World Regional Geography

(SP14, Geography 2750)

Austin Kocher
Tuesday & Thursday, 9:35AM10:55AM
Jennings Hall 0040
Geographic Perspectives
Knowledge is power, but the question is complicated by something else: namely
that it is not enough to know a set of relations existing at a given moment as if
they were a given system, one also needs to know them genetically thats to
say the story of their formation, because every individual is not only a synthesis
of existing relations, but also the history of those relations, which means the
rsum of all of the past. ---Antonio Gramsci (Q10, 54; SPN 353)

When we look at the world around us, it often APPEARS to be natural to us.
The purpose of a geographic analysis is to understand how and why
human beings produce the world they inhabit.
Colonialism
Definition (DHG, on Carmen)
An enduring relationship of domination and mode of dispossession, usu-
ally (or at least initially) between an indigenous (or enslaved) majority and
a minority of interlopers (colonizers), who are convinced of their own
superiority, pursue their own interests, and exercise power through a
mixture of coercion, persuasion, conflict and collaboration.
Two Waves of Colonialism
1. First Wave: 1500s 1800s
a. extension of European resources extraction (raw materials, gold)
b. focused on the Americas and Asia
2. Second Wave: late 1800s 1960s
a. extension of capitalist markets and labor systems (cheap industrialized labor)
b. focused on Africa
Case Study 1: African Exploitation
pre-colonial period
one of worlds early centers of
civilization
many dynasties
cultural centers in cities and
nomadic societies
connected to Arab and Indian
economic routes across Indian
ocean
Case Study 1: African Exploitation
marked by exploration
European settlements on the coasts
just a way to get to India and East
Asia
some resource extraction
1652: Dutch East India Company
supply station founded in Cape
Town
Africa
first wave colonialism
(1650 1880)
marked by exploration
European settlements on
the coasts
just a way to get to India
and East Asia
some resource extraction
1652: Dutch East India
Company supply station
founded in Cape Town
Africa: Second wave colonialism (1880 1940)
Scramble for Africa: European strategy to partition the African continent.
Berlin Conference (1884)

key players key decision key result

Britain European powers Europeans
France agreed not to go to war rushed to
Germany over Africa conquer the
Belgium guiding principle: if you entire continent
Portugal have soldiers or settlers
Spain on the land, its yours
Italy
Africa: Second
wave colonialism
(1880 1940)
Scramble for Africa had
geographic consequences
Africa: Second
wave colonialism
industry oriented towards
export for Europe
intense resource
extraction and exploited
labor
no investment in local
economy or infrastructure
no training for local
bureaucracy
Africa:
Decolonization
colonies become very
expensive to maintain
need for new markets,
new investment, new
waged labor
intense political
opposition in Africa to
colonization
Cold War politics, must
promote freedom
Case Study 2: Images of Superiority
exploitation often took
place alongside
ideological
transformation
image: Pocahontas being
baptized before
marrying John Rolfe
what does this painting
symbolize?
But where does this
painting hang?
Case Study 2: Images of Superiority
Rotunda in U.S.
Congress

What does this painting

symbolize when it hangs
in this space?

See Thinking Fast and

Slow for how images
prime our judgements
and behaviors.
Next class...
We will ask:
How did geographic knowledge contribute to colonialism and state-building?
Read excerpt from Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson.
What is a map, census, and museum - according to Anderson?
What is the relationship between these and colonialism?
What makes each of these geographic in some way?