Editing Colonialism (section)

== Geography ==
{{Further|List of colonies}}
[[File:The National Archives UK - CO 1069-99-01.jpg|thumb|[[British Togoland]] in 1953]]

Settlers acted as the link between indigenous populations and the imperial hegemony, thus bridging the geographical, ideological and commercial gap between the colonisers and colonised. While the extent in which geography as an academic study is implicated in colonialism is contentious, geographical tools such as [[cartography]], [[shipbuilding]], [[navigation]], mining and agricultural productivity were instrumental in European colonial expansion. Colonisers' awareness of the Earth's surface and abundance of practical skills provided colonisers with a knowledge that, in turn, created power.<ref name="Painter">"Painter, J. & Jeffrey, A., 2009. ''Political Geography'', 2nd ed., Sage. "Imperialism" p. 23 (GIC).</ref>

Anne Godlewska and Neil Smith argue that "empire was 'quintessentially a geographical project{{'"}}.{{clarify|reason=What is the meaning of the quote within a quote?|date=March 2018}}<ref name="Nayak">{{Cite book |title=Geographical thought : an introduction to ideas in human geography |last1=Nayak |first1=Anoop |last2=Jeffrey |first2=Alex |date=2011 |publisher=Pearson Prentice Hall |isbn=978-0-13-222824-4 |location=Harlow, England |pages=4–5}}</ref> Historical geographical theories such as [[environmental determinism]] legitimised colonialism by positing the view that some parts of the world were underdeveloped, which created notions of skewed evolution.<ref name="Painter" /> Geographers such as [[Ellen Churchill Semple]] and [[Ellsworth Huntington]] put forward the notion that northern climates bred vigour and intelligence as opposed to those indigenous to tropical climates (See [[The Tropics]]) viz a viz a combination of [[environmental determinism]] and [[Social Darwinism]] in their approach.<ref name="arnold">{{Cite journal |last=Arnold |first=David |date=March 2000 |title="Illusory Riches": Representations of the Tropical World, 1840–1950 |journal=Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=6–18 |doi=10.1111/1467-9493.00060|bibcode=2000SJTG...21....6A }}</ref>

Political geographers also maintain that colonial behaviour was reinforced by the physical mapping of the world, therefore creating a visual separation between "them" and "us". Geographers are primarily focused on the spaces of colonialism and imperialism; more specifically, the material and symbolic appropriation of space enabling colonialism.<ref name="Gallaher">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XpBJclVnVdQC&pg=PA5 |title=Key Concepts in Political Geography |last1=Gallaher |first1=Carolyn |last2=Dahlman |first2=Carl T. |last3=Gilmartin |first3=Mary |last4=Mountz |first4=Alison |last5=Shirlow |first5=Peter |date=2009 |publisher=Sage |isbn=978-1-4129-4672-8 |location=London |pages=392 |author-link=Carolyn Gallaher |access-date=31 July 2014}}</ref>{{rp|5}}
[[File:Scramble-for-Africa-1880-1913-v2.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Comparison of Africa in the years 1880 and 1913]]
Maps played an extensive role in colonialism, as Bassett would put it "by providing geographical information in a convenient and standardised format, cartographers helped open West Africa to European conquest, commerce, and colonisation".<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 215456|title = Cartography and Empire Building in Nineteenth-Century West Africa|journal = Geographical Review|volume = 84|issue = 3|pages=316–335|last1 = Bassett|first1 = Thomas J.|s2cid = 161167051|year = 1994|doi = 10.2307/215456| bibcode=1994GeoRv..84..316B }}</ref> Because the relationship between colonialism and geography was not scientifically objective, cartography was often manipulated during the colonial era. Social norms and values had an effect on the constructing of maps. During colonialism map-makers used rhetoric in their formation of boundaries and in their art. The rhetoric favoured the view of the conquering Europeans; this is evident in the fact that any map created by a non-European was instantly regarded as inaccurate. Furthermore, European cartographers were required to follow a set of rules which led to ethnocentrism; portraying one's own ethnicity in the centre of the map. As [[J.B. Harley]] put it, "The steps in making a map{{snd}}selection, omission, simplification, classification, the creation of hierarchies, and 'symbolisation'{{snd}}are all inherently rhetorical."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Harley |first=J. B. |title=Deconstructing the Map |journal=Cartographica |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=1–20 |date=1989 |doi=10.3138/E635-7827-1757-9T53|s2cid=145766679 |url=http://dlisv03.media.osaka-cu.ac.jp/contents/osakacu/kiyo/13423282-23-123.pdf }}</ref>

