. Sukarno-Hatta-Semaun-Tjokroaminoto in Indonesia. Aung San in Burma. Pridi-Phibun in Thailand.
o Major political crackdowns in Vietnam and Netherlands India especially from late 1920s, many anti-colonialist leaders imprisoned or exiled.
Aims and Characters of Pro-Independence Movements
o Not all pro-independence movements had a clear idea of creating modern nation-states organized along the territorial lines of modern SEA countries.
o Peasant-based uprisings and anti-colonial protests, strong emphasis on land re-distribution.
o Some groups organizing along ethnic lines: -eg Chinese nationalist groups (in SEA) inspired by victory of Sun Yatsen in Chinese revolution of 1911; or some Malay nationalist groups whose vision of the nation, and anti-colonial activity, was also bound up with ethnic identity.
o Some groups mobilized along religious lines: eg Syarikat Islam (the white faction led by Tjokroaminoto) in Netherlands Indies.
o Many anti-colonial movements borrowed a lot from socialist or Marxist thinking, some were explicitly communist.
o Religious, nationalist and marxist motivations sometimes fractured anti-colonial or pro-independence movements (and divisions affected post-independence politics in countries like Indonesia) but were not necessarily antagonistic: -eg Sukarno’s famous 1928 speech on ‘Nationalism, Islam and Marxism’; - and also Ho Chi Minh: self-declared communist but clearly strongly nationalist.
3. INCREASE IN PRO-INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENTS
o Education.
o Spread of education, development of new ideas, new ways of perceiving and expressing views about injustices of colonialism .
o Print Media.
o Literacy important for being able to communicate these ideas: proliferation of print media.
o Economic Conditions.
o Hardship and social dislocation as SEA population very badly affected by world depression in 1930s; collapse of prices of commodities produced in SEA; and also increasing problems of landlessness and indebtedness among peasants.
o Pro-independence movements suppressed or contained through the 1930s.
WWII and Japanese occupation very important:
o Showed European powers could be defeated.
o Japanese freed/promoted nationalist leaders: allowed them to mobilize masses in public gatherings (especially Sukarno).
o Local bureaucrats given more powers, responsibility.
o Japanese established some armed military groups of locals: training, confidence, aspirations. Also increase in capacity and organization of groups resisting Japanese occupation.
Uneven and varied nature of SEA anti-colonial movements
o Very intense in Indonesia: declared independence as soon as Japan defeated, then fought Dutch for 4 years to attain it. Dutch ceded Indonesia in 1949. Also intense in Vietnmam – first fought against returning French, then against US and US-backed government in South --- did not win this national liberation fight until 1975.
o Less strong in Malaysia and Singapore: British able to come back, faced communist groups opposed to their return but much of population, especially local elites, accepted prolonged process of gaining independence (Malaya granted independence in 1957; internal self-rule for Singapore in 1959)
4. THE ORIGINS OF NATIONAL IDENTITIES
o In some cases an important force: population prepared to fight for a country that did not yet exist.
o This raises question of why post-independence countries of SEA largely conform to territorial units of colonial powers.
o For instance, no obvious cultural, linguistic, religious reasons to draw boundaries as they are now:
o Malays of Sumatra and peninsula Malaysia share common language, a lot of pre-colonial history, religion… but in separate countries.
o Shans of Burma and Shans of Thailand share common language and culture and others but in separate countries.
o Again, Benedict Anderson (‘Imagined Communities’) argued that many anti-colonial groups conceived of independent nation-states that would exist within the territory of the colonial power because of the processes of colonialism.
o By being educated with other people in the colonial territory, and serving in the colonial bureaucracies, having to use a common language of administration and schooling, coming into contact with others like themselves and developed a group consciousness that was contained by the colonial territory. Meanwhile, the European colonial officials might leave and serve in other colonies or return to Europe and the local bureaucrats would stay in the colony.
