More on Single Histories

My classmate reacted to my wirting on the Alamo and Texas' single history. He brought up two salient and interesting other cultures that were single histories; Guinea and India. First, he's right there is a alot of emotion and experience wrapped up in the subject of colonialism and a discussion in a professional and academic setting for a true exchange of ideas is best. 

His post, especially the focus on Guinea, made me think of a book I just finished reading; Lost in Shangri La. It's all about a lost valley in New Guinea that is "found" by US Pilots during the middle of WWII. I say "found" because the natives of that valley were never "lost" but it's interesting in that a plane crashes in the valley and the military is forced to launch a rescue operation and disturb the native population. Even before the crash that necessitated the rescue, there was no thought about whether or not, or in what ways, a western group of explorers (not in this instance colonizers) might affect the native population. 

In the end, the rescuers were forced to remain among the natives for about a month, and what is intriguing is that even the little interactions they had with the native population stayed with the native people and their children and children's children along through the years. Additionally, the mess-up, the goofs, and the moments where the explorers inadvertently trampled on or negatively affected the native population created scars and pain that were held and expressed for decades and down the generations. So even when not colonizers, when people try to not affect the native population, even despite best efforts, the interactions can have drastic and dire consequences. 

I also loved how he referenced India and British Colonization. So often, war and conflict are precursors to colonization. The Lost in Shangri La episode is a byproduct of war, and if we look at modern-day times and conflicts we can see how conflicts inspire conquest and colonization. In terms of India, he expressed how one primary effect of British colonization on India is the dominant language became English.