Discussion Week 2

How can you use the concept of settler colonialism to construct a new map of East Asia that links the histories of Hawaii and China to US and Japanese imperialism? What happens when you add the Caribbean and British imperialism to the mix (think back to Goffe)?

• Settler colonialism, in terms of explaining historical geography, can be represented in the form of patches of color-coded areas marking who settled on what. Since time pasts, the colors would shift to the next as well as the shape of the patches.
• Applying to the geography of East Asia with its connection between Hawaii, China, and Western Imperialism, the outlook will look like a large patch representing the influx of Chinese, Japanese and American population that will eventually envelop Hawaii. With the effects of time and the acting resistance of immigration and growing distrust between Americans and East Asians with the second world war drawing closer, the patterns, and patches of who settles where shifts, depending on the group. Based on this, it can be observed that the indigenous population has dwindled due to the rapid rate of immigration influx due to imperialism. The implementation of Chinatowns and/or military bases are key examples. Chinatowns and markets show economically how the population fluctuates according to consumer needs as well as retailing. Military bases indicate the importance of geographical advantage/disadvantage in aspect to war. America has docked such on Hawaii because of its location in the pacific settling between imperial Japan and the US, allowing a naval gateway into either territory.
• If we take the Caribbean and British imperialism into account, the effects are similar in terms of who settled where and how many have due to the amount of time. As said before, Chinatowns were key factors in geographically marking population patches and fluctuations. With the addition to aspects of slavery and indentured servitude, it is likely the map would present, as said, various patches of indigenous vs. immigrants that is uneven due to differing variables.