page_title: Colonialism
section_title: The Other
hierarchical_section_title: Colonialism / Colonialism and the history of thought / The Other
caption_attribution_description: The East offering its riches to Britannia. The East offering its riches to Britannia. Allegorical ceiling piece commissioned by the East India Company in 1777 for the Revenue Committee Room in East India House. Oil on canvas.
context_page_description: Colonialism is the policy of a country seeking to extend or retain its authority over other people or territories, generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their religion, economics, and other cultural practices on indigenous peoples. The foreign administrators rule the territory in pursuit of their interests, seeking to benefit from the colonised region's people and resources.
  Colonialism is strongly associated with the European colonial period starting with the 15th century when some European states established colonising empires.
  At first, European colonising countries followed policies of mercantilism, aiming to strengthen the home-country economy, so agreements usually restricted the colonies to trading only with the metropole. By the mid-19th century, however, the British Empire gave up mercantilism and trade restrictions and adopted the principle of free trade, with few restrictions or tariffs. Christian missionaries were active in practically all of the European-controlled colonies because the metropoles were Christian.
context_section_description: "The Other", or "othering" is the process of creating a separate entity to persons or groups who are labelled as different or non-normal due to the repetition of characteristics. Othering is the creation of those who discriminate, to distinguish, label, categorise those who do not fit in the societal norm. Several scholars in recent decades developed the notion of the "other" as an epistemological concept in social theory. For example, postcolonial scholars, believed that colonising powers explained an "other" who were there to dominate, civilise, and extract resources through colonisation of land.
  Political geographers explain how colonial/imperial powers (countries, groups of people etc.) "othered" places they wanted to dominate to legalise their exploitation of the land. During and after the rise of colonialism the Western powers perceived the East as the "other", being different and separate from their societal norm. This viewpoint and separation of culture had divided the Eastern and Western culture creating a dominant/subordinate dynamic, both being the "other" towards themselves.
caption: "The East offering its riches to Britannia", painted by Spiridione Roma for the boardroom of the British East India Company
exif: {"Image Copyright": "Public Domain, from the British Library's collections, 2013"}