Abstract:
This thesis aims to provide a historical study of colonialism and coloniality in the period 1900-2003 through a comparison of the British invasion of Iraq at the start of the 1900s and the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 in order to identify continuities as well as changes. The study employs a comparative research method in order to demonstrate that there were significant similarities between the two invasions. However, comparing two colonial invasions in the same country in different time periods also has the potential to reveal significant changes over time in colonial strategies. The thesis compares the two invasions in terms of Quijano’s four spheres of the colonial matrix of power, namely the struggle for control of authority, the struggle for economic control, the struggle for hegemony of information and the transformation of gender relations. The thesis will demonstrate that the colonial strategies adopted by both imperial powers were strikingly similar. Moreover, the thesis will argue that these similarities were part of a continuation of a colonial system since many of the structures that were established by the British, such as tribalisation within an imposed nation-state, have remained in place and were reinforced by the U.S. Additionally, the same ways of seeing and representing colonised peoples that were present during the British invasion, were used to justify the American invasion. Every sphere of both invasions was thoroughly gendered. Not only did colonial invasions effect gender relations in Iraq considerably, but the ideologies used to justify the invasions were also based on gendered assumptions. Finally, in accordance with decolonial theory, the thesis calls for “a declaration of war against naturalised war."
