ENDOGENOUS PROCESSES OF COLONIAL SETTLEMENT. THE SUCCESS AND FAILURE OF EUROPEAN SETTLER FARMING IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA*

Ewout Frankema, Erik Green and Ellen Hillbom

Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, 2016, vol. 34, issue 2, 237-265

Abstract: This paper comments on studies that aim to quantify the long-term economic effects of historical European settlement across the globe. We argue for the need to properly conceptualise «colonial settlement» as an endogenous development process shaped by the interaction between prospective settlers and indigenous peoples. We conduct three comparative case studies in West, East and Southern Africa, showing that the «success» or «failure» of colonial settlement critically depended on colonial government policies arranging European farmer’s access to local land, but above all, local labour resources. These policies were shaped by the clashing interests of African farmers and European planters, in which colonial governments did not necessarily, and certainly not consistently, abide to settler demands, as is often assumed.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/ ... type/journal_article link to article abstract page (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:reveco:v:34:y:2016:i:02:p:237-265_00

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History from Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press, UPH, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8BS UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Kirk Stebbing ().