Urbanizing Frontiers: Indigenous peoples and settlers in 19th century Pacific Rim cities by Penelope Edmonds, and: Prophetic Identities: Indigenous missionaries on British colonial frontiers, 1850–75 by Tolly Bradford

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Penner
Author(s):  
Kim Knott

What impact did the presence of the Arabs and Turks, then the Europeans in India, have on the religious ideas and practices of Hindus? ‘Hinduism, colonialism, and modernity’ considers this question and, in particular, looks at the effect of British colonialism on Hinduism. Many of the new Hindu initiatives of the 19th century were pervaded in some way by the influence of western culture and Christian ideas. Many Hindu reformers, such as Gandhi, developed their ideas and actions from the context of British colonial rule. Gandhi sometimes imitated, sometimes resisted, but was always influenced by western conceptions of India and Hinduism.


Author(s):  
Carolyn Podruchny ◽  
Stacy Nation-Knapper

From the 15th century to the present, the trade in animal fur has been an economic venture with far-reaching consequences for both North Americans and Europeans (in which North Americans of European descent are included). One of the earliest forms of exchange between Europeans and North Americans, the trade in fur was about the garment business, global and local politics, social and cultural interaction, hunting, ecology, colonialism, gendered labor, kinship networks, and religion. European fashion, specifically the desire for hats that marked male status, was a primary driver for the global fur-trade economy until the late 19th century, while European desires for marten, fox, and other luxury furs to make and trim clothing comprised a secondary part of the trade. Other animal hides including deer and bison provided sturdy leather from which belts for the machines of the early Industrial Era were cut. European cloth, especially cotton and wool, became central to the trade for Indigenous peoples who sought materials that were lighter and dried faster than skin clothing. The multiple perspectives on the fur trade included the European men and indigenous men and women actually conducting the trade; the indigenous male and female trappers; European trappers; the European men and women producing trade goods; indigenous “middlemen” (men and women) who were conducting their own fur trade to benefit from European trade companies; laborers hauling the furs and trade goods; all those who built, managed, and sustained trading posts located along waterways and trails across North America; and those Europeans who manufactured and purchased the products made of fur and the trade goods desired by Indigenous peoples. As early as the 17th century, European empires used fur-trade monopolies to establish colonies in North America and later fur trading companies brought imperial trading systems inland, while Indigenous peoples drew Europeans into their own patterns of trade and power. By the 19th century, the fur trade had covered most of the continent and the networks of business, alliances, and families, and the founding of new communities led to new peoples, including the Métis, who were descended from the mixing of European and Indigenous peoples. Trading territories, monopolies, and alliances with Indigenous peoples shaped how European concepts of statehood played out in the making of European-descended nation-states, and the development of treaties with Indigenous peoples. The fur trade flourished in northern climes until well into the 20th century, after which time economic development, resource exploitation, changes in fashion, and politics in North America and Europe limited its scope and scale. Many Indigenous people continue today to hunt and trap animals and have fought in courts for Indigenous rights to resources, land, and sovereignty.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 254-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Retief Müller

This article focuses on two British colonial territories in southern and central Africa, Mashonaland and Nyasaland in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. It concerns the history of Afrikaner missionaries from South Africa’s Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), and their relationships with opposing interest groups. The period in question saw some inter-ethnic conflict among indigenous peoples, which included an underground slave trade, as well as much colonial-indigenous strife. The article particularly considers the balancing act missionaries sought to achieve in terms of their paternalistic, yet interdependent relationships with indigenous rulers over against their equally ambiguous relationships with the colonial authorities. As such this article presents a novel way of looking at Afrikaner missionaries and their entanglements with indigenous leaders.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document