European Colonization Research Articles

Human influence on the distribution of cacao: insights from remote sensing and biogeography

Cacao (Theobroma cacao, Malvaceae) is an important tree crop in Africa and in the Americas. Current genomic evidence suggests that its original range in Tropical Americas was smaller than its current distribution and that human-mediated dispersal occurred before European colonization. This includes regions like Mesoamerica and Eastern Amazonia where cacao is supposedly naturally occurring. In this study, we utilize remote sensing and land use data to examine the influence of human activities on cacao-growing regions and explore patterns between cacao distribution and anthropized areas. By evaluating nearly nine thousand preserved specimen collections, we worked with a comprehensive occurrence dataset that considers taxonomy and distribution. We then analyzed remote sensing images of specimen locations and compared land use profiles of regions into which cacao was introduced with documented native areas. Our findings revealed a clear association between anthropized areas and cacao specimens, with the majority located in areas strongly affected by human activities. Conversely, regions closer to the proposed native range of cacao exhibit less human impact. These results, while accounting for sampling bias, reinforce the idea that humans may have played a significant role in cacao’s dispersal, even in parts of the Amazon where its native status remains uncertain. The discussion on cacao’s native range and identification of introduced areas hold implications for jurisdiction, access to genetic resources, and conservation efforts. Additionally, it is relevant to debates surrounding the repatriation of genetic data of economically important crops. Understanding the historical human influence on cacao’s distribution is crucial for addressing issues of crop improvement, conservation, and sustainable use.

Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island: The Climate Crisis and Planetary Environmentalism

ABSTRACT Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island (2019), in addressing the planetary scale of the climate crisis, gestures to the possibility of, and the imperative for, multispecies as well as multi-ethnic and cross-cultural cooperation as a way of facing climate change. The parallel that Ghosh draws between human and animal migrations, resulting from climate change, underlines the novel’s emphasis on multispecies climate justice. By connecting the refugee influx into the Western world to the environmental crisis beyond the West, the novel also concerns itself with social, racial, and historical injustices, drawing attention to the role of European colonization and the present-day global capitalism in escalating the climate crisis. I discuss the characteristics of environmentalism that I identify within Gun Island using the term “planetary environmentalism.” This kind of environmentalism extends beyond any geographical boundary created by humans, as borders lose their meaning when the future of the whole planet is at threat. I argue that the novel, through planetary environmentalism, raises a cry for multispecies justice as a question of multispecies survival to face the challenges of the planetary crisis caused by climate change.

Paradigm Of The Relationship Of Religion And The State

Religion has a central role in the history of world civilization. From the era of the Indus River Valley Civilization, Mesopotamia, to the golden age of the Islamic Caliphate and the European Colonialist Empire. Kings, emperors, and sultans always established close relations with intellectuals and religious leaders. Religion has been a tool for governing society since the beginning of human history. The research method used in this literature review involves analyzing various literature sources relevant to the theme of religion and state relations in the context of Islamic perspectives. This research will focus on the development of views in the context of the 20th century with the emergence of integralistic, symbiotic, and secularistic paradigms in managing the relationship between religion and state, to provide a comprehensive picture of the dynamics of this thought in a relevant time frame. All these paradigms reflect the complex dynamics in the debate over the concept and implementation of the relationship between religion and state within the framework of Islamic thought.

The Colonial History of Systemic Racism: Insights for Psychological Science.

The psychological study of systemic racism can benefit from the converging insights of "Black Marxism" and development economics, which illustrate how modern systemic racism is rooted in the political and economic institutions established during the historical period of European colonization. This article explores how these insights can be used to study systemic racism and challenge scientific racism in psychology by rethinking traditional research paradigms to incorporate the histories of race, class, and capitalism. Antiracism strategies that make use of these histories are also discussed, which include disrupting the psychological processes that sustain racist systems.

Subjugated to Free Independent States of America, Boston Tea Party by Sons of Liberty and Declaration of Independence

