Is colonization possible during the encounter between two civilizations?

Abstract

This paper explores the encounters between civilizations to understand whether colonization can occur during the contact. By taking the case study of the Islamic and European civilizations’ encounter with other civilizations, the study aims to broaden the historical domain of colonialism. The paper explores how European colonization (15th–19th Centuries) in regions like Egypt, the Americas, and India imposed governance structures, economic exploitation, and cultural erasure driven by nationalist ambitions, economic greed, ideological prowess and Enlightenment ideals of superiority. On the other hand, the Islamic expansions—7th–13th Centuries—and encounters in Al-Andalus, Persia, Byzantine, India, Central Asia and Byzantine fostered cultural pluralism and intellectual advancements through trade, scholarship, and religious coexistence, rooted in universalist ethos. By taking the colonization of Egypt as a case study, the paper examines how ideological, structural, and economic factors shaped these divergent outcomes, highlighting differing historical trajectories in terms of civilizational encounter. For a theoretical framework, the study employs Hagen Schulze’s States, Nations and Nationalism and Toynbee’s ‘Challenge and Response’ theory to enrich the inquiry.