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| Compass |
As part of the Words and Meanings series, I am introducing the word colonisation. The series is about the words that of recent we have been hearing and will be hearing more often. It helps us to find perspective on issues that are close to us or have high impact on planet earth. This word colonisation is quite a powerful word so much so that it marks our history from the very beginning.
Within the last few years I have heard the word colonisation used in two contexts; as a soft colonisation which is when a country culturally colonises another and commonly referred to as cultural imperialism and the other context is in relation to Israel. To understand how colonisation works I will look at how it is done and how it has developed in different stages. I will not include colonisation in East Europe and Asia as that would make the blog too broad.
Colonisation in the old days has been marked with force, bloodshed, weapons, transportation, land claims and an administrative take over. Just writing about it fills my mind with many scenes of war and conquest on the big and small screens. Have you ever had so much to say that you freeze with the many thoughts flooding in? In describing the stages of colonisation I will explore the following:
- Organic colonisation
- Hardcore colonisation
- The displaced arise
- Soft colonisation
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| Merriam-Webster Dictionary |
Today it is not so much about colonisation but coup d’etats because every bit of land mass has already been conquered and occupied. What has not been occupied has been laid claim to. Legally and illegally. Even the forests that is supposed to be free and set aside as a national reserve in some countries are being squatted in. Like the Valencia Forest Reserve in Trinidad and Tobago that now only has trees on the borders, with houses and quarries within.
We will not talk about the possible colonisation of fallen angels (it would be interesting though) nor of animals and plants. We will not get into the alien colonisation of our airspaces although the Pentagon (USA) has confirmed that the traffic of spaceships has increased. We will avoid at all costs the colonisation of nano-bytes in the vaccines created even prior to covid-19 (hahaha). We can start with The First Peoples.
ORGANIC COLONISATION
For this blog our discussion of colonisation starts with the canoes, bows and arrows. The First People came from South America crossing over using the Orinoco River to Trinidad. They had made many other journeys before this. They would settle and move on to other islands as food would dwindle or rival tribes would force them out. This I would say is a natural part of the ecosystem, therefore organic in that their closeness to nature and basic instincts to survive led to movement.
First People honouring the journey from Venezuela to Trinidad
Both Amerindians of Kalina, Warao, Kalipuna, Nepuyo, Taino, Arauca and Carib peoples came. They were part of the inter-island and island-mainland trade that developed. It continued with the Warao people until 1930. The discovery of the Banwari skeleton which was dated to be 7000 years old and the analysis of the soil nearby, proves this. There were layers of soil showing that there were settlements throughout the years. That makes them the first colonisers as it is the earliest pre-Columbian settler of the Caribbean.
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| Banwari Skeleton Remains in Crouched Position |
To this day, animals, snakes and vegetation make that journey with the tide. The tribes make this traditional journey once a year to commemorate other beliefs. This is in telling their stories of the first man and woman finding a place of safety on the Naparima Mountain in Trinidad as the world around them was covered with water from a great flood (sounds familiar?). After slavery was abolished, they were given permission to take a shorter route which is today called, Indian Walk.
HARDCORE COLONISATION
Major civilisations were already falling in 1200BC at the end of the Bronze Age. However, there was an international trade already in existence between Egypt, Israel and the rest of the Mediterranean. It affected art and culture in Egypt. Egypt stretched from Sudan to Syria and included Canaan. This was an example of globalisation.
A mysterious crisis occurred to cause this empire to retreat. It is possibly climate change but the Hittite empire in Anatolia and Mycenean civilisation in Greece were no more. The void was to be filled by the nations known as Judah, Israel, Edom, and the Philistine cities. This was the Middle East of old.
The Middle East were conquering the Middle East. Many wars were fought between nations such as Egypt, Israel, the Philistines, Hittites, Canaanites etc,. Slavery, religion, and control over the wealth and movement of the people were key to the conquerors at that time. It is said that when Israel moved, it was like one million people moving together and they caused their enemies to fear.
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| Map by Metro Plancio 1594 |
Many empires expanded and fell. After slavery in Egypt the Jews would finally settle upon the land called Israel. They fought the Philistines and neighbouring Canaanites. They colonised which is different to simply owning or occupying i.e. they settled on the land (both intransitive and transitive use of the word ‘settle’).
The Jews established a sovereignty, at one point two sovereignties, had an army, they had infrastructure in how they did things and how they moved from simple things like a procession, they fought for the land, settled with homes and structures, and their religion included the land. No different to their enemies.
