Introduction
Europeans easily defeated all of Africa and managed to separate Africa into minor colonies. A colony is a section of the continent managed by one particular European state. For instance, England managed colonies such as Rhodesia; France controlled nations such as Algeria; Under Imperialism, there were many different types of colonies.
This included plantation, settler, occupation and entrepot (Tiffin & Ashcroft 2002). This paper will discuss plantation and settler colonies. It will compare and contrast the experience of empires in plantation and settler colonies.
In the original imperialism stages, the Europeans aim was to triumph over new lands so as to obtain raw materials which were not accessible in their home country. They also aimed at winning new people to Christianity.
Following industrialization, imperialism of the whites has changed; Imperialists during the post- industrial period looked for raw materials to supply to the factories of the natives while looking for new market places for their already produced goods. This imperialism led to the development of real empires and no empire, however was effectively enough to starve off the penetration of the whites. By the year 1850, the new imperialism established a contest to develop empires overseas (Morgan & Hawkins 2006).
Discussion
Colonialism is the occupation and management of one country by another. The European nations have colonized many world areas for the preceding years. Plantation and settler colonies are two distinct means through which the Europeans developed colonies in the Americans. These were founded on their rationale for colonization. The French established plantation colonies since they were concerned in doing business for furs with the indigenous Americans.
Britain was in need of raw materials for its industries in the United Kingdom. They, therefore took immense territories of land for cultivation and to use in their industries. They established plantation colonies to satisfy their wants. The British also needed to establish colonies for settlers to arrive and develop new cities that would be governed by the mother nation and pay duties to Britain. These were known as settler colonies (Tiffin & Ashcroft 2002).
Colonial rule however, differed in distinct ways; the treatment of the indigenous Americans was also different in the varying colonies. The British pressed the resident Americans out of their way to establish the settler and plantation colonies. The French on the other hand, treated their resident Americans well and developed these colonies besides River Mississippi so as to trade moderately (Morgan & Hawkins 2006).
Settler colonies were the first colonies; in these colonies, many Europeans migrated to Africa and stayed in colonies. It involved the whites and blacks staying and working subsequently. Plantation colony is an early system of colonization; settlers were planted overseas so as to develop a lasting or semi lasting colonial foundation. In this system, colonies were intended to support the growth of western civilization and Christianity among neighboring natives. This is evident in America and especially in the East Coast Plantations (Fredrickson 1988).
Plantation colonies were the economical foundation of most of the American colonies. The climax of these plantation colonies was in the 18th century particularly the sugar farms in Caribbean that relied on slave labor and in this case, Britain flourished as the leading slaving state in the Atlantic globe.
Slaves were transferred to the Caribbean farms between the year 1690 and 1807. Since the life of slavery on these plantations was ruthless and slaves demised without having children, a steady supply of slaves was necessary; these slaves were obtained from Africa to sustain the plantation economy.
There was a decreasing slave population, but in the year 1840, the slaves exceeded the whites. They supplied all the physical labor and this labor led to a spectacular change in the feeding habits of Britons. For instance, the Europeans used four sugar pounds in the year 1700, by the year 1800, this had increased to 16. The bedrock of plantation colonies was agriculture, especially the cultivation of cash crops. Slaves (Tiffin & Ashcroft 2002).
In settler colonies, the Europeans acquired the fertile African lands and were concerned with making lots of money from these African territories. They however did not want to carry out the hard works associated to it and they therefore made the natives to carry out these tasks on their behalf. In some settler colonies, the whites obliged many Africans to construct railway trails via the country; during this time, many Africans died due to starvation and ailments.
In plantation colonies, the Europeans forced the Africans to pay profound taxes, this was not done in settler colonies. The Africans had to toil for the Europeans so as to make sufficient money to pay the large levies. Europeans therefore became prosperous while the Africans life worsened (Morgan & Hawkins 2006).
Settler colonialism involved distant family units shifting into a region and having children in that new country. Land was the foremost resource in settler colonies while natural and human resources such as adaptable souls and labor were the key resources in plantation colonies.
Settler colonies were long lasting except in the uncommon circumstances of total evacuation. Settlers went to a country to live; they were initiators of political commands and they carried with them a different sovereign capability. Settler colonies usually attempted to make the native residents of a nation fade away, they first utilized their labor before making them vanish. Settler colonies have expansively occurred all through even in the primordial times. The Roman Empire frequently set up settler colonies in recently subjugated regions.
The colonists in settler colonies were experts of the Roman military who established farming land; these agricultural societies offered bastions of faithful citizens in unfriendly regions of the Empire. They hastened the Romanization practice amidst the conquered communities who were in proximity to them.
An example of a settler colony is the colony near the town of Damascus. The modern settlements of Mezze and Deraya also draw their origin from communities established for settlement by the Romans (Morgan & Hawkins 2006).
Settler colonies were exclusive in nature. In these colonies, settlers took the place of the indigenous people in their native lands and this is different from plantation colonies. In settler colonies, the whites sought an enduring stake in their land while in plantation colonies, the whites sought just to utilize the resources of the natives.