This article explores how Native Americans and Africans have historically been treated by Europeans, with a particular emphasis on how both groups have been portrayed as barbaric and primitive in a variety of media, including literature, minstrel shows, newspapers, and advertisements. We'll talk about Native Americans' difficulties and how they gained their independence in this section. European colonization of North America resulted in the displacement of these tribes, who were then forced into reservations and subjected to assimilation strategies that were often violent and betrayed treaties. European assimilation efforts aimed to erase Native American culture, history, and identity through the establishment of boarding schools that forced Native American children to adopt European habits, attire, and language. The method was intended to "kill the Indian, save the man," as institutions such as the Carlisle Indian School illustrated. Despite the hardships and cultural loss inflicted on Native Americans, their experience in boarding schools was critical in developing future Native American leaders and building a sense of pan-Indian identity, thereby refuting the notion of them as a dying race. The article also delves into the influence of British colonial rule on Native Americans, as well as the imposition of taxes without representation, which sparked riots such as the Boston Tea Party. The Continental Congress and the following Declaration of Independence were watershed points in the American Revolution. Furthermore, the Coercive Acts meant to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party, stoked colonial discontent and aided in the commencement of the American Revolutionary War. The article finishes by underlining the significance of these historical events in establishing the identity of the United States and the ongoing struggle for Native Americans' rights and acknowledgment. This in-depth examination of historical events and their interconnectivity sheds light on the complicated and often brutal interactions between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans, which ultimately influenced the establishment of the United States and its values (Volo, 2003).

Tuning systems and european colonialism in Africa.

Tuning systems and european colonialism in Africa.

The system of government in colonial Kenya

The object of the study of this work is the government system of colonial Kenya (1890-1950's). The subject of the study is public authorities, their powers, area of responsibility and features of functioning in East African realities. The author has carried out a detailed analysis of the administrative structure, the law enforcement system, and key management links at the central and regional levels. Special attention was paid to the issues of urban development based on the principle of racial segregation and local self-government, as well as the problem of combating specific crime. The article focuses on a number of non-trivial aspects of the British approach to organizing the work of government agencies, including special recruitment, active lawmaking, largely based on borrowing decisions from British India, and also the introduction of the institute of chiefs at the local level. The methodological basis of the article was historical-legal and problem-chronological approaches, in addition, the author turned to general scientific methods of analysis and deduction. The British system of government was built up in Kenya during the 1900s and 1920s, acquiring features of completeness in the main institutions by the 1930s. Before the arrival of the European colonialists, there was no civilizational basis for the existence of state entities. Therefore the leading role at all levels of the administrative structure belonged to people of European origin. The full power in the colony actually belonged to the governor, who unconditionally pursued the policy of the metropolis. This state of affairs was consolidated by a cultivated ideological paradigm that presupposes the superiority of the British and Europeans in general in all spheres of society, including management. The strength and coherence of the work of the state mechanism was ensured by the homogeneity of the nomenclature. By the time of gaining independence in 1963, the newly-minted Kenyan authorities inherited a completely efficient system of government bodies from the colonial regime.

The Role of Education in the Struggle for Native American Sovereignty

This article explores the enduring struggle of Native Americans to preserve their land, culture, and sovereigntyin the face of European colonization and U.S. expansion. The Native American population, estimated between five and 18million prior to 1492, was drastically reduced to 250,000 by the early 20th century due to colonization’s harsh realities.Education emerged as a critical battleground for preserving tribal identity, as the U.S. imposed its system to erase nativecultures. Native American children were coerced into feeling ashamed of their heritage, all while the nation denied themequal opportunities. Educational autonomy is intrinsically linked to the broader fight for Native American sovereignty,enabling tribal nations to wield political and economic power as sovereign entities within the U.S. boundaries. Thenarrative covers the encroachment and division policies of the Reconstruction Era, exemplified by the Homestead Act andthe Dawes Act, which led to the loss of tribal land and imposition of Western culture. It also delves into the establishmentof off-reservation boarding schools, such as the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which sought to assimilate NativeAmerican children through familial separation and a curriculum that suppressed cultural identity. This historical overviewreflects the hurdles overcome and the remaining obstacles in Native Americans’ quest for educational autonomy and self-determination, ultimately serving as a testament to their enduring resilience and determination in the face of centuries ofadversity

Early Cold War Counterinsurgency: The Romanian Campaign in Comparative Perspective (1944-1962)

ABSTRACT This paper offers a comparison between Romanian communist counterinsurgency (1944–1962) and similar campaigns fought by Western and Eastern governments in the early Cold War, in particular those waged by the British and French governments in their African, Asian and European colonies and those of the Soviet Union in its borderlands. The comparison focuses on three main components, population control, intelligence and military operations. Highlighting both similarities and differences across different cultural, economic, geographical, ethnic and political landscapes, the perspective laid out in this paper is an argument in favour of systematic and sustained comparative approaches to asymmetric warfare.