A common practice by the European cartographers of the time was to map unexplored areas as "blank spaces". This influenced the colonial powers as it sparked competition amongst them to explore and colonise these regions. Imperialists aggressively and passionately looked forward to filling these spaces for the glory of their respective countries.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 215456|title = Cartography and Empire Building in Nineteenth-Century West Africa|journal = Geographical Review|volume = 84|issue = 3|pages=322, 324–25|last1 = Bassett|first1 = Thomas J.|s2cid = 161167051|year = 1994|doi = 10.2307/215456| bibcode=1994GeoRv..84..316B }}</ref> The ''Dictionary of Human Geography'' notes that cartography was used to empty 'undiscovered' lands of their Indigenous meaning and bring them into spatial existence via the imposition of "Western place-names and borders, [therefore] priming 'virgin' (putatively empty land, 'wilderness') for colonisation (thus sexualising colonial landscapes as domains of male penetration), reconfiguring alien space as absolute, quantifiable and separable (as property)."<ref name="human geo">{{Cite book |title=The dictionary of human geography |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryhumang00greg |url-access=limited |date=2009 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=978-1-4051-3288-6 |editor-last=Gregory |editor-first=Derek |edition=5th |location=Chichester (UK) |pages=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryhumang00greg/page/n114 96]–97 |editor-last2=Johnston |editor-first2=Ron |editor-last3=Pratt |editor-first3=Geraldine |editor-last4=Watts |editor-first4=Michael |editor-last5=Whatmore |editor-first5=Sarah}}</ref>
[[File:Arthur Mees Flags of A Free Empire 1910 Cornell CUL PJM 1167 01.jpg|thumb|Map of the [[British Empire]] (as of 1910). At its height, it was the [[List of largest empires|largest empire]] in history.]]
David Livingstone stresses "that geography has meant different things at different times and in different places" and that we should keep an open mind in regards to the relationship between geography and colonialism instead of identifying boundaries.<ref name="Nayak" /> Geography as a discipline was not and is not an objective science, Painter and Jeffrey argue, rather it is based on assumptions about the physical world.<ref name="Painter" /> Comparison of [[wikt:exogeography|exogeographical]] representations of ostensibly tropical environments in science fiction art support this conjecture, finding the notion of the tropics to be an artificial collection of ideas and beliefs that are independent of geography.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Menadue |first=Christopher Benjamin |date=4 September 2018 |title=Cities in Flight: A Descriptive Examination of the Tropical City Imagined in Twentieth Century Science Fiction Cover Art |journal=ETropic: Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics |language=en |volume=17 |issue=2 |doi=10.25120/etropic.17.2.2018.3658 |issn=1448-2940|doi-access=free }}</ref>

=== Ocean and space ===
{{Further|Ocean colonization|Space colonization}}
With contemporary advances in [[deep sea]] and [[outer space]] technologies, colonization of the [[seabed]] and the Moon have become an object of non-terrestrial colonialism.<ref name="Greenpeace Aotearoa 2018 m713">{{cite web | title=Deep sea mining and neocolonialism in the Pacific | website=Greenpeace Aotearoa | date=29 May 2018 | url=https://www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/story/deep-sea-mining-and-neocolonialism-in-the-pacific/ | access-date=12 March 2024}}</ref><ref name="RNZ 2023 g366">{{cite web | title=Our deep sea is being colonised | website=[[RNZ]] | date=4 April 2023 | url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/487299/our-deep-sea-is-being-colonised | access-date=12 March 2024}}</ref><ref name="Smiles 2024 f731">{{cite web | last=Smiles | first=Deondre | title=The Settler Logics of (Outer) Space | website=Society & Space | date=11 March 2024 | url=https://www.societyandspace.org/articles/the-settler-logics-of-outer-space | access-date=12 March 2024}}</ref><ref name="Greaves 2023 pp. 101–C3P68">{{cite book | last=Greaves | first=Margaret | title=Lyric Poetry and Space Exploration from Einstein to the Present | chapter="The Moon's Corpse Rising": The Poetic Moon and Imperialist Nostalgia from the U.S. to Kashmir | publisher=Oxford University PressOxford | date=22 June 2023 | isbn=978-0-19-286745-2 | doi=10.1093/oso/9780192867452.003.0004 | page=101–C3P68}}</ref>