“Colonialism and the Idea of Southeast Asia”
Trade and European Contacts with and Purposes in Southeast Asia
european Colonial Rule in Southeast Asia
Conclusion: European and Southeast Asian Actors
The Idea of “Southeast Asia”
I. Trade and European Contacts with and Purposes in
Southeast Asia
A. SOUTHEAST ASIA IN AN ASIAN TRADE ‘REGION’
o most of SEA, especially coastal areas, long involved in trade, centuries before Europeans came to SEA
o local people trading with Arab, Indian and Chinese traders. Some of these ‘outsiders’ settled in the region but not mass migration.
o active exchange systems linking SEA with China and India, and SEA serving as bridge between China and India
o SEA ports used for taking on supplies, waiting for favourable winds, mediating points for exchanging goods from elsewhere
B. EUROPEAN TRADERS
“Empire is about three things: Gold, God, and Glory.”
o Europeans begain to participate in this trade system from 16th C
o Portuguese capture of Malacca 1511, trading post until lost to Dutch in 1641
o Spanish reached what is now Philippines 1521, a few decades later using Manila as a port in the “galleon trade” to carry Chinese goods to Mexico, for shipment onward to Spain
o Spanish also major missionizing actors: aim (largely successful) to Christianize the Philippines.
o Dutch traders came to region in 17th C.
o trade by the Dutch East India Company [Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC] with monopoly conferred by Dutch authority. attempted to maintain monopoly on trade in spices
o founded Batavia, today’s Jakarta, in 1619 as an administrative center of VOC trading activities
o privileged but not a part of the Dutch government
o early colonization of north coast of Java and of other islands in today’s Indonesia thus carried out by a transnational commercial enterprise.
o not so profitable in the end… bankrupt by end of 18th C, Dutch govt took over the colony 1800
o English trade and colonization in SEA also carried out in part by commercial firm – its own East India Company – same one that colonized India (and ruled it till the 1850s) before sending agents to go to SEA.
o came to Penang first, 1786; Singapore 1819; Malacca swapped from Dutch 1824. Led to “forward movement” to rule most of Malaya from the 1870s.
o Raffles was a “company man” .. sought to promote free trade in contrast to monopolistic practices of the Dutch and Spanish
o another, separate English company ended up governing North Borneo [Sabah] later in 19th C; the Brooke family ruled Sarawak as “white rajahs” and dominated its trade all the way to the Second World War
o Britain annexed Burma to its Indian empire in three stages: 1820s, 1850s, 1880s.
o French onto the scene from the mid-19th C, unlike others did not limit themselves to trading post enclave at first: took Vietnam in 1860s (south) and 1880s (north and center), Cambodia in 1864, and what is now Laos in 1893.
o United States join the “game” of empire in 1898, when it replaced Spain in the Philippines.
C. PRODUCTION OF CASH CROPS FOR WORLD MARKETS
“Remember: at the end of the day, empire must pay!”
• until 19th C, European traders mostly limited to using SEA posts as mediating points in India-China-Europe trade, some trade in local products
• in 19th C began major production of cash crops: getting local people to grow products such as rice, sugar and (later) rubber for world market; major change in organization of rural activity and land use. This was seen as “unlocking the tropics”.
• some evidence of increase in incomes of Southeast Asian producers over 19th C, compared to subsistence farming, but also increased vulnerability to price fluctuations on world commodity markets. Collapse of prices with Depression in 1930s was a disaster for many Southeast Asians.
