6: Imperialism and Economies in Africa and Asia DBQ (TEST)

Unfortunately, many of the potential Javanese workers for the sugar processing factory are already forced to work on sugar fields under the Dutch government’s Cultivation System. There is not a single peasant in the district who is not subject to multiple demands on his labor, from the government or from local Javanese elites.

I have had one of my factory agents travel around the villages in the district all year looking for workers. Despite offering them good wages, I have never succeeded in getting more than five men per day. When I ask the men to work in the factory full time, they all answer that they would if I could get them freed from government-imposed work.

We pay for what we buy from England by exporting Indian agricultural commodities such as rice, silk, indigo, etc. It goes without saying that as the trade with England expands, so will the demand for such agricultural commodities. Ever since the establishment of British rule, the trade of India has increased, leading to an expansion of agriculture.

The Indian cotton weaving trade may have collapsed because of cheap British cloth imports, but why does the weaver not move to another occupation? He may not be able to support his family by weaving cloth, but he should be able to do so if he would switch to cultivating rice.

But people in our country are reluctant to give up their hereditary trades. This reluctance is unfortunate for our weavers, but it does not mean a loss of wealth for India as a whole.

Let it be known that Charles Rudd of Kimberley (South Africa), Rochfort Maguire of London, and Francis Thompson of Kimberley have made a contract with me and agreed to pay me and my heirs the monthly sum of 100 pounds sterling (British currency) and the delivery of 1,000 rifles made in England. Further, they have promised to deliver a steamboat with guns suitable for the defense of my territories on the Zambezi River.

In exchange for these presents, I hereby grant to the above-mentioned individuals and their heirs the complete and exclusive right to collect, sell, and enjoy the profits of all of the metals and minerals contained in my kingdoms. And since I have been much pestered lately by various persons and companies seeking these rights, I further grant to them the right to take all necessary measures to exclude all their competitors seeking mining rights and privileges from my kingdoms.

Each village from our district had to produce 80 loads of rubber per month. As rubber plants got scarcer, the White man reduced the required amount only by a little. We got no pay! Our village got cloth and a little salt from the government, but it did not go to the people who collected the rubber. Instead, our chiefs used up the cloth; the workers got nothing. The pay was given to the Chief, never to the men.

It used to take ten days to get twenty loads of rubber. We were always in the forest and then if we were late making the delivery, we could be killed. We had to go further into the forest to find the rubber vines and our women had to give up cultivating fields and gardens. Then we starved. Wild animals killed some of us when we were working in the forest, and others got lost or died from exposure and starvation. We begged the White men, saying we could get no more rubber, but the White men and their soldiers refused. We tried, always, to go further into the forest, and when we failed, and our rubber delivery was short, the soldiers came to our towns.

After our rebellion had been put down, we were offered work in the mines and farms of the White people to earn money, and so we were able to buy back some cattle to replace the ones that had been lost during the rebellion. At first, of course, we were not used to working for a wage, but the colonial government ordered the chiefs to advise the young people to go to work, and gradually they went. In a few years we had recovered our livelihoods somewhat.

But then the taxes came. At first, it was 10 shillings [British currency] a year. Soon the Government said, “This is too little, you must contribute more, you must pay one pound.” We were also taxed 5 shillings for a dog. Then the Government told us that we were living on private land that supposedly belonged to the White settlers; the owners wanted rent in addition to the Government tax.

In 1902, the Germans established cotton plantations in our Matumbi district. Every village was allotted days on which it had to cultivate the plantations. One person had to come from each household on the allotted days.

This work made us suffer greatly. We were whipped for the smallest mistake, and once you started working, there was no break. Some of us were assigned to clear the land of trees, others tilled the land, others would smooth the ground and plant the cotton seeds, another group did the weeding, another the picking, and yet another transported the bales of cotton to the coast beyond Kikanda for shipping.1 The work was astonishingly hard and our only reward was the whip. And yet the German also wanted us to pay him taxes in addition to the plantation work! Our people came to hate German rule, which was so cruel. It was not because we were lazy or disliked agriculture. If it had been good agriculture with meaning and profit, we would never have risked our lives by starting a rebellion.

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