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The impress of empire
Journal of Historical Geography, 15, 2 (1989) 193-195
Review article
Anthony King The Impress of Empire A. J. CHRISTOPHER,The British Empire at its Zenith. (Beckenham, Kent: Croom Helm, 1988. Pp. xi + 260. s The recent growth of interest in colonialism and imperialism as major historical forces in creating the modern world system, including its controlling urban centres, is long overduet~k The origins and characteristics of much of this writing also reveal much about the continuing fissures in the national and international division of academic labour. In all cases, it stems from location in or experience of the ex-colonial semi-periphery and whilst empirically more global, it is often divorced from the intensive theoretical production at the core which, by comparison, is often more parochial. Christopher's book is a good example. His central theme is the impact of British imperialism on the urban and rural environments and landscapes of those parts of the world affected by it: the West Indies, South and South East Asia, Africa, Australasia and Canada, examined at the particular historical conjuncture of 1931 which he takes as marking the end of the period of imperial expansion and, with the Statute of Westminster, the beginning of decolonization. Let me state at the beginning that, despite the very serious reservations set out below, this is a significant and valuable text on an important and neglected topic. It is both comprehensive and condensed, with a valuable and up-to-date bibliography which will be of considerable use to people working in the field. Within the author's frame of reference, the analytical structure is good, starting with a general overview of'the empire at its zenith' in which he rightly points out that "post-colonial concentration of research and writing on individual countries has resulted in the broader, universal Imperial heritage [sic] being obscured". The author acknowledges the role of the Empire as agent in integrating large parts of the globe into the world-economy and treats colonialism in its two basic forms, colonies of settlement and those of exploitation, examining these themes comparatively in different countries (including the USA) and investigating the influence of these two very different socio-economic systems on the production of very different landscapes in different parts of the world. After dealing with the controlling centre of the Metropole, the book has a somewhat descriptive chapter on "Linkages" (including communication systems, ports and investment), followed by chapters on "bases of power" (military and naval bases, administrative capitals, and, very briefly, urban hierarchies), and on "settler" and "colonial cities". Further chapters address rural land divisions and European farmlands, with a summarizing chapter on "Imperial landscapes". Considerable attention is given to plantations, mining towns, the question of cultural complexity (including religion), the export of ideas (including educational systems, language and people). There are also useful and concisely presented data: for example, the 25 million people who emigrated from the British Isles between 1815 and 1924, of whom 10 million left for 0305-7488/89/020193+03 $03.00/0
193
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194
REVIEW ARTICLE
British possessions, or the tables comparing the reservation of land for indigenous peoples in Canada, Australia, South Africa, the Rhodesias, Malaya and elsewhere. This comparative treatment of different issues, from landscape form to planning issues is useful and instructive and he rightly draws attention to the far greater role of the state in intervening in market processes in colonial settlements. The author, who is Professor of Geography at the University of Port Elizabeth, is best when writing on his own research on the rural economy and farmlands; the urban chapters lack depth and sophistication, not least in regard to the discussion of planning or architectural style. And whilst it is certainly valuable for readers to be reminded of the segregationist policies practiced by British imperialists round the world it is noticeable that short shrift is given to apartheid. In a succinct way, therefore, the book provides one of the clearest statements about the development of the (old) international division of labour, in its colonial manifestation, yet written--except that the author does not present it as such. And this opens up the major reservations mentioned above. For all its empirical up-to-dateness, the book is completely innocent of any of the theoretical and methodological debates which have both informed and transformed the social and spatial sciences in the last fifteen years. Significantly, there are no references to theoretical issues or texts and apart from the obligatory nod to Wallerstein, the only conscious theory that intrudes is that of perceptual geography of the early seventies. This has two major implications. Firstly, in ignoring (or rejecting) fifteen years work in political economy, the author fails to distinguish between the impact of colonialism/ imperialism as a political and cultural system (i.e. British) and as a mode (or part of a mode) of production (i.e. industrial capitalism)[2J.The problem arises, firstly, because of the absence of any discussion of imperialism and colonialism as forms of economic and social organization and political control (or mode of production) per se; secondly, because any identification of the specifically political and cultural input into a given form of industrial colonialism