The Age of Colonialism

Before telling India's story, the chapter defines the idea itself. Colonialism is when one country takes control of another region, sets up settlements there, and imposes its own political, economic and cultural systems.

It is not new. Colonialism goes back to the great empires of the 1st millennium BCE, and in the 1st millennium CE the spread of Christianity and Islam involved colonising lands converted to the new faiths.

But the 'Age of Colonialism' usually means Europe's expansion from the 15th century onwards, which within a few centuries reached large parts of the world. Spain, Portugal, Britain, France and the Netherlands set up colonies across Africa, Asia, the Americas, Australia and many Pacific islands.

Often those conquests involved the massacre or enslavement of the people already living there.

Why did they do it? The chapter names four motives:

• Political competition between European powers: a race for land and influence.
• Economic advantage: new natural resources, new markets, new trade routes, and often plunder.
• Converting local peoples to Christianity.
• A smaller but real one, scientific inquiry: the wish to explore unknown lands and learn about the planet's geography and nature.

Colonisers often claimed a 'civilising mission': bringing 'progress' to peoples they demonised (described as evil or worthless) as 'savage', 'primitive' or 'barbaric'.

The chapter sets that claim against the record: loss of independence, exploitation of resources, destruction of traditional ways of life, and foreign cultural values forced on people.

And it is careful not to overstate. Yes, the colonial age brought the world closer and saw fast growth of economies and technologies, "but the benefits were mostly for the colonisers", while many studies record the hardships of the colonised.