The Europeans were jealous of the vast empires and wealth they heard about. They came to the Far East, the Middle East and Africa. Trade went wherever transport could reach. Empires were built and moved along the path of trade. When Alexander the Great (336 BC) came along, citizenship allowed nationals to study abroad and learn new languages and skills. Multi-culturalism spread.
136-7AD Emperor Hadrian had exiled the Jews from Israel and had changed the name of the land to Syria-Palestina or Palestine. He wanted to break the bond the Jews had with the land. This was a strategy as he recognised that the strength of the people was in their belief that was tied to the land. But this name only carried through for the land not that there were a people on the land. Not until the 1900s. The Jews were exiled and therefore displaced. They ran to other nations, possibly in family groups and tribes. They settled but did not colonise.
It was very important to Hadrian who as ruler was also Pontifex Maximus. He was able to take charge over all religious affairs throughout the empire. But he showed a partiality to Greece and not Rome. He wanted the provinces to assimilate to his beliefs. This caused uprisings in Jerusalem.
Religion has always played a role in colonisation and this is the reason why I do not separate it as a different stage. But by 300AD there was an obvious link between the papacy and state. By 312AD the Roman Empire was showing signs of falling and Christians were being tolerated. This started a wave of colonisation within Europe for the spread of Catholicism and the stamping out of paganism. Spiritual authority expanded to diplomatic roles in 452AD through Leo I when he negotiated with Attila the Hun.
About 1000 years later, the new world came into the picture. This was a modern wave of colonisation. Portugal launched out into Cueta, North Africa which prompted an exploration by Spain through Christopher Columbus. He was re-discovering a hemisphere. When they landed on the Bahamas (1492) they set up forts for the purpose of trade, they did not quite settle. By 1493 those left behind were killed. Competition was always the real driving force so to keep the claim they colonised.
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| Image by Wallpaperflare |
Who is more potent? Who have the most powerful armies? Who has more prowess? Whose God is better and who is richer? Same old same old. Metal weapons, unnecessary violence (not for food and survival), and sickness brought in. Utter devastation for the First People in the name of Gold, God, and Glory. Catholicism piggybacked on it to the Western Hemisphere as it did in the old world.
As the old world plundered, privatised and pirated they brought industry and colonisers. Europeans fought each other. Cocoa, rubber, cotton, and sugar industries ruled. Sugar is still a king crop by the way. Spain, Denmark, Portugal, France, Scotland, Britain led to multi-lingual families. It was common to have a generation speaking Spanish, another speaking French-Patois and another English. Confusing? More confusing is trying to trace one’s lineage.
The colonisers travelled and so did the slaves and immigrants between countries. In came the Chinese, the East Indians and the Portuguese immigrants (possibly Jewish). Races were mixed and traditions were used to maintain the memory of the fading past religious practices and languages. A new word entered our history, that is, displacement but it was an effect of colonisation that had occurred prior to this with the Jews.
THE DISPLACED ARISE
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| George Washington rallies the troops at Monmouth by Goodfree photos |
Colonialism is the control of one power over a dependent people. Colonialism and resistance are natural counterparts. The American Revolution (1776) and the Haitian Revolution of 1771 started a ripple effect. Haiti known then as Saint Domingue and previously as Ayti by the First People, became free on January 1, 1804. But they too repeated the brutality and even sought to conquer the other part of the island, Santo Domingo.
I must spend a little time on Haiti. Haiti was the first modern state to abolish slavery. It was the first successful revolt of lower classes to form a state in the world. It was the second republic nation in the Western Hemisphere right after USA. In that time, this was a disruption to the very nature of colonialism and a portal for free thinking to start in the Americas. The French and USA had economic interests in Haiti. Haiti paid the French government reparations as they were a legal challenge to slavery and the plantation economic system.
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| Toussaint L'Overture who led the Haitian Revolution |
Colonisation was not the same during the 1800s and 1900s. Inspired by Haiti, other colonies started revolting. The British Abolition Act came in 1833. Final implementation was in 1848 for the Caribbean and for African colonies. It was not until 1865 that some parts of USA saw abolition of slavery. The ex-slaves, immigrants and the Jews made the best out of the displacement that they experienced.
