What is colonialism and why is there so much talk about it now?
The term “colonialism” appeared only a little more than a hundred years ago. Its author, apparently, is the English economist and sociologist John Atkinson Hobson (1858-1940), who wrote a work called Imperialism: A Study (1902). It is possible that the term itself appeared even earlier, but it did not have a scientific content.
It is sometimes claimed that the term was coined by Paul Louis Marie Brousse (1844–1912), a French physician, participant in the Paris Commune and ideologist of social reformism. However, Brousse’s pamphlet was published three years later than Hobson’s.
The turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was a special time when a large number of intellectuals were engaged in research, proposing various terms, thus “discovering” new essences and invisible facets of human existence. Capitalism, imperialism, pauperism, extractivism are just a few of these inventions of the first half of the 20th century. Some have taken root, others have sunk into oblivion.
Hobson’s research became very popular all over the world, influencing many intellectuals of his time, in particular Vladimir Lenin and Karl Kautsky. As a result, colonialism became part of the vocabulary of left-wing writers, and then into the wider scientific community.
Critically examining the concept of “imperialism,” Hobson links it to colonialism and nationalism, calling them “brothers.” At the same time, he did distinguish between these concepts: “The modern territorial expansion of the metropolises differs sharply from the colonization of the sparsely populated lands of the temperate zone, where the white colonists bring with them the system of government, industry, and other achievements of civilization of their native country.”
In turn, Vladimir Lenin identified colonialism and imperialism: in his exposition, colonialism became a manifestation of imperialism, which, in turn, is the highest stage of the development of capitalism. Accordingly, colonialism, as an emanation of imperialism, came to be perceived as something that had to be fought mercilessly. That is why the left perceives colonialism (or what it perceives as colonialism) as an object of attack.
It is worth emphasizing here that colonialism is different from other concepts, such as colonial policy, colonization, and colonism. Colonialism originally had a negative connotation, since it described the trade and territorial expansion of developed countries. But this did not prevent the term from becoming common and beginning to absorb additional meanings. This is a common practice: after the invention of a term, scientists begin to saturate it with meanings.
As a consequence, today we know several forms of colonism at once: colonization as a form of organized resettlement of groups of people, exploitative colonialism, internal colonialism, national colonialism, commercial colonialism, surrogate colonialism, etc. that all “-isms” have an elusive and changeable character.
Today, “colonialism” is largely a reproachful word used by some African populist leaders to impose a political score on European states. It is also actively present in the language of Marxists, who thus designate the vectors of the class struggle.
The American and French anthropologist Scott Atran contributed to this language. In 1989, in his essay “The Surrogate Colonization of Palestine 1917–1939,” he coined the term “surrogate colonialism,” giving the old term an additional meaning. The bottom line is that during the colonization of Palestine, a foreign power (Great Britain) granted a non-indigenous group (the Jews) rights to land occupied by the indigenous people (the Arabs). In fact, it is largely thanks to Atran and others like him that the attention of the left has been focused on the Palestinian problem.
As a result, the “colonial policy of Israel” (the part of the territory of Palestine that fell under Israeli control) became an ideologically convenient pretext for strengthening the political influence of the left as part of the “struggle against capitalism.” In the spirit of early Hobson, the Jews appear in their minds as the world behind the scenes, which controls the flow of money and stimulates the development of imperialism.
The scientific understanding of the term is, of course, different from the political one. Modern scholars use the term “colonialism” mainly to characterize the events of the 19th and 20th centuries, but it is not possible to completely get rid of the “stuffy” content.
Thus, the concept of “colonialism” has a strong socio-political connotation, a vague interpretation, and belongs to the category of words that should be used with caution. And, if possible, replace them with some more specific and precise terms.