Another difference between the two colonies is that, in the plantation colonies, the whites concern was aimed at obtaining cheap labor; this was in the beginning via slavery, but with time, it grew to paid labor while in settler colonies, the main concern lay on exceptional control of the new land.
In plantation colonies, the economic interest of the whites relied on labor management rather than land management of the colonized populace. The necessity to protect British rule in settler colonies like Australia weakened with time. Settler domination rose and the termination of slavery during the middle decades undermined governments (Morgan & Hawkins 2006).
Another principal difference between settler colonies and plantation colonies is that settlers had a tendency of living endearingly in settler colonies. By taking ownership of land and farming on it, there was no much contemplation of the settlers going back to their homes. In settler colonies, the occupying Europeans exterminated, dislocated and marginalized the natives to become a popular non indigenous populace.
In plantation colonies, the settlers comprised of a comparatively small but influential assembly of white planters. These were mainly interested in controlling and administering the utilization of resources as well as conserving the geopolitical concern of the municipal state.
These rarely remained on following the termination of their mission. Examples of these colonies include Nigeria and India. Though there were many natives in these countries, they were regulated by a distant power. Colonial rule was majorly set up by the arrival of urban settlers in large numbers. These gained power over the regions by discussions with the former inhabitants. They cultivated unproductive and barely populated areas.
With time, these metropolitan settlers became large in numbers. The management of these lands was entirely under the settlers with the original residents being resettled in the rural areas. These original residents were not able to stand for themselves politically. Their sovereignty was confined in the reserves. Expansion developments of the settlers totally served their wants. They did not benefit the natives. They only diminished them to paucity and structural reliance (Fredrickson 1988).
Because of the aggressive manner in which the natives were opposed to plantation settlers at first, there was no extensive and organized authority to contradict their settler rules. As time passed by, the settlers gradually stopped to identify with their urban nation. They were able to take their own identity for granted.
This was different from the new and the native states which they had left. The resulting colonial fight backs were those amongst the whites. The imperial procedure lingered in the new states. This was to continue defeating the former residents and gain land and riches (Mitchell 2000).
In settler colonies, the colonial procedure meant complete take over of the new nation. For instance, Australia and New Zealand saw the diminution of their native populations to small alien inferiors. Their duty on the global scale was acting as ethnographic subjects. A confident degree of ambivalence besieged the survival of the natives. The sagacity of displacement incited the recognition that they belonged nowhere.
They, therefore, no longer categorized themselves with the state where they initially came from. They also did not make out effortlessly with the original populace. This was especially tricky in settlements where the native inhabitants formed the greater part of the population. An example of this intricacy experienced by the settlers and the natives is South Rhodesia (Fredrickson 1988).
Through an optimistic lens, this ambivalence showed that there is finding of a new custom. This neither belonged to the imperial nation from which they originated nor the native customs that they lived besides. As a custom, it was perceptibly of a cross breed nature, with adoptions from previous societies influencing social and artistic constructs. This included verbal communication, finances and education.
Plantation colonies were different from settler colonies especially when it comes to the place of women. European ladies were less appreciated in plantation colonies compared to settler colonies. In plantation colonies, women were taken as companions and instruments of reproducing.
In settler colonies, the safety and productiveness of women was crucial to the colonial practice. Settler colonies in association with the ambivalence adjoining the situation of the settlers attested to be a fascinating study field. Reactions to empire in settler communities constituted a site of disputing and contradicting claims. This was a range of recognitions and subjectivities which declined to cohere tidily into oppositional post colonialism (Fredrickson 1988).
Settler colonies were quite different from plantation colonies. The Europeans practicing plantation colonies were unable to settle since they were fought away by the Africans. Settler colonies were better for the life of the natives compared to plantation colonies. Racism was highly manifested in plantation colonies than in settler colonies. Only the blacks were slaves in plantation colonies (Mitchell 2000).
A similarity between settler and plantation colonies is in the fact that both the Europeans searched for a technique of getting wealthy at the expense of the Africans. In plantation colonies, the Europeans obliged the Africans to cultivate certain crops. The Whites could then trade these crops in other regions of the globe. The Africans grew crops such as cotton and tobacco. The whites would trade these crops at relatively higher charges and benefit from the earned proceeds. Plantation colonies intricate the Africans.
They could not provide for their families since they had to cultivate only cash crops. They did not grow food crops for themselves and their families. As the whites became rich, the Africans became shoddier and were not able to supply or nourish their families. It is clear that in, both plantation and settler colonies, the Europeans grew wealthy at the expense of the blacks (Fredrickson 1988).
References
Fredrickson, M. (1988) The arrogance of race: historical perspectives on slavery, racism, and social inequality. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press
Mitchell, G. (2000) Native vs. settler: ethnic conflict in Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, and South Africa. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Morgan, D. & Hawkins, S. (2006) Black Experience and the Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tiffin, H., & Ashcroft, B. (2002 The empire writes back: theory and practice in post-colonial literatures. Routledge: Routledge Publishers.