which was equally practiced by French, Belgian and other European powers, could only be identified in a comparative context. Of course, this is well beyond the scope of Christopher's book. But the problem is most evident in relation to discussion of urban planning where theories, mechanisms and practices, generated by a market-based society, were not only transferred to the domains of colonial settlement and exploitation but also specifically adapted to make the economic and social policies of colonialism more "efficient" in both political and market terms. Yet according to Christopher, "British officials who planned colonial cities were constrained by the overall framework of colonialism" (p. 131) (italics added). If colonialism is indeed treated as a stage in the development of capitalism so also, as their subsequent histories have dearly demonstrated, colonial cites were stages in the development of the (hyper) capitalist city. (It might be added, in passing, that the author uses his sources very selectively, including my own more recent writings, conveniently omitting references to these issues.) The second major weakness stems both from the author's distance from theoretical debates as well as his ideological position. It is, that the momentous economic, social, political, cultural and psychological transformations of vast numbers of people in the world as a consequence of imperialism is, for the large part of the book, either ignored or treated as completely unproblematic. With the exception of one sentence referring to the official assumption in South Africa that "civilization was to be achieved by the work ethic" (p. 169), despite all the attention given to the physical, spatial and, less prominently, symbolic dimensions of colonial urbanism, architecture, landscapes and land divisions, there is hardly a word on their function in reconstituting and disciplining local peoples, of their role in reconstructing the subjectivity and identity of indigenous (as well as colonial) populations, or of their relation to new forms of consumption and social control. The account in short is very much a "top down" approach, a naive history which, like the photographs from the 1930s, largely eliminates the indigenous population. Whilst the author is aware of the selectivity of colonial statistical data, little attention is paid to the notion of contested histories and, as all non-British are generally referred to as "indigenous peoples" there is, in fact, little to distinguish these from "the
REVIEW ARTICLE
195
natives" of 1931. (The brief reference to the "Xhosa peoples" encountered on page 83 stands out because it is exceptional.) Whilst there is indeed discussion of the relation between colonial exploitation and underdevelopment, the author's sympathies are clearly with "the imprint of the colonial heritage" and its current conservation. Plantations, a survival from the colonial economy, are seen as "innovators for the indigenous rural economy" (p.222) and recent attempts to shift the site of colonially-based national capitals are seen as "flamboyant gestures of decolonization"; elsewhere, there are references to "the rhetoric of socialism" in other African states or the removal of Imperial status resulting from "nationalistic fervour". This is, then, a benign and largely unproblematized view of imperialism which sees post-independence governments operating "within the colonial state framework which gave them initial legitimacy" (p. 226). It is a view which has little sympathy for the massive problems left behind by the non-democratic and authoritarian structures of colonialismI31 or of the major ethnic and racial problems, all of which are inherently bound up with physical, spatial and "landscape" structures in, for example, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, not to speak of South Africa; or why aborigines are boycotting the 'bicentennial celebrations' in Australia. There are other points with which one might take issue; for example, the notion that "for most British people, the Empire was largely forgotten" (p. 28) is not borne out by the large number of school texts on imperial geography which circulated in the first half of this century; and as John Rex has pointed out E41,many of the underlying attitudes to race in the U K derive from many people with service, commercial or other experience in the colonies. The author's selective enthusiasm for the present also results in references to distances in British cities being "measured in kilometers" (as far back as 1931). The most obvious omission, however, is of any discussion of the massive impact, both historically and today, of imperialism on Britain I51.Other readers will no doubt find this book equally useful and exasperating. State University o f New York at Binghamton Notes
[1] For example in D. Drakakis-Smith, The Third World City (London 1987); S. Lowder, Inside Third World Cities (London 1986); R. Ross and G. Telkamp, (Eds), Colonial Cities (Lancaster and Boston 1985); P. J. Taylor, Political Geography, World Economy, Nation State and Locality (London, 1985) [2] See A. D. King, The social production of building form; theory and research, Society and Space, 4 (1984) 429-446 which revises discussion of these issues raised by his Colonial Urban Development (1976) [3] See Veena Talwar Oldenburg, The Making of Colonial Lucknow, 1956-77 (Princeton 1984) which shows how a colonially-derived and aloof municipal authority was used during the Indira Gandhi 'emergency' of 1976. [4] John Rex, Race, Colonialism and the City (London 1973) [5] See A. D. King, Urbanism, Colonialism and the World Economy and Global Cities, PostImperialism and Internationalisation of London (both in press)