Haiti was trading on its own with USA. But USA did not officially recognise Haiti as a nation. It did not stop trade or maintaining relations with plantation owners. The years of instability I believe was interference on behalf of the USA to destabilise Haiti using the plantation owners. The USA continued importing the agricultural produce from Haiti more than with any Latin American country. Haiti imported from USA, but the terms of trade was very disadvantageous to Haiti.
The world was moving into de-colonisation. However, in 1915 the US Marines invaded and occupied Haiti for twenty years! To date Haiti has been victimised, taken advantage of by USA. This is an anomaly that continues. Few people even know that there was an invasion. Although there is elections the USA continued into the 21st century to manipulate the political system.
De-colonisation continued in the Americas and in other parts of the world. There are still some exceptions. The difference between the two periods of displacement is that of memory and mass. But I have to point out that there were Jews in Palestine/Israel as far back as the 1500s. I have read that there were some who never left. They made the best of surviving harsh conditions and being ruled by different nations. For this blog I am focusing on the returnees from 1500 onwards.
In some ways colonisation during this period reminds me of the story of Cocoa. In South America, cocoa was known as the fruit from the gods. It was new European cultures. Hernan Cortes, was introduced to it by the Aztecs of Montezuma’s court. When he steals it, he brings it to Trinidad.
It remains in the mountain ranges and different parts of the country until Spain begins to see its value around 1544. Then there was some sort of cold front that threatened to destroy them in 1876. Many of the plants were sought out to be replanted together in estates. Today Trinidad maintains the World Bank of Cocoa genes.
In the western world slaves and immigrants lost most of that memory. The earlier immigrants from India were young, most of them kidnapped and trafficked. This is what Emperor Hadrian wanted to achieve with the Jews but was not successful. Because the Jews were separated there was hardly a chance that all of them would be killed at the same time or undergo the same hardships at the same time. Like the cocoa all over Trinidad.
After the abolition of slavery, and indentured immigrants freed there was a return campaign. Ex-slaves and immigrants wanted to return to their motherland. The campaign went on into the 1970s, but there were too many dynamics at play. Even the East Indian immigrants who returned to India came back to the West Indies. It would have been particularly difficult to return to a continent that still had tribal practices and apartheid.
During the 1900s America saw an influx of immigrants mostly from Europe. Many who were colonisers and those who were new went deeper into the land and made claims of settlers. This was different to what happened in Israel. Jewish settlers did not have to fight anyone to settle. As well as Jews were returning to their motherland.
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| Indian immigrants in the Caribbean |
Before the birth of Christ Jews had endured actual slavery for hundreds of years during different periods. But in exile Jews still had no rights in a number of countries, not even to wear a slipper on the foot or to vote as recent as the 1900s in some countries.
In their own country they had to pay taxes to foreign conquerors and survive Muslim rule under the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans did nothing to improve the land. Even though it was not outright slavery they were meted out with the conditions of slavery in Europe and the Middle East. There were psychological effects that would not be understood until perhaps the 21st Century.
In the 1800s there was a wave of returnees. At the turn of the 20th century many Jews went to America instead of returning. In the 1900s and then after 1948 there were more returnees, some coming from America.
The Jews remembered the language, religion, other tribes, the land, and the history they shared. The Bible played a huge role in preservation and to this day parts of the Bible is being proven to be correct e.g. I Kings 11:14-22 speaks of a relationship between Egypt and Edom, that was not known to have existed but was recently proven.
Many Jews were forced to convert to Islam or Catholicism. They were not included into society and could not develop belonging. Those who came to Trinidad seeking refuge during WWII were jailed by the British colonial masters or forced to convert to Islam. The Ethiopian Jews were forced into Catholicism and have now returned to Judaism. Others who were in groups or families in Europe and USA, maintained some traditions even the oral traditions.
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Postcard showing the Church of Immaculate Conception in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad |
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| 1917 Jews return to Israel |
Meanwhile the cost was much too great for empires to be maintained in the West Indies. With free thinking, Protestantism, mass education and increased populations, empires began to crumble. Sprinkle in disease in between crops and people. You get the picture?
By the end of the 20th Century, many nations became independent. By this time inclusion and belonging started to set into the psyche of the people in the Americas. This was all part of de-colonisation. The ties with the African and Indian continents more nostalgic and romanticised but definitely damaged.
West Indian slaves were hardly in groups or families but they became a mass or colony. They were unable to colonise by setting up administration to govern the lands they were in until independence. However, some remained under colonial authority e.g. Guadelope.
