From XVIe century, Europe and India begin to trade. Their connected history comes in various forms, including the cultivation of vegetables, the spice trade, literature and even architecture.
In 1498, Vasco da Gama arrived in Calicut, India. Went to look for “ Christians and spices », he traces a new maritime route, allowing the circumnavigation of Africa. The impact of this trip, much greater than those of the European merchants in India who preceded it – such as Nicolo Conti or Anthanase Nikitine in XVe century – marks it as the inaugural moment of exchanges between Asia and Europe.
This is the starting point of the fascinating work by Jean-Louis Margolin and Claude Markovits, a work which is part of the fruitful approach of connected stories. The Indies and Europe aims to reconstruct the convergences and similarities of the approaches of the imperial powers, as well as the intra-Asian socio-political logics, which the national framework of history largely neglects.
An infinity of tiny contacts
Correlatively with this connected approach, the desire to reconstruct a non-teleological and non-globalizing history – very far from a homogeneous representation of the European presence in Asia – constitutes another quality of the work. It is indeed a question of showing the plurality of European and Asian actors, the contradictions in their respective projects, their interests, convergent or divergent. Because “ there was (…) no “East-West meeting”, but an infinity of generally tiny contacts and complex interrelations » (p. 20).
The work therefore fully assumes its break with the Saïdian vision of the supposed coherence of “ the imperialism of categories », derived from the analyzes of Michel Foucault. Rather than considering that Europeans are uniformly driven by the conviction of being the only holders of universal knowledge, “ rather, it is appropriate to take note of the complexity of relationships that vary greatly in time and space, as well as according to social environments, and even individuals. » (p. 24).
In this perspective, European colonial domination which began around the middle of the XVIIIe century is in no way a continuation of the period opened with the voyage of Vasco da Gama. The authors emphasize that colonization in Asia is characterized by a gradual transition, distinct from the violent processes of imposition of domination found in Africa and America. To the point that the completion of this domination in Asia dates from 1858, as far as India is concerned, and from the beginning of XXe century, with regard to Southeast Asia – a duration of five centuries.
The sea route initially had only minor consequences. In fact, the Mediterranean route, controlled first by the Mamluks then by the Ottoman Empire, was to be the most used for a long time. Furthermore, rich and intense commercial and cultural links between Southeast Asia and India have existed since the Ier millennium, since the century preceding the arrival of Europeans with China. This explains why, despite the breakthrough of Europeans in Asian trade, Chinese trade will always play the most important role in regional trade.
The authors also deconstruct a teleological vision of the European project by emphasizing the non-expansionist character of European states at the start of this encounter with Asia. It is rather a question of inserting itself into the spice trade and finding Christian allies against the Mamluk State: these two Portuguese motivations – economic and ideological-religious – must not be hierarchical, as was possible. be done in some previous studies.
Mutual influences
It is this slow European evolution – where the colonial future is not written in advance – that the work of Jean-Louis Margolin and Claude Markovits traces. This approach, by analyzing European expansion, allows us to understand the lack of initial reactions on the part of Asian states. If Europeans do not worry, it is because they are numerically few in number, like these 600,000 European inhabitants of the territories controlled by the United Provinces, or a few thousandths of the Asian population.
Furthermore, the main wars before 1750 were intra-European, the Europeans not yet being able to compete with the large Asian states. It was only in the years 1740-1765 that the nature of the European presence in Southeast Asia and India changed: Europeans then became major political actors, which coincided with the end of the Mughal Empire. , the struggle between the successor states of the Mughals and the decomposition of the Hindu state of Vijayanagar, all of which favored European action.
This approach also makes it possible to take stock of mutual influences. In fact, in addition to the later economic and political consequences, the cultural consequences of the new sea route were immediately very important: new themes appeared in Portuguese literature, notably The Lusiads from Camoens ; we see the emergence of architecture “ Manueline » ; sculpture and decorative arts are imbued with new motifs ; we are witnessing the beginnings of the “ indology », with the Italians Filippo Sassetti and Roberto de Nobili, who lived precisely in the Portuguese Estado da Indià.
Furthermore, this relationship with Asia contributes to the birth and then the consolidation of a “ European feeling “. As the authors point out:
“ Asia was the Other that allowed the emergence of self-consciousness. The confrontation with Asian civilizations with a long history and highly developed institutions, which ignored the Christian revelation, was an enormous cultural shock, even greater than that of the discovery of America. It raised questions about the nature of European culture, which led to the Enlightenment » (p. 253).
In Asia, in addition to the importance of the arrival of money from America in the Asian monetary circuit, the impact of Europeans is manifested by the introduction of new plants (cassava, tobacco, corn, pepper, apple land) and by the increase in demand for certain products, mainly textiles, which will also result in job creation. On a human level, these relationships also result in the birth of mixed-race children from couples of casadosPortuguese men with their Indian wives. However, this influence remains limited in the religious domain – except in the Philippines and to a lesser extent in Ceylon –, as well as in the political domain, where “ nothing in particular indicates a direct influence of European political models before the end of the XVIIIe century » (p. 231).
Forms of resistance
This story is also woven with resistance. The book analyzes different forms, active and passive, which accompanied this long-term encounter. It deals in particular with the resistance of the Indian powers of Mysore and the “ Marathi confederation » at the end of XVIIIe century, revolts of various social groups such as that of the sanyasi (mendicant ascetics) or that of poligars (local peasant leaders) which gained momentum from 1857, the date of the Sepoy revolt in India.
This resistance is also cultural, especially in Bengal where it benefits from the development of printing. They also embrace forms of “ fallback »: thus James Scott designates a large region of highlands of 2.5 million square kilometers of the Indochinese peninsula which he calls Zomiaand in which the populations express a tendentially anarchist refusal of state constraints and, therefore, of colonial constraints.
Resolutely breaking with any teleological vision, this story – which encompasses the XXe century – allows us to understand why, at the time of the destabilization of the colonial order, “ there have been several versions of emancipation, rebirth, becoming » (p. 578). Among the exogenous causes of this collapse, the authors note the emergence of the Soviet Union, with communist ideology considered an important pole of attraction. We can regret that theUSSR is not further analyzed as an actor in its own right in this connected history: because, in addition to certain military treaties, theUSSR participates in scientific exchange programs and leaves traces, including on the editorial level, Russian and East European classical authors having been widely published and disseminated in India and other countries of Southeast Asia in from the second half of XXe century.
But this remark does not detract from the quality of a work which constitutes a superb lesson in the method of connected history, which here attests to all its heuristic fecundity. By reminding ourselves that “ the histories of Europe and South Asia became connected histories, inseparable from each other (…), even if Europeans and South Asians are rarely aware of this » (p. 759), this book, in addition to its scientific significance, is particularly welcome today.