Kantian Cosmopolitanism and the Challenge of its Racist Prejudices

In the years 1788, Kant develops a conception of racial inequality in which he not only affirms the superiority of the « European » white race over other races, but also appears to approve of the enslavement of Black people. Kant’s theory of racial inequality baffles many, considering that in the moral philosophy he develops during the same period, he makes no compromises on the inviolability of human dignity. The aim of this text is not to deny Kant’s racism between 1764 and 1790, which is evident in his courses on physical geography and anthropology, but rather to demonstrate that Kant’s primary objective, which he never loses sight of in his various writings on race, is to explain the unity in diversity of the human species. While Kant’s theory of racial inequalities leaves no doubt about his racism between 1764 and 1790, it is inaccurate to claim that he remained constant in his views on non-European peoples. From 1795 onwards, in the Project for a Perpetual Peace and later in The Metaphysics of Morals (1797), Kant reevaluates his appreciation of non-European peoples, develops a more egalitarian conception of rights and race, and condemns European colonization.

Araucaria bidwillii genomics suggest Indigenous Peoples broadened translocation practices in response to settler colonialism

Abstract Retracing past anthropogenic dispersal of culturally important taxa offers insights to the biogeographic history of species, as well as the history of the people who interacted with them. Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii Hook.) is a culturally and spiritually significant conifer tree for several Indigenous groups in eastern Australia. Sharing the edible nuts and attending Bunya gatherings is an important way for these groups to maintain their cultural connections and it has been hypothesized that prior to European colonization, Indigenous Peoples facilitated the dispersal of Bunya Pine as part of these ancient traditions. We used ethnohistorical information on the use of Bunya Pine by Indigenous Peoples to interpret genomic patterns within and between disjunct distributions of Bunya Pine. We found signatures of long‐term isolation within the Australian Wet Tropics (AWT) and extensive gene flow within southeast Queensland (SEQ) that does not fit models of faunal or passive dispersal. Within SEQ, we found greater population structure amongst sites known to pre‐date European colonization, than when colonial‐era planted sites were included in our analyses, suggesting that pre‐colonial translocation was sporadic or localized rather than systematic and widespread. Increased Indigenous translocations in conjunction with plantings by European settlers appears to have erased the natural pre‐colonial population structure of SEQ Bunya Pine. Our stairway plot models suggest sharp population decline of SEQ Bunya Pine in the early and late Pleistocene, though we did not find evidence that anthropogenic dispersal facilitated effective population size growth of the species in the Holocene. We concluded that pre‐colonial translocation of SEQ Bunya Pine was likely restricted by kinship‐based custodial rights, and that when Indigenous Peoples were displaced by European settlers, translocation was intensified to maintain cultural connectivity. This study is an example of how Indigenous Australian groups adapt plant management strategies to meet socio‐cultural needs and demonstrates the potential for plant genomics to supplement Indigenous Biocultural Knowledge that has been impacted by colonial dispossession. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

350 Years of Jihad Fii Sabilillah Against the Colonizers: The Resistance of Sundanese Muslims Against the Colonizers

The purpose of this research is to find 350 years of jihad fii sabilillah of Sundanese Muslims against the colonizers. This research uses a historiographic approach by using descriptive analysis methods, interviews, observations and is complemented by library research using books, journals and other related literature. Based on the results of the research, mat Islam in the archipelago was never colonized for 350 years, but Muslims in the archipelago for 350 years fii Sabilillah jihad against European pagan colonialism. The figures who fought included Fatahillah, Sultan Agung Hanyokrokusumo, Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa, Syaikh Abdul Muhyi Pamijahan, Haji Raden Alit Prawatasari, Kyai Tapa, Ki Bagus Rangin, Syaikh Arsyad Thawil, KH. Wasyid, Pitung, Entong Gendut, the resistance of the Cirebon sultanate and the Menak politics of Cianjur, Sumedang, Limbangan and resistance through organizations to the Resistance of the Uthmaniyyah Consulate in Batavia which began in the era of Caliph Abdul Hamid II until the era of Caliph Muhammad V (1883 - 1924 AD).

Valongo, the Place of the Ancestors: Spiritual Practices among Enslaved Africans in Nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro

ABSTRACT In 2017, UNESCO added Valongo Wharf to its list of World Heritage Sites. Located in Rio de Janeiro’s Port Zone, the wharf is a place of memory associated with the transatlantic slave trade, which has been compared to other sites that have witnessed intense human suffering, such as Auschwitz, Hiroshima and Gorée Island, among others. This chapter explores the spiritual practices of the “wretched of the Earth,” as Frantz Fanon named those Africans dehumanized by European colonialism. More specifically, it focuses on the Africans shipped to Valongo to be sold as slaves in Rio de Janeiro and who left vestiges of their spiritual beliefs, recovered through archaeological research. Here, these remains are analyzed from a decolonial perspective, born from the reflections of critical Latin American thinkers who reject the diverse forms of domination and oppression inflicted by Northern hemisphere powers on subaltern populations of the global South.

Extinct Australian birds: numbers, characteristics, lessons and prospects

ABSTRACT Since European colonisation of Australia in 1788, nine Australian bird species (1.2% of the Australian total) have become extinct, along with 22 subspecies (of 16 species). Consistent with global patterns, Australia’s island endemic birds have been particularly susceptible, comprising eight of the nine species’ extinctions (38% of the bird species endemic to islands smaller than Tasmania), and 13 of the 22 subspecies’ extinctions. The extinction of only one bird species (Paradise Parrot Psephotellus pulcherrimus) from the Australian mainland contrasts with the far higher rate of extinctions of Australian mammals (27 of 312 species that occurred on the Australian mainland), and is comparable with the rate of extinctions of birds on the mainland of other continents over this period. Extinctions of Australian birds were caused mainly by introduced predators (especially for island taxa), habitat degradation, and hunting (for some island taxa). The timing of some extinctions is uncertain, but the first bird extinction subsequent to European colonisation was the loss of the flightless White Gallinule Porphyrio albus from Lord Howe Island over the period 1788–1790. Extinctions have occurred in most decades since then, with the most recent being for Norfolk Island’s White-chested White-eye Zosterops albogularis in the decade 2000–2009. Environmental legislation, an extensive conservation reserve system, and dedicated conservation management efforts have prevented some extinctions. However, local extirpations continue, many threatened species continue to decline and, without an increase in conservation efforts, the rate of extinctions is likely to increase, mainly due to the direct and compounding impacts of climate change.

Ethnoarchaeology before Processual Ethnoarchaeology: The First Ethnographic Comparisons

ABSTRACT From a genealogical perspective, this article explores the foundations of ethnoarchaeological research in the context of European colonialism. It investigates methodologies that utilize ethnographic information for reconstructing historical contexts, focusing first on early comparisons during colonial encounters. These comparisons significantly shaped the amalgamation of ethnographic data into archaeology and the formulation of interpretive strategies, encompassing the direct historical method and ethnographic analogy to decipher societies via material evidence using ethnographies of non-western societies. Despite the initial prevalence of ethnographic analogy in the 1950s, ethnoarchaeology progressed by integrating novel data collection techniques into broader scientific discussions. This article critically challenges established historiographical narratives within ethnoarchaeology, asserting that aspects of ethnographic analogy and ethnoarchaeological methodology did not solely emerge as processual innovations in the 1950s, but rather their roots trace back to earlier archaeologists and ethnographers and previous colonial scholars.

What Returns? Comprehending the “Boomerang Effect”

The “boomerang thesis” enjoys widespread currency in contemporary scholarship: that the means and ends of colonial domination would “spin back” to the metropole is an idea with intuitive grip. This article extrapolates the depth of meaning this metaphor contains, as well as what it conceals. It first considers the “boomerang” as it appears in Aimé Césaire’s Discourse on Colonialism, a poetic work that captures the moral and experiential return-effects of imperial violence. Turning to Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism—the only articulation of the thesis that uses the word “boomerang”—the article disaggregates the teleological, ideological, and institutional elements that spun back from European colonies in the imperial era. Finally, it traces the development of the thesis in Michel Foucault’s “Society Must Be Defended,” where it is transformed into a more general explanatory mechanism. Each theorist indicates how distance operates to transform dubious, even hateful ideas into acceptable practices.

