Imperialism/Colonialism/Alterity
It is important to explore the meaning of colonialism and imperialism in relation to the historical and socio-political context of Death in Venice. It is also important to note some colonial powers, especially those representatives of the story itself.
Pg. 56: "He looked over at the cabanas in the perpendicular row, but no sooner did he spy the Russian family going about its business in cheerful harmony than a storm cloud of angry disdain came over his face the forehead wrinkled into a dark frown; the mouth rose up, pulling the lips to one side in a bitter grimace that rent the cheek; the brows grew so deeply furrowed that the eyes seemed to have sunk under the pressure, glowering out from beneath them, speaking the language of hate. He looked down, looked back again ominously, then thrust one shoulder forward in a show of repulsion and rebuff, and left his enemies behind (Death in Venice, Pg. 56)".
Here Tadzio's body language voices a very loud socio-political disdain for an Imperialist Russia that had essentially ravaged his own country (Poland) in an attempt to make it Russian; by eliminating his culture, relgion, and even his language.
Colonialism
Colonialism is the extension of a nation's sovereignty over territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler or exploitation colonies in which indigenous populations are directly ruled, displaced, or exterminated. Colonizing nations generally dominate the resources, labor, and markets of the colonial territory, and may also impose socio-cultural, religious, and linguistic structures on the indigenous population (see also cultural imperialism). It is essentially a system of direct political, economic, and cultural intervention and hegemony by a powerful country in a weaker one. Though the word colonialism is often used interchangeably with imperialism, the latter is sometimes used more broadly as it covers control exercised informally (via influence) as well as formal military control or economic leverage.
The term colonialism may also be used to refer to an ideology or a set of beliefs used to legitimize or promote this system. Colonialism was often based on the ethnocentric belief that the morals and values of the colonizer were superior to those of the colonized; some observers link such beliefs to racism and pseudo-scientific theories dating from the 18th to the 19th centuries. In the western world, this led to a form of proto-social Darwinism that placed white people at the top of the animal kingdom, "naturally" in charge of dominating non-European aboriginal populations.
Works Cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialism
German colonial empire
The German colonial empire was an overseas area formed in the late 19th century as part of the Hohenzollern dynasty's German Empire. Short-lived colonial efforts by individual German states had occurred in preceding centuries, but Imperial Germany's colonial efforts began in 1883. The German colonial empire ended with the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 following World War I.
German Empire
Owing to its delayed unification by land-oriented Prussia in 1871, Germany came late to the imperialist scramble for remote colonial territory — their so-called "place in the sun." The German states prior to 1870 had retained separate political structures and goals, and German foreign policy up to and including the age of Otto von Bismarck concentrated on resolving the "German question" in Europe and securing German interests on that same continent.[1] On the other hand, Germans had traditions of foreign sea-borne trade dating back to the Hanseatic League; a tradition existed of German emigration (eastward in the direction of Russia and Romania and westward to North America); and North German merchants and missionaries showed lively interest in overseas engagements. It was above all the Hanseatic republics of Hamburg and Bremen that sent traders across the globe. It was these trading houses who conducted themselves as successful “Privatkolonisatoren” [independent colonizers] and concluded treaties and land purchases in Africa and the Pacific with chiefs or other tribal leaders, but saw no advantage in any governmental meddling or oversight.[2] The rise of German imperialism coincided with the latter stages of the "scramble for Africa," during which Germany competed with other European powers for control of the last unexplored continent's territories.
Many Germans in the late 19th century viewed colonial acquisitions as a true indication of having achieved nationhood. Public opinion eventually arrived at an understanding that prestigious African and Pacific colonies went hand-in-hand with dreams of a High Seas Fleet. Both aspirations would become reality, nurtured by a press replete with “Kolonialfreunde” [supporters of colonial acquisitions] and by a myriad of geographical associations and colonial societies. Bismarck did not conduct an aggressive colonial policy. It was not geopolitical or strategic considerations, nor emigration that guided the chancellor; it was merely the protection of trade, the safeguarding of raw materials and export markets that were the motives for his conversion to the colonial idea in the last quarter of his time in office.[3]
Because Germany was so late to join the race for colonial territories, most of the world had already been carved up by the other European powers; in some regions the trend was already towards decolonisation, especially in the continental Americas, encouraged by the American Revolution, French Revolution, and Napoleon Bonaparte.
Nevertheless, Germany did assemble an overseas empire (see List of former German colonies) in less than two decades. Acquisitions and the growth of the colonies was accomplished in a variety ways, but principally through mercantile domination and succeeding “take-overs,” through agreements and treaties with other colonial powers or interests, and through the purchase of land or island groups.[4] The leadership in Berlin committed the nation to financially support, maintain, develop and defend these possessions across the oceans.
