Legacies of Colonial Settlement on Post-colonial Political Violence

• In Event: Colonial and Historical Legacies: Implications for Citizenship and Conflict

Abstract

How does colonial settlement and forced expulsion affect postcolonial political violence? Many postcolonial states suffer from elite-orchestrated mass violence. Existing research highlights the role of colonial-era ethnic exclusion, past violence, and horizontal inequalities as drivers of subsequent political violence. We contend that colonial-era land expropriation for settlement can drive postcolonial state-building and enhance the capacity of the local administrative apparatus. This capability enables local officials to constrain mass-based political violence when such violence erupts or is instigated by those in power. We analyze the case of Northeast China and show that areas with higher density of Japanese settlement (1934-45) saw less intense violence during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). By analyzing the immediate postwar process of Chinese Communist state-building and land reform, we show that such areas were able to build more cadre-heavy party organs that were able to constrain mass violence.

Author

• Harunobu Saijo