Leiden University Student Repository

Marginson, Ana Rosa (2020)

‘Washing up the Orient’: Colonial Responses to Epidemic Disease in Manila and Bombay, 1896-1904

Master thesis | History (MA)

The cholera epidemic of 1902-1904 in Manila shares striking similarities with the outbreak of plague in Bombay in 1896, particularly in the colonial responses of the American and British governments respectively. The heavily interventionist and militarist sanitary methods used by each power were masked by the façade of scientific neutrality and colonial efficiency, but each regime encountered resistance to their policies from the Filipino and Indian populations. This thesis explores and compares the plague and cholera epidemics, with an emphasis on what made each outbreak unique within its own context, and on their similarities despite the perceived difference between each colonial power. At the core of this thesis is the question of how colonial governance and indigenous responses to it were conceptualised in the context of the disease epidemics. An analysis of official government accounts of each epidemic demonstrates that, despite their claims to the contrary, colonial thinking...Show moreThe cholera epidemic of 1902-1904 in Manila shares striking similarities with the outbreak of plague in Bombay in 1896, particularly in the colonial responses of the American and British governments respectively. The heavily interventionist and militarist sanitary methods used by each power were masked by the façade of scientific neutrality and colonial efficiency, but each regime encountered resistance to their policies from the Filipino and Indian populations. This thesis explores and compares the plague and cholera epidemics, with an emphasis on what made each outbreak unique within its own context, and on their similarities despite the perceived difference between each colonial power. At the core of this thesis is the question of how colonial governance and indigenous responses to it were conceptualised in the context of the disease epidemics. An analysis of official government accounts of each epidemic demonstrates that, despite their claims to the contrary, colonial thinking and discrimination always undermined the scientific values that the British and American regimes so often espoused.Show less

Disease

Epidemics

Colonialism

Philippines

American Imperialism

British Imperialism

India

Colonial Governance

Indigenous Resistance

Race

Author

Marginson, Ana Rosa

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

MA Colonial and Global History

Supervisors

Sysling, F.H.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en