This week through two major lectures from guest professors, as well as a journal article, we learned about three new specific places throughout the world that experienced colonization and the resulting reactions that came from imperial process. These three new locations included Jaffa in Israel, Paris (and Germany), and the Philippines. Here we will synthesize similar aspects discovered across these examples to acknowledge similarities and patterns.
To begin in Paris in 1900, Professor Shaya described the Paris Universal Exposition as a total display of European advancement. Simultaneously acknowledged in the same lecture, areas of western Germany such as the Rhineland and Ruhr valley were rapidly advancing multiplying consistently in population and ability to produce. However while innovation and power seemed to dominate the narrative of Paris and the included areas of imperial Germany at this time, underneath there was a large developing workers coalition building. This occurred primarily due to the abhorrent working conditions present in many factories and mines.
A couple years later in 1902, US President Teddy Roosevelt racialized the Philippine-American war by describing it as a conflict between “savages” and non-savages. Much like the misrepresentation of what was occurring in Paris and Germany, since the United States was a much wealthier imperial power it was able to establish the narrative in order to protect their wealth and the greater status quo.
The silencing of revolutions occurring during this time occurred consistently in this period so imperial powers were able to remain in power and continue exploiting those they saw as resources.