War, however, changed everything. In the course of the First World War (1914-1918) and its subsequent peace treaties, primarily the Treaty of Versailles,[5] the victorious Allied Powers dismantled and annexed this empire among themselves by bringing forth “the renewal, not the end, of an imperial era,”[6] and a concurrent “huge scramble” for territorial aggrandizement.[7]
In the treaties concerning African protectorates, France and Britain divided German Kamerun (Cameroons); Belgium gained small parts of northwestern German East Africa; the United Kingdom by far the greater landmass, thus seizing the “missing link” in the chain of British possessions stretching from South Africa to Egypt (Cape to Cairo). Togoland was divided between France and Britain; German South West Africa was annexed to the Union of South Africa. In the Pacific Japan gained Germany’s islands north of the equator (the Carolines and Marianas) and Kiaochow (Jiaozhou) Bay in China. German Samoa and German New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago were assigned to New Zealand and Australia as mandatories.[8] This placing of responsibility on white-settler dominions was at the time perceived to be the cheapest option for the British government, although it did have the bizarre result of British colonies having their own colonies. This outcome was very much influenced by W.M. Hughes, William Massey, and Louis Botha, the prime ministers of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.[9]
German East Africa remained a special case. The colony’s military commander, Generalmajor Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, led his formations undefeated through the colony and into British and Portuguese territories. Then finally on 25 November 1918 at Abercorn in Northern Rhodesia he oversaw “the capitulation of an army that had not lost to an army that had not won.”[10] In March of 1919, Lettow-Vorbeck on a black charger led his repatriated soldiers through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin giving the defeated nation its only victory parade.
Works Cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_colonization_of_the_Americas
Imperialism
Cecil Rhodes: Cape-Cairo railway project. Founded the De Beers Mining Company and owned the British South Africa Company, which established Rhodesia for itself. He liked to "paint the map British red", and declared: "all of these stars ... these vast worlds that remain out of reach. If I could, I would annex other planets".[1]
Imperialism has two meanings, one describing an action and the other describing an attitude. Most commonly it is understood in relation to Empire building, as the expansion of a nation's authority by territorial conquest establishing economic and political powers in other territories or nations, and when such encompasses non-contiguous "colonies" or "protectorates" then the term also subsumes Colonialism. In that sense, most European seafaring powers were at one time or another Colonialistic and therefore Imperialistic, regardless of their exploitation or benevolence toward their colonial possessions and people.
In its second meaning the term describes the imperialistic attitude of superiority, subordination and dominion over foreign people— a chauvinism and comportment relegating foreign people to a lesser social and or political status. To clarify the distinction, the French colonies in North America treated the native races with great diplomacy,[citation needed] whereas the British colonies early on began treating native Americans chauvinistically, as savages and lesser creatures.[citation needed]
Imperialism is often autocratic, e.g. in early 20th century Japan,[2] and sometimes monolithic [3] in character. While the term imperialism often refers to a contiguous political or geographical domain such as the Ottoman Empire[4] the Russian Empire,[5] or the British Empire,[6] etc the term can equally be applied to domains of knowledge, beliefs, values and expertise, such as the empires of Christianity (see Christendom)[7] or Islam (see Caliphate).[8]
Works Cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism
The German colonial empire was an overseas area formed in the late 19th century as part of the Hohenzollern dynasty's German Empire. Short-lived colonial efforts by individual German states had occurred in preceding centuries, but Imperial Germany's colonial efforts began in 1883. The German colonial empire ended with the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 following World War I.
German Empire
Owing to its delayed unification by land-oriented Prussia in 1871, Germany came late to the imperialist scramble for remote colonial territory — their so-called "place in the sun." The German states prior to 1870 had retained separate political structures and goals, and German foreign policy up to and including the age of Otto von Bismarck concentrated on resolving the "German question" in Europe and securing German interests on that same continent.[1] On the other hand, Germans had traditions of foreign sea-borne trade dating back to the Hanseatic League; a tradition existed of German emigration (eastward in the direction of Russia and Romania and westward to North America); and North German merchants and missionaries showed lively interest in overseas engagements. It was above all the Hanseatic republics of Hamburg and Bremen that sent traders across the globe. It was these trading houses who conducted themselves as successful “Privatkolonisatoren” [independent colonizers] and concluded treaties and land purchases in Africa and the Pacific with chiefs or other tribal leaders, but saw no advantage in any governmental meddling or oversight.[2] The rise of German imperialism coincided with the latter stages of the "scramble for Africa," during which Germany competed with other European powers for control of the last unexplored continent's territories.