Review article
Anthony King The Impress of Empire A. J. CHRISTOPHER,The British Empire at its Zenith. (Beckenham, Kent: Croom Helm, 1988. Pp. xi + 260. s The recent growth of interest in colonialism and imperialism as major historical forces in creating the modern world system, including its controlling urban centres, is long overduet~k The origins and characteristics of much of this writing also reveal much about the continuing fissures in the national and international division of academic labour. In all cases, it stems from location in or experience of the ex-colonial semi-periphery and whilst empirically more global, it is often divorced from the intensive theoretical production at the core which, by comparison, is often more parochial. Christopher's book is a good example. His central theme is the impact of British imperialism on the urban and rural environments and landscapes of those parts of the world affected by it: the West Indies, South and South East Asia, Africa, Australasia and Canada, examined at the particular historical conjuncture of 1931 which he takes as marking the end of the period of imperial expansion and, with the Statute of Westminster, the beginning of decolonization. Let me state at the beginning that, despite the very serious reservations set out below, this is a significant and valuable text on an important and neglected topic. It is both comprehensive and condensed, with a valuable and up-to-date bibliography which will be of considerable use to people working in the field. Within the author's frame of reference, the analytical structure is good, starting with a general overview of'the empire at its zenith' in which he rightly points out that "post-colonial concentration of research and writing on individual countries has resulted in the broader, universal Imperial heritage [sic] being obscured". The author acknowledges the role of the Empire as agent in integrating large parts of the globe into the world-economy and treats colonialism in its two basic forms, colonies of settlement and those of exploitation, examining these themes comparatively in different countries (including the USA) and investigating the influence of these two very different socio-economic systems on the production of very different landscapes in different parts of the world. After dealing with the controlling centre of the Metropole, the book has a somewhat descriptive chapter on "Linkages" (including communication systems, ports and investment), followed by chapters on "bases of power" (military and naval bases, administrative capitals, and, very briefly, urban hierarchies), and on "settler" and "colonial cities". Further chapters address rural land divisions and European farmlands, with a summarizing chapter on "Imperial landscapes". Considerable attention is given to plantations, mining towns, the question of cultural complexity (including religion), the export of ideas (including educational systems, language and people). There are also useful and concisely presented data: for example, the 25 million people who emigrated from the British Isles between 1815 and 1924, of whom 10 million left for 0305-7488/89/020193+03 $03.00/0
193
9 1989 Academic Press Limited
194
REVIEW ARTICLE
British possessions, or the tables comparing the reservation of land for indigenous peoples in Canada, Australia, South Africa, the Rhodesias, Malaya and elsewhere. This comparative treatment of different issues, from landscape form to planning issues is useful and instructive and he rightly draws attention to the far greater role of the state in intervening in market processes in colonial settlements. The author, who is Professor of Geography at the University of Port Elizabeth, is best when writing on his own research on the rural economy and farmlands; the urban chapters lack depth and sophistication, not least in regard to the discussion of planning or architectural style. And whilst it is certainly valuable for readers to be reminded of the segregationist policies practiced by British imperialists round the world it is noticeable that short shrift is given to apartheid. In a succinct way, therefore, the book provides one of the clearest statements about the development of the (old) international division of labour, in its colonial manifestation, yet written--except that the author does not present it as such. And this opens up the major reservations mentioned above. For all its empirical up-to-dateness, the book is completely innocent of any of the theoretical and methodological debates which have both informed and transformed the social and spatial sciences in the last fifteen years. Significantly, there are no references to theoretical issues or texts and apart from the obligatory nod to Wallerstein, the only conscious theory that intrudes is that of perceptual geography of the early seventies. This has two major implications. Firstly, in ignoring (or rejecting) fifteen years work in political economy, the author fails to distinguish between the impact of colonialism/ imperialism as a political and cultural system (i.e. British) and as a mode (or part of a mode) of production (i.e. industrial capitalism)[2J.The problem arises, firstly, because of the absence of any discussion of imperialism and colonialism as forms of economic and social organization and political control (or mode of production) per se; secondly, because any identification of the specifically political and cultural input into a given form of industrial colonialism which was equally practiced by French, Belgian and other European powers, could