The historical phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the crusaders, among others. Colonialism in the modern sense began with the “Age of Discovery”, led by Portuguese, and then by the Spanish exploration of the Americas, the coasts of Africa, Southwest Asia which is also known as the Middle East, India, and East Asia. The Portuguese and Spanish empires were the first global empires because they were the first to stretch across different continents, covering vast territories around the globe. Between 1580 and 1640, the two empires were both ruled by the Spanish monarchs in personal union. During the late 16th and 17th centuries, England, France and the Dutch Republic also established their own overseas empires, in direct competition with one another” (Ross, 1). From the beginnings of humanity the powerful and more advanced civilization will be expanding to adjacent territories and beyond.
With the ”Age of Discovery” the Spanish conquered South America and the native Indians ( bear in mind that this term was given on the mistaken identity of the people of ”India”) were disseminated and forced work in agriculture and mining. When they were proved to not be fit for such strenuous labor they introduced slaves from Africa. ” Slavery operated in the first civilizations (such as Sumer in Mesopotamia, which dates back as far as 3500 BC). Slavery features in the Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi (c. 1860 BCE), which refers to it as an established institution. Slavery was widespread in the ancient world” (Encyclopedia, 1). This duality of colonization and the motherland, resonates with the concept of Hegel of Master-Slave. In South America and the new territories, such as The Viceroyalty of New Granada also called Viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada or Viceroyalty of Santa Fe : the jurisdiction of the Spanish Empire in northern South America, corresponding to modern Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela.
All of these territories became independent and autonomous. The same fate happened in 1776 in the United States. When the 13 Colonies became independent from the ”motherland”. In thinking about immigration one has to bring the issue of legal immigration and illegal immigration. This is subject to a wide range of moral and ethical dilemmas that would be out of my scope to consider. Finalizing my essay on a bright note: people flee to find better opportunities for their families as the case of the Syrian refugees flooding the European estates as Germany and Finland or the Southern border of America, and even Venezuelan people leaving their country to Colombia away from communism.The premise is improving and struggling to have a better life. To this day , I have not seen people trying to go to Cuba, Venezuela or North Korea.
References:
Ross, Elliot. “The Past Is Still Present: Why Colonialism Deserves Better Coverage.” The Correspondent, 9 Oct. 2019, https://thecorrespondent.com/32/the-past-is-still-present-why-colonialism-deserves-better-coverage/34856800000-34372b68.
New Granada, Viceroyalty. Edited by Encyclopedia of Latin American history and culture, Encyclopedia.com, 26 Oct. 2021, https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/new-granada-viceroyalty.
I think that this context presentation is not only incredibly important for laying the foundation for this week’s material, but also for the entire foundation of this course. I think that it is easy to see more recent examples in our society that we have been alive to experience, but this doesn’t allow us to truly understand the magnitude and the span of colonization and the way in which it was allowed to become intertwined with human history hundreds and hundreds of years ago. The way in which you progressed this discussion from colonization to slavery to modern day immigration showed that colonialism has taken many faces over human history, but remains rooted in the same sentiments.
Thank you for providing the information about colonization and immigration. The history of colonization made many people’s life different, and when we connect this situationa with immigration, we can get some understanding about the people who’s country was used to be colonized and later immigrated. Which is also a topic related to the book we read this week.
Thank you for your post! I do find that this is a very interesting and deep topic. Colonization is such a huge issue currently as well as in the past. But, I believe you did an excellent job and explaining the immigration and colonization.
Your post was very informative and insightful. You gave a deep list with many examples of colonization throughout history as well as the impacts that resulted. It’s crazy to think about how large an impact colonization has had on the world as it has been practiced and taken multiple forms for as long as people have been here.
Thank you for your post! What I learned about colonialism only appears during the War World 2 period, but from your context post, I knew a lot more history about colonialism. In the future, I would like to take this information when I analyzing history materials