Many Germans in the late 19th century viewed colonial acquisitions as a true indication of having achieved nationhood. Public opinion eventually arrived at an understanding that prestigious African and Pacific colonies went hand-in-hand with dreams of a High Seas Fleet. Both aspirations would become reality, nurtured by a press replete with “Kolonialfreunde” [supporters of colonial acquisitions] and by a myriad of geographical associations and colonial societies. Bismarck did not conduct an aggressive colonial policy. It was not geopolitical or strategic considerations, nor emigration that guided the chancellor; it was merely the protection of trade, the safeguarding of raw materials and export markets that were the motives for his conversion to the colonial idea in the last quarter of his time in office.[3]
Because Germany was so late to join the race for colonial territories, most of the world had already been carved up by the other European powers; in some regions the trend was already towards decolonisation, especially in the continental Americas, encouraged by the American Revolution, French Revolution, and Napoleon Bonaparte.
Nevertheless, Germany did assemble an overseas empire (see List of former German colonies) in less than two decades. Acquisitions and the growth of the colonies was accomplished in a variety ways, but principally through mercantile domination and succeeding “take-overs,” through agreements and treaties with other colonial powers or interests, and through the purchase of land or island groups.[4] The leadership in Berlin committed the nation to financially support, maintain, develop and defend these possessions across the oceans.
War, however, changed everything. In the course of the First World War (1914-1918) and its subsequent peace treaties, primarily the Treaty of Versailles,[5] the victorious Allied Powers dismantled and annexed this empire among themselves by bringing forth “the renewal, not the end, of an imperial era,”[6] and a concurrent “huge scramble” for territorial aggrandizement.[7]
In the treaties concerning African protectorates, France and Britain divided German Kamerun (Cameroons); Belgium gained small parts of northwestern German East Africa; the United Kingdom by far the greater landmass, thus seizing the “missing link” in the chain of British possessions stretching from South Africa to Egypt (Cape to Cairo). Togoland was divided between France and Britain; German South West Africa was annexed to the Union of South Africa. In the Pacific Japan gained Germany’s islands north of the equator (the Carolines and Marianas) and Kiaochow (Jiaozhou) Bay in China. German Samoa and German New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago were assigned to New Zealand and Australia as mandatories.[8] This placing of responsibility on white-settler dominions was at the time perceived to be the cheapest option for the British government, although it did have the bizarre result of British colonies having their own colonies. This outcome was very much influenced by W.M. Hughes, William Massey, and Louis Botha, the prime ministers of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.[9]
German East Africa remained a special case. The colony’s military commander, Generalmajor Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, led his formations undefeated through the colony and into British and Portuguese territories. Then finally on 25 November 1918 at Abercorn in Northern Rhodesia he oversaw “the capitulation of an army that had not lost to an army that had not won.”[10] In March of 1919, Lettow-Vorbeck on a black charger led his repatriated soldiers through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin giving the defeated nation its only victory parade.
Works Cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_colonization_of_the_Americas
Imperialism
Cecil Rhodes: Cape-Cairo railway project. Founded the De Beers Mining Company and owned the British South Africa Company, which established Rhodesia for itself. He liked to "paint the map British red", and declared: "all of these stars ... these vast worlds that remain out of reach. If I could, I would annex other planets".[1]
Imperialism has two meanings, one describing an action and the other describing an attitude. Most commonly it is understood in relation to Empire building, as the expansion of a nation's authority by territorial conquest establishing economic and political powers in other territories or nations, and when such encompasses non-contiguous "colonies" or "protectorates" then the term also subsumes Colonialism. In that sense, most European seafaring powers were at one time or another Colonialistic and therefore Imperialistic, regardless of their exploitation or benevolence toward their colonial possessions and people.
In its second meaning the term describes the imperialistic attitude of superiority, subordination and dominion over foreign people— a chauvinism and comportment relegating foreign people to a lesser social and or political status. To clarify the distinction, the French colonies in North America treated the native races with great diplomacy,[citation needed] whereas the British colonies early on began treating native Americans chauvinistically, as savages and lesser creatures.[citation needed]
Imperialism is often autocratic, e.g. in early 20th century Japan,[2] and sometimes monolithic [3] in character. While the term imperialism often refers to a contiguous political or geographical domain such as the Ottoman Empire[4] the Russian Empire,[5] or the British Empire,[6] etc the term can equally be applied to domains of knowledge, beliefs, values and expertise, such as the empires of Christianity (see Christendom)[7] or Islam (see Caliphate).[8]
Works Cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism
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