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Overview
This highly acclaimed book represents a new approach to colonialism. Concise but sweeping, it encompasses the processes of colonization and decolonization from the early modern period to the twentieth century. Virtually all other authors to date have looked at strategies of colonial conquest, exploitation, and rule from the imperial point of view. Osterhammel shows that the colonial situation developed in ways that duplicated neither the metropolis nor the pre-colonial society, but instead blended these and added a new direction characteristic only of colonial realms. Osterhammel emphasizes that the Europeans were normally not considered dangerous invaders by local population until they threatened the traditional cultures with missionaries, European schools, and bureaucracy.Synopsis
Osterhammel (history, U. of Constance) argues that the global mercantile expansion of the European powers of the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries bears a marked resemblance to the political imperialism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Further, although there are some differences in scope and timing, the colonizers had similar aims and experiences. Instead, Osterhammel finds more significant the intentions and goals of the individual colonies, which he groups into those that were exploited for raw materials, land and labor, those that served for settlement, and those that served as military installations. He finds each type has distinctive features, such as ethno-cultural demarcation, and clear differences in economic management and administration, which lead to very different outcomes as colonies gained independence. Osterhammel provides a new bibliography for this edition. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR