economy. Ancient empires such as those of Greece
and Rome engaged in colonial practices, and
so did medieval ones, including the Islamicate
empires. But historians more often associate colo-
nialism with the establishment of modern Euro-
pean empires around the world between the 16th
and 20th centuries. Colonial acts of conquest and
exploitation of foreign lands and peoples have
been justified by colonizers in terms of higher
principles or values, such as a “civilizing mis-
sion” or a “white man’s burden” to improve life
for colonized people, reason (over tradition and
superstition), and liberty from despotism. As a
consequence, colonized peoples may find them-
selves driven out of their homelands, absorbed
into the new colonial order, or compelled to adopt
anticolonial and revolutionary strategies of resis-
tance. In colonial contexts, religion has proven to
be a tool for both the colonizing powers, who use
it to convert and control their colonial subjects,
and their indigenous supporters and opponents,
who find it a source of strength and inspiration in
defense of their values and ways of life.
In Muslim lands, colonization occurred when
successive waves of European explorers, sol-
diers, merchants, administrators, and missionar-
ies arrived between the 16th and 20th centuries.
Superior weapons technology helped facilitate
their colonial undertakings. By the mid-20th cen-
tury, some 90 percent of the Muslim world had
fallen under direct colonial control. People living
in other regions, such as the Hijaz in western Ara-
bia, tUrkey, persia, and aFghanistan, witnessed
indirect forms of European colonial involvement.
Aside from the conquest of andalUsia in the 15th
century, one of the earliest instances of coloniza-
tion occurred when the army of the Russian czar
overran the Tatar khanate (principality) of Kazan
on the Volga River in 1552. Tatar Muslims were
uprooted from their homes, fertile lands were
transferred to Russian settlers, and the region was
opened to evangelization by Orthodox Christian
missionaries. The conquest of other Muslim ter-
ritories in Astrakhan and western Siberia soon fol-
lowed. By the end of the 19th century, the Russian
empire had extended its control to the Caucasus
and Central Asia.
Many European powers competed with each
other to establish colonies in Muslim lands.
After Napoleon tried and failed to establish a
French presence in Egypt in 1798, the French
turned to North Africa, where algeria, tUnisia,
and morocco became French colonial territories
between 1830 and 1900. By 1914, France had won
footholds in western and equatorial Africa. The
English East India Company, a merchant venture,
was the instrument by which Great Britain was
able to gain nearly total hegemony in South Asia
(greater india and Sri Lanka) and the Persian Gulf
by the end of the 19th century. The British Crown
established direct rule in India after smashing
the uprising of 1857, and it created protectorates
with all the major gUlF states (excluding Iran) by- Britain occupied egypt in 1882 to guarantee
access to the newly constructed Suez Canal, its
lifeline to India. In 1914, Nigeria became a British
colony and protectorate, as did part of the Horn
of Africa. At the end of World War I, France and
Britain took control of former Ottoman territories
in syria and iraq, including what is now Lebanon,
israel, palestine, and Jordan. Not to be outdone,
Italy attempted to establish colonial footholds in
Libya and the Horn of Africa in the 1930s, but
these efforts were cut short by World War II.
Desire to control the spice trade drew both
Britain and the Netherlands to Southeast Asia
in the 17th century. After first obtaining trading
privileges from local Muslim rulers, they com-
peted with each other to monopolize the region’s
economic and political affairs. The Dutch com-
pleted their hegemony over what is now Indo-
nesia during the 18th century, while the British
colonized the Malay Peninsula in the 19th cen-
tury. The Spanish, following upon the success of
their New World conquests, began colonizing the
Philippines in the late 16th century. They halted
the Islamization this island region was undergo-
ing at that time and retained the Philippines as a
K 156 colonialism