• large plantations: importation of outside labourers from India, China or within SEA (eg from Java to Sumatra)
• Chinese migrant labour also used in tin mines in Malayan penninsulam (plural society according to Prof Dayna Chia)
• Economic change brought change in way of life in rural areas; change in population
II. European Colonial Rule in Southeast Asia
A. TRADING OUTPOSTS, INDIRECT RULE
• Portuguese, Dutch, and British came to SEA for commercial reasons and initially only established themselves in small trading centres
• needed security, access to local products and often wanted to exclude others from trade in some products
• these aims sometimes brought them into conflict with local rulers – but not always
• frequent collaboration with local rulers – or aspiring rulers who were willing to accept European support in return for cooperation
• early colonial period, life for ordinary people changed very little – often not much contact with authority figures, many of the local ruling systems remained as before
• this began to change as requirements of government change; for example the need to organize rural areas for the production of cash crops in large volumes
• even so, many areas remain under systems of ‘indirect rule’
o local ruler/aristocrat was officially maintained in position
o he would act on the ‘advice’ of a colonial official
o governed through increasingly formalized indigenous bureaucracy
o in Malaya, this system characterized the “Unfederated Malay States” of Johor, Perlis, Kelanan, Trengganu, Kedah
B. DIRECT RULE and TERRITORIAL EXPANSION
• other areas were ruled directly: colonial bureaucracy under a European governor. For example, the Federated Malay States of Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak
• even in directly ruled territories, colonial govts started off with limited goals and resources: revenue limits, small staffs, focus on trade, production and security. Idea was to keep government cheap.
• some similarities with indigenous systems of government
o adopted elements of display, ceremony
o same recourse to delegation of functions, such as “tax farming”
• territorial expansion often a slow, unplanned process, as in the case of British takeover of Malay peninsula
• expansion often motivated by ambition of local governor, need to maintain ‘law and order’ in economically important area not under colonial control, or to secure access by colonial business-people; the “man-on-the-spot” dimension of empire
• as competition among colonizing power increased, territorial conquests seemed more important
C. GROWTH OF GOVERNMENT STRUCTURES
• Except in case of Philippines under Spain, where church officials governed and had missionary goals, not interested in moral condition of locals until very late
• Welfare, public works, health and education services that modern govts aim (or profess) to provide not really developed at all until end of 19th C/ early 20th C…
• except for public works like roads and railways, remained limited by modern standards
• but compared to earlier times, early 20th C saw large expansion in government: more departments, more officials, more locals involved in bureaucracy, more contact with ordinary people
• this expansion opened new opportunities in lower and middle ranks of colonial bureaucracies for some Southeast Asians, those with the means and good luck to have access to Western-style educations. These SE Asians would play a large role in anti-colonial nationalism and post-independence government and politics. Consider, for example, the cases of Lee Kuan Yew, Sukarno, or Tungku Abdul Rahman.
D. TERRITORIALITY: HARD BORDERS, EVENTUALLY
• territorial expansion by colonial powers introduced new concept to SEA – idea of an international border
o take borders for granted now: pass from one jurisdiction to another, govt cannot (usually) claim authority over you when outside the country…
o as discussed last week, not so clear-cut in precolonial SEA
o also not entirely clear for much of colonial era – eg some of the Malay states remained formally independent for years, with British ‘advisers’, sometimes present with Thai ‘advisers’ at same time
• the case of Siam, today’s Thailand
o avoided colonization, not least by accepting reduced but better defined borders
o but had to give up areas that had been under its influence: northern Malaya, Cambodia, Laos
o granted trade concessions to British and others from mid-19th century
o granted ‘extraterritorial’ rights to European foreigners in Siam – agreed to allow to run own justice systems and commercial law within Thai territory
o changed structures and capacities of own bureaucracy to provide many new governmental functions, similar to expansion of govt in colonized SEA, “internal colonization”
o ability of Siamese govt to do this could not be taken for granted – required organization, effort and skill …
III. Conclusion: European and Southeast Asian Actors
The Idea of “Southeast Asia”
A. WHO MADE SE ASIAN HISTORY DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD?
• impact of changing trade and authority patterns was significant
• but not necessarily the case that all the changes were result of colonial actors
• local actors also important to course of events – as rulers, bureaucrats, traders, tax collectors, police, and above all as producers – not everything they did simply in response to outside demands, also embraced new opportunities
• even less the case that events unfolded in accordance with plans of colonial govts: actions often had unintended consequences
o hardship, social dislocation, resentment, rebellions, resistance, crime…
o incorporation of locals into govt, development of education à aspirations, ideas that differed from those of colonial power.
thank you girl from mars
hit the stars
