Map of the East Indies
description: The beginning of the 18th century saw the final years of the Enlightenment and the beginning of a new era defined by colonial expansion. If maritime history during the early modern period was characterized by exploration and conquest, the 19th century was to be characterized by colonization. By the end of the early modern period, Europeans had already colonized most of the Americas, and had forts and trading posts all along the West Coast of Africa and throughout Southeast Asia (Wiesner-Hanks, 494). The following century would see the European takeover of India, Australia, and the partition of Africa that gave Europeans dominion over much of the world. Yet the end of the slave trade during this period and the liberal ideals of the Enlightenment seem an unusual environment for the growth in colonialism. If fact, this incongruity has led to a historiographical debate over the actions and intentions of progressive thinkers during the Enlightenment and the role that they played in the establishment and longevity of Empire. Jonathan Israel, a scholar of the Radical Enlightenment, for example, emphasizes racial motivation for European dominion throughout the world, stating that the moderate Enlightenment leaders “often inclined to theories of racial superiority and European...superiority in civilization and religion...This was the usual method of explaining and justifying colonial rule and economic control” (Wolloch, 354). This theory suggests that the liberal principles of equality and liberty that supposedly defined the end of the 18th century were simply ignored when it came to groups of racial “others” which allowed for the justification of colonization of non-white areas. There is, however, another camp of scholars who claim that Enlightenment leaders who supported colonialism did so from a rational (albeit highly Eurocentric) perspective. Historians such as Jennifer Pitts have argued that the support of colonial rule was not based on race, but rather on the theory t…
creator: James Rennel
source: Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal
date: 1794
contributor: Thomas Jefferys
rights: Free Re-use