COLONIAL CONQUEST:
And the Emergence of Tropical Medicine
Monday, February 15, 1999
goals
where we have been
where we are going
overview
strategies
collaborative research track, 5 min.
key dates: quinine and guns, 10 min.
big themes: 10 min.
in-class writing: 10 min.
film: 45 min.
collaborative research track
goal one: get groups organized before break
goal two: March 17 papers
goal three: final projects
key dates: quinine and guns
2 momentous events in 19th c.
progress and power of industrial technology
domination and exploitation of Africa and much of Asia by Europeans
European control of world
1800, 35 percent of land surface of world
1878, 67 percent
1914, 84 percent
Imperialism
creation of colonies, which were
politically submissive and
economically profitable to their European metropoles
Frantz Fanon on colonialism
relationship of domination and subjection
violence
racial polarization
dehumanization
native, colonized intelligentsia as mediating group
GOAL and STAGES: pacified colonies
penetration and exploration by first Europeans
conquest of indigenous peoples; imposition of European rule
consolidation: make colony valuable adjunct to European economy
key technologies of these stages
penetration: steamers and quinine
conquest: rapid-firing rifles and machine guns
consolidation: steamship lines, telegraph cables, railroads
"the scramble"
dramatic expansion of European power in Africa
political motives
economic motives
Berlin Conference, 1884-85
critical period of new imperialism, 1880-1910
Conquest of Africa was CHEAPER than it had ever been
CHEAPER in lives and money that would ever be again
Both motives and means changed
True: growing European demand for colonies in the late 19th century.
Changes in TECHNOLOGY enabled MOTIVES to produce EVENTS.
Steamboats
harsh topography
lack of pack animals
areas with good water transportation colonized first
quinine
1880, French scientists discovered protozoa that invades blood stream
1897, vector, Anopholese mosquito, discovered
1820, French chemists extract alkaloid of quinine from cinchona bark
1827, commercial production of quinine began
quick-firing rifle
Technology is power.
History of imperialism is the history of warfare
gun revolution, 1860s-1890s
shift from muzzle-loaders to breech-loaders, 1860s
Maxim and other machine guns, 1890s
Disparity between the World War I rifle and the Napoleonic musket was greater than that between the musket and a bow and arrow.
Among most lopsided battles in history
for Africans: produced bewilderment and hopeless struggles
for Europeans: resembled hunting rather than war
"At no time in history has the distinction between tourists and conquerors been so blurred." Michael Adas
Winston Churchill
Battle of Omdurman, part of conquest of Sudan, 1898
Churchill took part in campaign
He declared it "the most signal triumph ever gained by the arms of science over barbarians."
Descriptions of these battles
emphasize not European superiority
but moral differences between opponents
European-led soldiers: daring, vigorous, resolute, bold
VS.
hordes of barbarians, savages, fanatics
WHY???
All of a sudden, after relative disinterest, do European states want formal annexation??
flow of new technologies
LOWERED THE COST in financial and human terms
made imperialism CHEAP
became acceptable to European peoples and states
"informal empire" and "legitimate commerce"
from about 1850
underwritten by social Darwinism from late 1850s
Berlin Conference, 1884-85
public signal, "Africa up for grabs"
"scramble" begins
1880-1918
conquest and pacification
1918-1940
interwar period
1945 plus
"development" begins
European origins of colonial medicine
sailed in the ships of explorers
marched with the armies of the colonizers
19th c. miasmatic theories
encouraged recourse to evasive measures
segregation
focus on European health
close of 19th c.: germ theory of disease
disease less identified with pathogenic landscapes
more with living "native reservoirs: of disease
segregation and sanitary cordons intensified
expansion beyond white/military enclave
make colonial labor more productive and profitable
colonial plantations and mines
epidemics
late 19th-early 20th century
hastened the growth of colonial states
shift from narrow priorities of colonial state
to public health
poverty and malnutrition
rural hygiene and sanitation
women’s and children’s health
late in the colonial day
in-class writing