What Is Settler Colonialism? A Look at Its Lasting Impact on Indigenous Peoples
Settler colonialism is part of the model of white supremacy and is a system of oppression designed to populate an area with a foreign population by force. In this way it will bring in settlers to permanently occupy a territory with the clear intention of staying. The aim of settlers like this is to displace by removal, assimilate by ethnocide, or eliminate the Indigenous inhabitants.
This is what European immigrants did to North and South American Native peoples. Rather than just manipulating an area for its resources, settler colonialism seeks to replace the original society with the settlers’ culture, laws, and political control. The French did this in Haiti and Algeria, the English did this in America, the Caribbean, and South Africa, the Dutch did it in South Africa and the Caribbean, the Germans in Africa, Belgium in the Congo, the Portuguese in Angola, Mozambique, Israel in Palestine, and many others. This understanding paints a completely different story of “settlers.” In fact, the term “settler” has become a horrible word for human misery.
“Destroy to Replace” Mentality
Scholars have defined “settler colonialism” as a model that employs a “destroy to replace” mentality. Settler colonialism involves the systematic removal of Indigenous populations by genocide or ethnocide. Settlers go into an area to steal land and resources and/or use forced assimilation (ethnocide) in the form of teaching their own language, religion, and customs (This was how Spanish was forced upon the Native People of Mexico and the French upon Haiti). Settler colonialism has lasting permanence in the form of social structures by asserting control over the land and resources. One could argue that gentrification is an example where a neighborhood is allowed to be turned into a ghetto, and after the inhabitants are forced to move, the area is fixed up and repopulated with Whites.
Related: What If Much of What We Learned About U.S. History Was a Lie?
These Countries Maintain White Supremacist Dominance
According to the Indigenous Foundation, “Colonizers impose their own cultural values, religions, and laws, make policies that do not favor the Indigenous Peoples. They seize land and control the access to resources and trade.” Harvard researchers point out settler colonialism includes the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. “These countries maintain white supremacist dominance by ignoring or suppressing pre-existing Indigenous rights, laws, and political structures.”
Settler colonialism in America involved eliminating Native tribes and replacing them with Black slaves. Mexico’s experience with settler colonialism used the ideology of racial mixing and racial ignoring. Mexicans have only about 25% Spanish ancestry and about 65% Native tribal ancestry including African ancestry. Interestingly, Texas used a false method of identification for people of Mexican descent by calling them “White” on birth certificates no matter what their ancestry actually was.
Mexicans Robbed of their Identity
The Spanish pursued policies to absorb Native Americans into an invented Hispanicized identity that ignored African ancestry. In fact, in the 1500s and beyond, Native people were baptized by a priest who placed his family last name on a baptismal record. The child was most likely Zapotec, Nahua, or some other tribe but was given a Spanish last name. Blacks in America often were given the master’s last name, but one can argue that Mexicans were robbed of their identity as well by changing their Native name to a Spanish one.
Settler colonialism in Mexico also sought to eliminate Blackness. According to the University at Albany, “African communities and the legacy of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in Mexico were systematically written out of the national history, rendering Afro-descendant populations invisible in the mainstream national consciousness.” This is what was done to one of my Mulatto ancestors according to my DNA research.
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