MAKING OF THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

“Race-Making and Colonial Violence in the U.S. Empire” centers on the experiences of Filipinos after their revolution against Spanish colonial rule, and how the U.S.’s military intervention served to continue the same racism that the Philippines had tried to fight back against with Spain. The intervention was overtly framed as a “race war”, especially so by President Theodore Roosevelt and the U.S. military occupation. Race was prevalent in one of two ways; first, elite quests for recognition on the part of Filipinos, especially the affirmation of civilizational status that could lead to political rights and independence, and second, U.S. racial denigration of Filipinos by finding in them a lack of civilization for engaging in nontraditional battle tactics.

During occupation by the U.S., but before it formed a postwar treaty with Spain, Filipinos for the most part tended to welcome U.S. inspectors with great hospitality and fanfare, so as to impart upon them the fact that they are a civilized people. This would ideally aid Filipino efforts in presenting themselves as capable of self-governance or organization, given the uncertainty of their fate in the face of U.S.-Spain postwar negotiations. In the reporting of the newspaper, La Independencia, the sovereignty of the Republic was reinforced through focuses on the successful rule in the provinces, humanitarian treatment of Spanish prisoners, and explorations of just government practices. However, U.S. soldiers for their part usually brought racial practices with them from the U.S., applying racial slurs often reserved for blacks towards Filipinos. Filipinos were generally looked at as uncivilized and filthy.

The Americans put great emphasis on the idea of a “civilized war”, urging Filipino revolutionaries to surrender with honor, lest they betray common notions of “civilization” through their guerilla campaigns. Fighters who reject the principles of proper surrender in a war, and continuing prolonged and “useless” war, would out themselves as being incompetent in managing civil affairs. Filipino revolutionary leaders counterargued that the same laws of war that authorize strong nations’ use of “powerful weapons of combat” against weak ones also justified the weak to use guerilla warfare, especially in defending themselves against invaders. In essence, this would serve to separate guerilla warfare from the ethnological to being simply tactical, and to maintain the claim to civilization that the Filipino revolutionaries so desired in their attempts at attaining self-governance.

 

The key take-away from this piece would be to emphasize the U.S. racial denigration of Filipino revolutionaries overall. This was accomplished first by U.S. soldiers bringing racist culture and understandings with them, treating Filipinos the same way they would blacks. Local residents and newspapers would peacefully counter racist assertions through emphasis on their civilized self-rule, humanitarianism, and interests in the complex facets of government building. The second dimension was that of the U.S. occupancy framing Filipino guerilla warfare as being uncharacteristic of a civilized society and attempting to collapse their claims to self-governance on them. Filipino revolutionaries for their part would point to the hypocrisy of these claims, as the same honor in stronger states subjugating weaker states would then give them the justification to fight back and defend themselves against the invaders.

According to the reading, The US-Philippine War was deeply influenced by racial science ideas of the time, which viewed the world as a competition between various races or “subspecies” of humans and by the general racist attitudes of American troops who entered the islands without much resistance from Spanish arms. The war was really about a reaction from the Filipinos about American racism and a desire by the Filipinos for self determination. To the Filipinos, the US was no different in many ways from the previous occupying power of Spain. However, beyond just being a product of racial attitudes, the war also influenced them; it popularized the notion that “lesser races” could weaken democracy, and therefore promoted racism and isolationism.

The takeaways from this reading are twofold:

1. Racial attitudes are not set in stone. They were developed as a social construct and are not inherent to humanity, and because they are a social construct they are constantly changing.
2. The United States did function as a typical imperial power in the example of the Philippine war; it cannot be considered completely different from Europe in regards to imperial attitudes in the late 19th century.

This writing was about the implications of ginseng, both geographically and economically. Author Kuriyama talks about the popularity of ginseng in East Asia due to its enriching effects on the body. He talks about how ginseng only grew in certain climates around the world and could only be found in a select few places. This would cause countries like Japan do spend major amounts of money in imports of ginseng as well as research how to grow ginseng in their territory. He also talks about how East Asians saw the root as a tool and medicine whereas it never caught on in countries like the United States because they saw the product as a commodity in which they could sell and make a profit off of. Finally he talks about the current standing of ginseng and how it has morphed into what it has become today.

Take Aways: Economy/Money has immense amounts of power, one resource caused a great deal of action around the world, whether if it was through exporting, importing or trying to find sources of their own. // Ginseng had immense effects on the the actions of many countries. It caused a lot of research and development as well as new products to develop (ie Kombu).

