to Dutch settlers allowed many former slaves to acquire property and legal protections within the Dutch system. Lorraine M. Paterson’s contribution further highlights the opportunities for Indochinese convicts exiled by… Click to show full abstract
to Dutch settlers allowed many former slaves to acquire property and legal protections within the Dutch system. Lorraine M. Paterson’s contribution further highlights the opportunities for Indochinese convicts exiled by the French. Despite the immense pain caused by the physical separation from ancestral grave sites, many Indochinese became successful French colonials in places like New Caledonia and Gabon following their indentured service. And perhaps nowhere did penal labourers experience more opportunity than British convicts in Australia. Carol Liston’s contribution on convict experiences in New South Wales shows that “greater material prosperity” accompanied the high emotional price of exile. (p. 194) Working either on government projects or private property, most convicts were able to better their social position after serving their sentence. Colonial authorities even utilised population transfers to maintain their commercial monopolies. Timo Kaartinen demonstrates that the VOC in Maluku mobilised allied native groups to force indigenous economic competitors to abandon their prime agricultural land. However, groups like the Bandanese were able to reconstitute their societies outside of VOC-controlled regions and, in doing so, maintain unique cultural identities based on this shared memory of resistance. Although these excellent contributions are transnational, the work remains a primarily AngloDutch affair. Only Paterson’s essay on exile from French Indochina, expands outside of this bi-national focus. The work further narrows its purview primarily to the mid-seventeenth to nineteenth centuries and does not extend far outside the Indian Ocean World. These parameters limit the applicability of the work to “colonial Asia” writ large. There are no contributions on the Spanish Philippines, the Russian Far East, the various Portuguese colonies, or Concession China. No doubt, any work seeking to address exile across the entirety of colonial Asia would need to take these, as well as contemporary indigenous traditions, into account. Despite its somewhat narrow focus, Exile in Colonial Asia succeeds admirably in bringing attention to the “global dimensions of colonial exile”. (2) The volume further excels in synthesising the experience and memory of exile through the eyes of both colonial authorities and the exiles themselves. The deep sense of separation felt by exiles was complimented by new opportunities for social advancement, while exiled leaders who failed in their resistance against colonial regimes are now commemorated as national heroes in their post-colonial homelands. Furthermore, the work demonstrates the value in assessing European colonialism through the lens of exile, both prince and pauper. The ever-present “labour question”, which confounded colonial regimes in their efforts to economically develop their territories, highlights the role played by imported convict labour and non-collaborating elite exile in developing colonial economies. Whether by infrastructure improvement, settlement, or the creation of plantation-based societies, exile was integral in the formation of the colonial world and the shaping of post-colonial socioeconomic relationships. For those seeking novel historiographical approaches to transnational history, Exile in Colonial Asia offers excellent insights on the role of forced migration in imperial endeavour.
               
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