"The history of European colonialism covers many centuries and takes diverse forms, but whereas the European explorers and conquerors of the Americas, Africa, and Oceania usually took it for granted that the local inhabitants could be enslaved or butchered or driven into the hinterland at the whim of the invaders, the literate nations of Asia were initially treated as peoples toward whom the courtesies of European diplomacy should be applied. At the end of the day these Asian civilizations were likewise mostly subdued by force of arms, but such conquest needed some kind of moral justification, a mythical charter. The Rig Veda as interpreted by Max MĂĽller and his contemporaries provided just such a myth."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Sir Edmund Leach. Aryan invasions over four millennia. In Culture through Time, Anthropological Approaches, edited by E. Ohnuki-Tierney, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1990
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Western_imperialism_in_Asia
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Western imperialism in Asia
9 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Western imperialism in Asia →
Related Quotes
"The Commercial Revolution of Columbus’ time cleared the routes and prepared the way for the Industrial Revolution. Di…"
"In reality, however, it was a 'white peril' that menaced Asia - and indeed the rest of the world. In all history, the…"
"And I thought something else. I thought about the Church of England. My mind went back to Buckingham Palace, and I sa…"
"Truculent and lawless, regarding all Eastern peoples as legitimate prey, they were little if any better than . . . pi…"
"The treaty clauses, in fact, wrote the ultimate doom of Christian activity in China. To have believed that a religion…"
"Till the end of European domination the fact that rights existed for Asians against Europeans was conceded only with …"
"In the century that they have lived together, Central Asia and Russia have united through many economic bonds. But in…"
"Take education from America, Military science from Germany, Shipbuilding from England, Jurisprudence from France."
"A hollowed-out space in living rock is a totally different environment from a building constructed of quarried stone.…"
"Over the last 20 years or so evidence has grown that the hub of ancient long-distance seafaring was Southeast and eas…"