(iPoster) “Digging Its Own Grave”: Colonial Disruptions in Cambodia and Vietnam

• In Event: Poster Sessions: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries & Occupation, Memory, and National Identity
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Occupation, Memory, and National Identity

Abstract

What are the possible relationships between colonialism and nationalism? Are there any immanent characteristics in the colonial systems that tend to facilitate its antagonist, nationalism? Why did some colonized countries revolt, while others did not? This paper is an attempt to answer these complicated questions in part. By investigating the cases of Cambodia and Vietnam under French colonialism pre-1945, it aims to illuminate the various colonial conditions under which nationalist movements might be facilitated. In terms of case choice, the current literature either discusses them as a homogenous unit of analysis called French Indochina or completely unique country cases. My paper would be the first to consider these two cases comparatively in order to offer a theoretical explanation. It argues that if colonizers did not disrupt the status quo seriously and brought about neutral or seemingly (though not always actually) positive changes, the colonized would be less attractive to nationalism. Vice versa, if the colonizers seriously disrupted the former way of life with more modern institutions, they would paradoxically and accidentally ferment nationalist sentiments. More specifically, I argue that the differences between the extent and the organization level of anti-colonial nationalist movements in Vietnam and Cambodia were rooted in two aspects of French colonial institutions - the maintenance aspect and the reputational aspect vis-à-vis the colonized’s ancien régimes. The thing to note is that both needed to be present and interact with each other.

Author

• Thu Nguyen, McGill University