This article discusses broad Latin American ideologies and concepts while focusing specifically on singular events and countries. The time period would be late 19 century and into the 20th century as well. Mexican independence in 1910 was an excellent example of hope which blossomed in the early 20th century. While it is not truly a Latin American country, the new projects and changes proposed were revolutionary and hopeful. This age in Latin America was also considered the golden age of export oligarchy, which meant railroads played a crucial role in the mass exportation of goods which began in Latin America. Another broad concept in Latin America around this time was the idea of progress, then change. This meant an officials desired for an iron hand to be implemented so that progress could realistically be made. Another key factor to the success of this policy was the idea that large scale success in states would in turn allow for cities and communities within that state to prosper as a result.  It was a trickle down effect in that sense. However, violence and conflict was prevalent throughout a handful of countries, and bad policies were often forced upon people in order to restore control. Through all this, Latin America saw a golden age of export boom as countries were able to enter the global economy through this. Photographs were another key point in this article. They were used as the first documentation of poor working conditions but also the progress and expansion of the time period. Overall, it was a very useful technology to discover in such a time period.

Throughout the article, the correspondent travels Africa to document the state of the countries that are seen as impoverished, war-torn nations that are impossible to reconcile into civilization. Statistics that the number of democratic nations in Africa from the Cold War to the present day shows that there were only three were democratic has now risen to over twenty, with twenty-two holding elections for president or prime minister. Chinese trade has increased from $11 to $116 billion; while some of this money is still stolen to be put into the pockets of corrupt officials, this new income has gone towards the construction of schools and hospitals, infrastructure, and social programs. This infrastructure has made the continent more easily traversed, and cell-signal is nearly constant across the continent. Borders can be crossed with on-site or through the capital visas that are purchased for a few dollars.

War-ravaged countries do still exist, such as Guinea-Bissau, however, the number of armed conflicts, near thirty after the cold war, has reduced to a little over ten. Sierra Leone is experiencing fewer murders than NYC, partly due to the ban on private guns. Since this ban, newfound peace has given UN peacekeepers the chance to leave Sierra Leone to help Sudan instead. The correspondent writes, “Peace isn’t here yet, but it’s on its way.”

Governments are becoming more educated, the bar of political debates is rising, but some problems are fixed easier using bribes instead of meetings. Embezzlement of export incomes still causes problems, but some money is still reaching communities in countries such as Kenya through the construction of previously mentions amenities and infrastructure. Africa’s landlocked central countries still face the worst poverty and conditions in the continent. These countries sit on a wealth of natural resources, and private organizations and the government fight for individual mines and ports. Money from these ventures would go towards improvements in these countries, but each side beefs up their fighting power to keep the other side in check. Algeria jails political dissidents and exists without democratic elections. Due to a lack of trade, and therefore a lack of income, these countries remain in the poverty-stricken state they have had for decades.

Even though there are still many problems that all of Africa faces, the continent as a whole is on an economic rise, governments are learning to control their states while allowing their citizens to create a life for themselves. Tech startups are pushing for a more advanced continent, investors are reaching out to take advantage of untapped markets, and the GDP of nearly every country is increasing yearly. Cold War Africa is a thing of the past, and people are realizing this slowly, but surely.

An essential concept for understanding the 20th and 21st century is Colonialism. Colonialism is the process of acquiring political control over another country, pushing cultural norms on the native population, filling it with settlers as well as utilizing the economic resources it may offer. Key aspects of colonialism include the propagation of racial hierarchies, exploitation of the native population through slavery or indentured servitude and major cultural shifts within the country under control. The significance of colonialism is that it has left a legacy of racism, ethnic devisions and untethered economies in the countries it has directly effected across the world. But at the same time it has been a contributing factor to the development of globalization, development of countries and trade as well as the creation of formal diplomatic boundaries still recognized to this day in some cases.

Essay Question: Which factor played a greater role in the development of nations, colonization or decolonization?

Answer: Colonization most likely did because it initiated the foundations for nationalism that would later become the conflicts that started decolonization, moreover the European countries that usually colonized less developed countries had offered those countries greater outlets for trading as well as communication. This connection of other countries had made the economies in the colonized countries grow at a accelerated pace. These factors overall helped the less developed countries engage in more globalization as well as develop their economies on a level that could survive against the massive powers of Europe during this time. De-colonization does not play as big of a role because the nationalism utilized was initially developed during the colonial period.

Emily Huwigt/ Paris Stirrat/ Alex Pollitt/ Eric Wasserzug/ Kamron Knowlton