Insurgencies against Colonizing and Centralizing States

In colonized regions, native peoples turned to prophets, rebellion, and charismatic leaders for ways to respond to changes transforming their local communities. As in China and the Islamic world, inspiration combined traditions of the past with completely new visions of modernity.

Alternative to the Expanding United States: the Shawnee Prophet

As exemplified by the Pueblos of New Mexico and the followers of Neolin in the Ohio Valley, anti-colonial efforts could be effective for a while. American seizure of the Ohio Valley in 1794 pressured the Shawnee to adopt farming, Christianity, and the white man’s world. Bitter at the loss of Indian lands and independence, the Shawnee prophet Tenskwatawa foretold the white man’s disappearance if Indians returned to traditional rites. Visions and preaching attracted followers while alarming white authorities. Military failure and the death of Tenskwatawa’s brother Tecumseh led to the collapse of the movement and the eventual expulsion of Amerindian peoples from the Ohio Valley.

Alternative to the Central State: the Caste War of Yucatan

The expanding Mexican state prompted responses such as the Mayan revolt in the Yucatan. While affected only moderately by Spanish conquests and trading networks, the Mayans of the Yucatan struggled with a new class of white elites who dominated through sugar plantations, tax collecting, and conscription. In 1847, a popular uprising called the Caste War broke out, alarming whites. Whites were nearly driven out of the Yucatan before the arrival of the planting season caused the Mayan fighters to return home. When the war with the United States stopped, the Mexican government sent forces south and viciously crushed the movement. A residual point of resistance coalesced at Santa Cruz (Little Holy Cross), where Christian ritual and traditional Mayan beliefs blended. With time, however, the alternative vision of the Mayans succumbed to military pressures and hunger.

The Rebellion of 1857 in India

In India, contact with British colonialism stimulated native uprisings that climaxed in 1857. As in other cases elsewhere, the rebels built on community loyalty and tradition to foster support for an egalitarian alternative to British dominance. Consolidating its power, the East India Company began to strip Indian aristocracy of their influence and to tax peasants directly. Replacing Indian elites as the administrators, the British began modernization programs that included the industry, military, and infrastructure needed to create a modern state.

Sparked by the "greased cartridge" controversy, Indian troops revolted, slaughtered British officers, and restored the Mughal emperor. Asserting Hindu and Muslim unity, the rebels rallied all classes to rise in revolt against the British. As support for the movement blossomed, Lucknow garrison troops crowned the son of their former king. People from all classes participated as the movement lashed out at symbols of British influence.

Most attackers limited their activity to localized areas and thus they did not spread or unify with other anti-British groups elsewhere in India. This, in conjunction with British views that the revolt had been carefully plotted out by a few devious leaders, turned the tide. British forces returned with a vengeance and crushed the rebels. Afterward, the British crown took control of India directly. Thus, this particular alternative vision for India faded, though the urge to create some alternative continued.