Week 11 - Colonies and the new world order

Question 1

indian ocean conditions

Answer 1

Pre-existing Indian Ocean trade networks before 1400
Largely excluded Australia because of ocean currents and Europeans not desiring Australian products

Question 2

Dutch in the Indian Ocean

Answer 2

80 years war between Netherlands and Hispano-Portuguese Crown
Portuguese dominated Indian Ocean trade from Goa
Dutch private companies encouraged to circumvent Portuguese controls in SE Asia
Piracy = patriotism in the context of intra-European warfare
Succeeded in reaching the Spice Islands in 1595
First highly armed expedition in 1602
Mercantile and military combined - laid ground world of VOC
Success leads to new competition with English for Asian dominance

Question 3

the dutch east India company (VOC)

Answer 3

Founded in 1602 by forced merger of 8 smaller trading companies (after military expedition)
Major investors and issued stock
Lessor investors could hold shares
Governor-General appointed to govern overseas operations

Radical developments:
Initial investment period was to be 10 years
Capital was not re-distributed; reinvested in overseas operations
Endowed with state-like quantities, including war and diplomacy
Expanded existing practises of fortification and naval power to enforce routes, taxes and monopoly
Increasingly violent enforcement of contracts

Largest European maritime empire in eastern hemisphere to later 18th c

Question 4

roaring forties

Answer 4

1610: VOC discovery of high speed westerlies at 40 degrees S, enabling speedy passages South
Key skill: turning north at the right time to meet Java
Mastering this route puts Dutch (and later English) in serious competition

Question 5

VOC trade zone

Answer 5

From its base in Batavia, it dominated:
South Africa
Mauritius
India
Japan
Taiwan
Malaysia
Papua
Thailand

Question 6

fortified trade: implanted Europe in Asia

Answer 6

Innovation: building military/defense expenses into coasts
Hugely costly and resource using
Planned that cost of military and fort would be covered by profits

Question 7

VOC exchange

Answer 7

Precious spices
Textiles, tea, coffee and other things not in Europe
Brought precious metals, merchandise, beer, led, consumables etc. from Europe to trade or use

Question 8

encounters in Asia

Answer 8

Shaped by militarism, monopoly
Implanted fortresses
Asymmetrical diplomatic arrangements with local people
Beheadings of local leaders who ‘breached’ contracts
Effective kidnappings of local people, to be trained as translators Amsterdam
Negotiations with major local powers such as Mughal Emperors

Question 9

protection and control

Answer 9

‘All spices that fall in the island, shall be sold, traded or exchanged to no one but the representatives of the states-General’
Violence may be used if their control of spices is taken from VOC

Question 10

local resistance and agency

Answer 10

Banda Islands = the major native source of nutmeg and mace
Despite exclusive supply contract with VOC, Bandanese sell to highest bidders, including English
VOC reaction initially diplomatic and then violent - beheaded and displaced
Rise of VOC anxiety and more aggressive tactics across the archipelago

Question 11

interactions with indigenous people

Answer 11

Taking prominent people, especially young men to Amsterdam - sons of ruling families, hostages for good behaviour of fathers?
Educated and converted
Many then sent back as translators, missionaries and envoys for VOC

Question 12

intraeuropean violence

Answer 12

Competition was fierce
Dutch conquest of Banda Islands in 1621 - taken from English

Question 13

competition and anxiety

Answer 13

England and Dutch Republic agree truce 1619
Divide East India trade between their companies
Local captains remain jealous and suspicious
Dutch in Ambon allege an English-Japanese-Portuguese plot against their governance
Seize, torture and execute 21 men of different nations
Contributes to increasing imposition of colonial rule

Question 14

VOC and the Australian coast

Answer 14

Early shipwrecks product of overshooting the northward turn from the roaring forties
Led to charting the WA coastline
VOC conquest in Banda
Continuing anxieties over competition in the spice islands
Led to expeditions to the N Australian coast - exploring for resources and new trade opportunities

Question 15

Dutch Indigenous Australian encounters

Answer 15

Only interested in if the Indigenous people are likely to have resources the Dutch are interested in
Assesses the likelihood of danger from the Indigenous people
Kidnapped an Indigenous person to become a translator and to learn of Australia

Question 16

colonial success, European power

Answer 16

Premodern trade, slavery and colonialisation networks in Asia and Americas funded major expansion of European economies
Boosted European political power
Shifted European balance of power
Shaped local expressions of wealth
Influenced structure and norms of European government, law and finance
Heightened ideas of European ethnic superiority and intellectual dominance

Question 17

Journal

Answer 17

1. What kind of details is Robert interested in recording?
2. Commodities of potential value to Europeans, thought to be of minimal value
3. Nautical/navigational information and record of the journey (should value arise)
4. Racialized summation of indigenous people, with the subtext of evaluating their worth as exploited people. Including weaponry/shields and response to arrival.
5. Why might that be?
6. Operating on ‘checklist’ of steps and assessment, European arrival involves evaluating the value of place/peoples and usefulness to their goals.
7. This informs ideas/practice of diplomacy between EUR powers and local peoples. Implicit goal of exploitation/subterfuge.
8. Can you draw any conclusions about the purpose of the journey from these extracts?
9. ‘The black we seized’- no human element- just a ‘thing’ to get information out of
10. Economic evaluation of another person → dehumanised and made into commodities for furthering/maintenance of empire.
11. What is his attitude towards the Indigenous people he encounters?
    Robert frames indigenous encounter as monolithic: these “blacks” are not like these other “blacks” from half a world away. Racial categorisation and othering of non-Europeans → commodification of people.
12. How do the Indigenous people react to the Ducth arrival: to begin with? and as the situation progresses?
13. Indigenous person reaching for musket interpreted as an attempt to steal → evidence of greed and moral lesser-ness. Could be curiosity, reflective of held belief, etc.
14. Ignorance of custom/tradition/established etiquette and rule when encountering neighbouring groups within indigenous societies.
15. Reading between the lines, what might his descriptions suggest about local customs around interacting with visitors and encountering new people? How about their customs of exchanging gifts and items of trade?

Question 18

song line

Answer 18

1. What resources matter to this community (in this example)?
   * Trepang (dharripa)
   * “…their sacred feather decorations and objects…”
   * “Who are you to occupy our land?”
   o If not ideas of ownership, then at least connection/identity that needs respecting and is being violated.
   o The value of specific sites (they have no issue with them taking resources from the other side)
2. What customs or rituals govern Yolngu interaction with strangers?
   ‘Walking towards them covered with their sacred feather decorations and objects’
3. What questions does the Songline remind people to ask about strangers?
   * “Who are you?”
   * On what basis do you want access to our land’s resources?
4. What kinds of experience interacting with strangers could this imply?
   * To establish connection between strangers and understood social links with other peoples/places
5. Why might interactions with visitors seeking trepang be worthy of putting into a Songline like this?
   ‘These strangers [the Bayini] tried to rename Wapilina with their own Yirritja name.’
   * Oral history depends upon inherited context, indigenous history in the Australian context ties those histories deeply to the land itself.
   * Also, the purpose of recording these interactions often operates on different ways of thinking/prioritising from the European-informed written tradition dominating western scholarship and record. Song lines and stories provide context for why the land is the way it is, too.
6. How can historians bring this kind of evidence together with western-style written documents respectfully and productively?
   * Expect unknown unknowns: we don’t know what context is missing/has been artificially removed from indigenous perspectives
   * Purpose of song line might not be analogous to that of oral history from elsewhere eg Homer
   * Purpose/interpretation may be inherently about audience and not fully accessible to or meant for all audiences