ЗОВНІШНЯ ПОЛІТИКА США: МІЖ ПОЛІТИЧНИМ РЕАЛІЗМОМ І ЛІБЕРАЛЬНИМИ ЦІННОСТЯМИ

The author of the reviewed monograph showed the mutual influence of the domestic and foreign policy of the United States. The reviewed book is interesting for its conceptual generalizations and establishment of causal relationships between different stages of the political history of the United States in the context of the history of Americanforeign policy. The independence of the United States marked the emergence of a potential world power. The North’s victory in the Civil War eliminated external threats to the United States. The author considers the period of the two world wars to be a continuation of the process of the United States entering the forefront of the world. During World War I, the United States turned from a debtor country into the world’s largest creditor. The author indirectly considers isolationism to be relevant to that time in the history of U.S. foreign policy. The policy of neutrality was based on American public sentiment. The author of the monograph considers the lack of a common vision of the post-war world, insufficient understanding of the culture of the USSR and the USA, the loss of hopes for the liberalization of the Stalinist regime, and the politics of fear for one’s security to be the prerequisites of the Cold War. After World War II, the United States supported the independence of former European colonies. The Korean War and the Vietnam War were attempts to defend the American vision of international relations. The collapse of the USSR created the prerequisites for the rise of a new world power, communist China. The author of the monograph criticizes Trump’s imperial isolationism. The balance between political realism and liberal values is the key to effective U.S. foreign policy. On the ideological scale between liberal, revisionist, and conservative paradigms of conceptual understanding of the history of U.S. foreign policy, Warren Cohen’s monograph takes a position on the left of the liberal flank with its anti-colonial discourse, criticism of interventionism, hopes for a balance between realism and idealism.

Not so fussy after all: Shark Bay mouse (Pseudomys gouldii) recorded using a range of habitat types on Faure Island

The Shark Bay mouse (SBM; Pseudomys gouldii) was once widespread across south and central Australia. Following European colonisation, SBM declined catastrophically and the only surviving natural population is found on Bernier Island. Several reintroductions of SBM have been attempted but, to date, populations have successfully established on just two Western Australian islands, Faure Island in Shark Bay and North West Island in the Montebello Archipelago. A lack of suitable habitat, particularly dense stands of coastal spinifex (Spinifex longifolius), is thought to have contributed to the failure of the species to establish at some sites. We analysed records of SBM on Faure Island from 2005 to 2023 to assess patterns of detection in different habitat types, including coastal spinifex. SBM were detected in all studied habitat types on Faure Island, suggesting that coastal spinifex may not be essential for the successful reintroduction of the species. Understanding habitat use by SBM on Faure Island may help to inform the selection of future reintroduction sites and the development of future release strategies. This is particularly important in the context of reintroductions to locations within the species’ historical range where coastal spinifex does not occur.

Language of Exile

Exile—once used to signify the event of a political banishment—has now evolved to incorporate a wide range of human experiences. It has often been portrayed in literature as a romantic or tragic tale, though in reality there is no simple way to describe the truly complex experience an exiled individual undergoes. This article aims to explore the intersection of exile and literature through an investigation of the lives of writers Joseph Brodsky, Aimé Césaire, and Elena Ferrante. These writers all operate from a place of exile, and together they demonstrate the multifaceted face of exile. As the exiled experience gives way to a dynamic and contrapuntal perception of self, the above writers use language as a tool for exploring and sharing their unique visions of the world around them. Joseph Brodsky demonstrates the ability of translation to create a homeland made up of fragmented cultures by preserving memories of his past. Aimé Césaire uses his mastery of the French colonial language as a means of resistance, reimagining his lost homeland without the interference of European colonization. As a pseudonymous writer, Elena Ferrante explores the face of an ever-changing identity and the preservation of her own sense of self through a disassociation with her works. These writers show that exile can never be easily defined, as it encompasses a multitude of experiences, from irrecoverable losses to immeasurable liberties.

COBERTURA VEGETAL, AÇÃO ANTROPOGÊNICA E PALEOCLIMAS NA CAATINGA

The Caatinga is dominated by a semiarid climate and a high plant biodiversity dealing with anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. Previous studies suggest that Caatinga became a completely soil‐water pulse-dominated forest in response to reduced water availability at the end of the last ice age, around 10 cal kyr BP. This work aimed to identify vegetative and climatic evolution, and the human influence in the Cariri region, one of the driest parts of Brazil. We sampled soil in a temporal pond to identify pollen. The testimony is 170 cm in lenght and achieves 6,216 cal yr BP at the base. Pollen analysis indicates the presence of taxa representative of humid climates, between 6,216 and ca. 5000 cal yr BP, like Azolla, followed by implantation of Caatinga's modern configuration from ca. 4,900 cal yrs BP. After 2,700 cal yr BP, humid episodes occurred, possibly related to the El Niño - La Niña variation across the region, marked by increased algae and aquatic herbs concentrations. The occurrence of human activity species like Caryocar, Dioscorea, Spondias, and Licania suggest possibly landscape manipulation by pre – Columbian populations, and exotic Pinus and Prosopis reveal changes in the tree cover caused by European colonization in the Caatinga. Keywords: Anthropocene; Dry Forest; Paleogeography; Semiarid Region; Sedimentology, Lakes, Lagoons & Swamps.