Settler Colonialism
Colonialism is the act in which one group (colonizers) takes advantage of another group’s land, labor, and resources, usually by force, for their benefit or the benefit of their mother country. Settler colonialism is a form of colonialism where the colonizers establish themselves permanently on indigenous land. Over time, settler colonies become distinct countries or territories in which the colonizers have a unique identity. Settler colonialism is a “structure not an event”, which is to say it exist as long as settlers are on indigenous land. Thus, settler colonialism is a process that continues to maintain differences in power between the settlers and indigenous people as well as other political minority groups in the colony. A major aspect of settler colonialism that distinguishes it from the traditional view of colonialism where the colonial power is geographically far from the colonized country, like British rule over India, is that colonizers come to stay hence the term settlers. In this way settler colonialism is based on eliminating indigenous people and redistributing land and resources for their benefit while casting “false narratives and structure of settler belonging” to justify their acts.
The United States is a perfect example of a settler colony. As said above, one major aspect of settler colonialism is the elimination of indigenous people. Prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 there had been about 10 million indigenous people living in the United States which had reduced to staggering 300,000 or less by 1900. About 90% of Native Americans were killed by disease and pathogens spread by Europeans that the Native Americans were not immune to. Sometimes the spread of these disease were intentional, seen in Sir Jeffrey Amherst, commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, letter to Henry Bouquet at Fort Pitt
“You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians [with smallpox] by means of blankets, as well as to try every other method, that can serve to extirpate this execrable race”.
Another intentional act of elimination can be seen in Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana purchase in 1803 which significantly expanded U.S. territory. The reason why this is significant is because it reinforces that the U.S. as an imperial power that can forcibly annex indigenous land under the idea of “manifest destiny”. Manifest destiny was basically an idea that gave the divine right for U.S or the states to expand their territory and forcibly kick Native Americans out of their land.
Another example of this was the “Indian Removal Act” of 1830. This act was signed by president Andrew Jackson to expand settler colonies west of Mississippi. A few tribes relocated peacefully, but the ones that resisted faced tremendous tragedies. In this act about 4000 Cherokees were killed and is commonly known as the “trail of tears”.
As mentioned above settler colonialism is also based on casting “false narratives and structure of settler belonging”; aside from the idea of “manifest destiny” another way this is done is through racialization. Racialization is a way to cast certain ideas or social practices to a race or ethnicity regardless of whether they identify that way or not. Racialization was used in “different ways, according to the needs of the settler colony.” Racialization in order to satisfy the needs of the settler colony has resulted in the racialization of Black Americans and Muslims in the United States. As Wolfe puts it:
“Racialization represents a response to the crisis occasioned when colonizers are threatened to share the same social space with the colonized”
During the time of slavery the “one drop rule” was used as a form racialization; essentially saying that anyone who has any African ancestors even it be a drop can be used as slaves. Which was needed to maximize profit for the colonizers. This is now done nowadays with systematic racism (racism through politics and social agendas) and mass incarceration of Black Americans and racializing them as criminals.
Racialization is done with Muslims on the other hand by casting them as “dangerous terrorist” and synonymizing Islam with “terrorism”. This is done to justify the so called “War on Terror”.
Thus to summarize settler colonialism is a form of colonialism where are the colonizers come to stay. It is a “structure not an event”, which is to say it exist as long as settlers are on indigenous land. It is also based on eliminating indigenous people and redistributing land and resources for the benefit of the colonizers while casting “false narratives and structure of settler belonging” to justify their acts.