Similarly, apartheid continued until 1993 in South Africa. As stated earlier on there were exceptions to the de-colonisation period or process. The displacement of the ex-slaves and immigrants would not be as intense as that of the slaves in the Americas and the exile of the Jews. The slaves in Africa remained as a mass and could retain memory as well. They were in their motherland.
For the Jews even if they provided inhabitants to set up a colony within a country, they were not as a mass of people to colonise anywhere else. Nor would they be gathered as a nation or a people again (en masse) until 1948. After WWII the nation of Israel would be recognised in its motherland.
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| Map showing the border between Canada and USA |
SOFT COLONISATION
After WWII and the Vietnamese war, there was an aversion to invasion. Invasion using foot soldiers at least. Other methods of seeking the interest of the empire became more popular. In the media industry there is a thing called soft colonisation which occurred through cable then through subscription content providers e.g. Netflix.
This is no light matter. The Canadian government complained quite a lot about it on the border towns and it affects the local industry in Canada and the Caribbean when residents don’t want local content. The whole film industry itself tells that story beautifully from the time USA started monopolising distribution.
American colonisation is on the frequency waves and every imaginable screen. If the Americans don’t like something the whole world has to hear about it. There is a relationship between propaganda and colonisation. It is in the intransitive verb use of settle, to make quiet or orderly.
In some cases the propaganda is used to unsettle or cause frictions from within a country. But that is another conversation. I have studied this extensively and I am convinced that the onscreen white picket fence and the promise of dreams worked like propaganda and brought many illegal immigrants.
It was only natural to use new media and social media to further national interests. Do you remember Barack Obama tweeting? Then Trump? Social media was harnessed for a number of things including a Cold War. But we can also see where warfare spills over into the virtual spaces.
If that is not enough the big players are trying to buy into other countries. Hence the democratic means of representation is in jeopardy. It is a situation of ownership and competition. When there are a lot of owners at different levels there are more people with more views and different types of content. More owners mean more competition which essentially works better for the consumer.
SUMMARY
So far I have shown that Israel was once colonised by the Jews over 3,000 years ago. When they returned after the fourth exile they cared for a neglected and unsettled or unoccupied land. Having historical ties, memory and mass they were able to do this successfully without resistance for the most part. In this way they were different to America before and after American Independence.
Resistance and settlement by Arabs was really only an issue as the land started to show promise. The conversation around Israel being a coloniser is not relevant as there was no dependent people to colonise. They did not move in with foot soldiers either. They were re-settling the land.
I find this colonisation thing to be very phallic. At first it was natural movement. Then it became about the ego and competition with the concept of whose God bigger and better thrown in. A race to stake a claim, prove prowess and have possessions. Then it was purely capitalism. Upon release the displaced eventually find belonging and inclusion either by returning to the motherland or creating a colony of their own (hahaha oh mama!).
Fox Report on Pentagon and UFOs: https://youtu.be/DFPUq_nE_Hs
Proving relationship between Edom and Egypt: https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium-where-ancient-egypt-got-its-metal-after-civilization-collapsed-in-3200-bce-1.9903941
Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/cultural-imperialism Accessed 16 June 2021
https://www.guardian.co.tt/article-6.2.389082.425943275e by Shereen Ali (oct 15, 2014)
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Western-colonialism/Portugals-seaborne-empire
Magdoff, Harry , Nowell, Charles E. and Webster, Richard A.. "Western colonialism". Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Dec. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Western-colonialism. Accessed 16 June 2021.
Gascoigne, Bamber. “History of The Papacy” HistoryWorld. From 2001, ongoing. http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ac65
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/colonialism
https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5644/
https://library.brown.edu/create/modernlatinamerica/chapters/chapter-14-the-united-states-and-latin-america/moments-in-u-s-latin-american-relations/a-history-of-united-states-policy-towards-haiti/
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Western-colonialism/Portugals-seaborne-empire
Magdoff, Harry , Nowell, Charles E. and Webster, Richard A.. "Western colonialism". Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Dec. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Western-colonialism. Accessed 16 June 2021.
Gascoigne, Bamber. “History of The Papacy” HistoryWorld. From 2001, ongoing. http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ac65
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/colonialism
https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5644/
https://library.brown.edu/create/modernlatinamerica/chapters/chapter-14-the-united-states-and-latin-america/moments-in-u-s-latin-american-relations/a-history-of-united-states-policy-towards-haiti/
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