only be identified in a comparative context. Of course, this is well beyond the scope of Christopher's book. But the problem is most evident in relation to discussion of urban planning where theories, mechanisms and practices, generated by a market-based society, were not only transferred to the domains of colonial settlement and exploitation but also specifically adapted to make the economic and social policies of colonialism more "efficient" in both political and market terms. Yet according to Christopher, "British officials who planned colonial cities were constrained by the overall framework of colonialism" (p. 131) (italics added). If colonialism is indeed treated as a stage in the development of capitalism so also, as their subsequent histories have dearly demonstrated, colonial cites were stages in the development of the (hyper) capitalist city. (It might be added, in passing, that the author uses his sources very selectively, including my own more recent writings, conveniently omitting references to these issues.) The second major weakness stems both from the author's distance from theoretical debates as well as his ideological position. It is, that the momentous economic, social, political, cultural and psychological transformations of vast numbers of people in the world as a consequence of imperialism is, for the large part of the book, either ignored or treated as completely unproblematic. With the exception of one sentence referring to the official assumption in South Africa that "civilization was to be achieved by the work ethic" (p. 169), despite all the attention given to the physical, spatial and, less prominently, symbolic dimensions of colonial urbanism, architecture, landscapes and land divisions, there is hardly a word on their function in reconstituting and disciplining local peoples, of their role in reconstructing the subjectivity and identity of indigenous (as well as colonial) populations, or of their relation to new forms of consumption and social control. The account in short is very much a "top down" approach, a naive history which, like the photographs from the 1930s, largely eliminates the indigenous population. Whilst the author is aware of the selectivity of colonial statistical data, little attention is paid to the notion of contested histories and, as all non-British are generally referred to as "indigenous peoples" there is, in fact, little to distinguish these from "the
REVIEW ARTICLE
195
natives" of 1931. (The brief reference to the "Xhosa peoples" encountered on page 83 stands out because it is exceptional.) Whilst there is indeed discussion of the relation between colonial exploitation and underdevelopment, the author's sympathies are clearly with "the imprint of the colonial heritage" and its current conservation. Plantations, a survival from the colonial economy, are seen as "innovators for the indigenous rural economy" (p.222) and recent attempts to shift the site of colonially-based national capitals are seen as "flamboyant gestures of decolonization"; elsewhere, there are references to "the rhetoric of socialism" in other African states or the removal of Imperial status resulting from "nationalistic fervour". This is, then, a benign and largely unproblematized view of imperialism which sees post-independence governments operating "within the colonial state framework which gave them initial legitimacy" (p. 226). It is a view which has little sympathy for the massive problems left behind by the non-democratic and authoritarian structures of colonialismI31 or of the major ethnic and racial problems, all of which are inherently bound up with physical, spatial and "landscape" structures in, for example, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, not to speak of South Africa; or why aborigines are boycotting the 'bicentennial celebrations' in Australia. There are other points with which one might take issue; for example, the notion that "for most British people, the Empire was largely forgotten" (p. 28) is not borne out by the large number of school texts on imperial geography which circulated in the first half of this century; and as John Rex has pointed out E41,many of the underlying attitudes to race in the U K derive from many people with service, commercial or other experience in the colonies. The author's selective enthusiasm for the present also results in references to distances in British cities being "measured in kilometers" (as far back as 1931). The most obvious omission, however, is of any discussion of the massive impact, both historically and today, of imperialism on Britain I51.Other readers will no doubt find this book equally useful and exasperating. State University o f New York at Binghamton Notes
[1] For example in D. Drakakis-Smith, The Third World City (London 1987); S. Lowder, Inside Third World Cities (London 1986); R. Ross and G. Telkamp, (Eds), Colonial Cities (Lancaster and Boston 1985); P. J. Taylor, Political Geography, World Economy, Nation State and Locality (London, 1985) [2] See A. D. King, The social production of building form; theory and research, Society and Space, 4 (1984) 429-446 which revises discussion of these issues raised by his Colonial Urban Development (1976) [3] See Veena Talwar Oldenburg, The Making of Colonial Lucknow, 1956-77 (Princeton 1984) which shows how a colonially-derived and aloof municipal authority was used during the Indira Gandhi 'emergency' of 1976. [4] John Rex, Race, Colonialism and the City (London 1973) [5] See A. D. King, Urbanism, Colonialism and the World Economy and Global Cities, PostImperialism and Internationalisation of London (both in press)