FOUNDATIONS
We Are Here Because You Were There: Race, Colonialism, and Migration
To what extent are the histories and memories of colonialism part and parcel of Asian American and Pacific Islander identity?
Chapter objectives
- Learn how European empire and American colonialism in the Asia-Pacific region shaped Asian American and Pacific Islander migrations to the United States.
- Understand how wars of empire and the history of civil strife in Asia are rooted in modern Western empire-building projects.
- Explore the lives of migrants and exiles displaced through anti-colonial politics and decolonization efforts.
This chapter explores how 350 years of Western colonization and the subsequent wars in Asia and the Pacific Rim from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries have influenced the individual, family, and community experiences of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Their histories and experiences are inextricably tied to European imperialism and US colonialism, and the historical legacy continues to make its mark to the present day. European and American colonizers rationalized their aggressions into Asia among other places with the missionizing ethic and regressive racial theories such as Social Darwinism. They believed their domination of other “inferior” nations of the world was inevitable because of European “superiority.” They developed a theory about the “Orient,” which crafted opposing stereotypes to describe the “East” as stagnant, superstitious, and traditional versus the “West” as progressive, scientific, rational, and modern—reasons used to explain the rise of the West over the East. The chapter concludes with a case study of the ideas and concepts presented in this chapter by examining a little-known chapter of Asian American history—the Indonesian sailors who fought to remain in the US amid the backdrop of World War II and Indonesia’s battle for independence.
Chapter Sources
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