授業関係のお知らせ

In this week, we will continue the discussion based on chapter 5:

• 4. What does the author mean by saying "the flag followed trade into Malaya", and why does the author state that "the usual colonial paradigm was reversed" in this process?
• 5. What are the features of the colonization of the Philippines that made it separate from other places in Southeast Asia? Describe two features.

We find a remarkable change in the western advance before the 18th and after the 19th centuries. The earlier western advance mostly involved the trading of tropical products (spices and coffee), whereas the later advance involved the political and territorial colonization and the exploitation of natural resources (tin and rubber) which were used in the increasingly industrialized European market. The final products were then also sold in the colonies.

The earlier advances were made by the Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch, whereas the later advances were by the British, French, Dutch (after the resolution of the Dutch East Indies Company in the later 19th century), and Spanish (where the mestizo community played an important role). The last point might explain why the Philippines as a Spanish colony shows a striking similarity with its Latin American counterparts.

Before continuing the discussion further on chapter 6 Economic Transformation, we looked into the notion of a plural society, where communities (ethnic or otherwise) with incompatible values exist side-by-side, "meeting only in the market" but not "combining". If this is indeed the situation of the colonies, a question to be asked is whether this is still applicable in a post-colonial independent "nation-state". About this, we will continue our discussion next week.