The “sin” of colonialism and language (2)

As discussed in part 1, in modern Euro-American societies (and in the Communist world), colonialism is as great a sin as racism, white supremacy, and misgendering people. Past and present. Maybe worse than some of these.

As with racism and misgendering, forcing the abandonment of names is an important aspect of demonstrating political correctness and our disdain for the “evils” of the past. We see this constantly. We posted this cartoon as an example of this kind of false teaching.

Such wrong views do not take into account that there are many facets to such activities in the past. Current hot-button issues (Greenland, Iran, Taiwan, to name a few) make it a good idea to examine this more. So let us continue to look at the long history of colonialism and mis-naming, as demonstrated by the history of the area now generally called Palestine.

Today, the Israelites, who (in their Exodus) invaded Canaan (after they escaped from slavery in Egypt) are branded as colonialists. (Yes, we understand that most modern Israelis and Jews cannot demonstrate their genetic ties to those people from 3400 years ago, but they do largely continue the traditions and heritage bequeathed by Moses and the Prophets, including constant rebellion against G-d.) They destroyed or drove out of the land many of the various Canaanite nationalities or tribes, took over or built new cities, and established a new system of government. But many of the old inhabitants remained in control of various areas of the land, some as powerful or more powerful than the Israelites.

Four hundred years of a loose confederation of Israelite tribes followed. In which they fought and were sometimes subjected to rule by other powers, and even fought among themselves. Then they established a kingdom officially uniting all twelve tribes, which lasted 120 years and was called Israel, after their common ancestor. And controlled, dominated virtually all of Canaan, for a short time. (The exceptions were the Philistine pentapolis and the Phoenician city-states.) And even extended control over much of ancient (and modern) Syria. The nation was Israel: the land continued to be called Canaan. Today, this nation is condemned as “imperial” and colonial, as the remnants of the Canaanites from 400-500 years earlier were either assimilated, driven out, or destroyed.

But tyranny led to division: a split between North (still using the name of Israel) and South (two tribes calling themselves Judah, the larger and dominant Israelite tribe). These survived, sometimes tributary to great empires, for another 400+ years in Canaan. But first, the North and then the South polities were conquered and forced into exile. The North was conquered by the Assyrian Empire, which scattered most of the northern Israelites across the empire. Where they were assimilated by various peoples and lost their identity. Assyria sent in settlers (colonists) to that area of Canaan. The South, in turn, was defeated and forced into exile and a form of slavery by the Neo-Chaldean Empire: Babylon. But they retained their national identity and religion. After the Neo-Chaldean regime was conquered and annexed by the Medes and Persians (who had actually rebelled against the Chaldeans), the new regime allowed the captives and their families to go back to Canaan from what is today Iraq and Iran.

As Assyria had done, Babylon had sent in colonists to repopulate what became known as Judea. The returning Judahites (Israelites; Jews) drove out or wiped out the mixed, generally polytheistic previous colonists. (For which the Jews are now condemned, yet again.)

After centuries of Persian rule, in which the Jews were allowed considerable autonomy and their own culture and religion, along came Alexander. He was not destroying the Persian realm, as so often he is depicted. Rather, he took control of the Persian Empire, expanded it, and began to inculcate it with Macedonian/Greek culture and religion. And colonists. His untimely death resulted in his Macedonian successors dividing up the short-lived domain.

They continued to pursue Alexander’s program of Hellenization: replacing other systems with Greek ideas, and they were clearly colonizers. Once again, Canaan became a battlefield where two of the dynasties of his Successors fought for control. The Ptolemies of Egypt and the Seleucids of Syria brought in more colonists and (by modern standards) were both colonialists and imperialists. Over more than a century, the Seleucids won control. And strongly suppressed Jewish culture and religion. So the past Israelite/Jewish colonists now became the downtrodden “natives.”

Which led to a revolt against this colonialism: a war of independence, in fact, by the Judeans. Led by a family with the nickname of the Maccabees – the Hammers. And Judea was, after nearly 450 years, again an independent nation in Canaan. And began expanding in imperial fashion. This included the forced conversion to Judaism of a brother people: Edomites, descendants of Israel’s brother Esau.

They also had severe internal problems, as did their former colonizers, the Seleucids. Which resulted in Roman involvement, meddling, and intervention. And ultimately, annexation. First, as a client kingdom (King Herod), and after his death, his kingdom into several tetrarchies, and ultimately Judea itself was directly under Roman rule. It is pictured in the popular mind as being an oppressed and bitter nation that rose up finally in AD66 in rebellion. Only to be crushed and rise again a few decades later, and yet again before being totally destroyed and scattered. This belief fails to understand the importance of the Jews to the Roman Empire: commercially, administratively, and militarily. And the reality that the “Roman-Jewish War” was actually a Jewish Civil War, which Rome intervened in and ultimately resolved.

Today, many fail to recognise that “colonialism” is a sin committed by most government entities and nations through history, and miss two important aspects. First, one year’s victim of colonialism may be the next year’s colonial power, and vice versa. And two, colonialism is not an unmitigated evil, and sometimes both defensive in nature and with great benefits to all parties. We’ll pick this up in Part 3.

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