Rubber Imperialism

Bibliographic Data

ID8156638
AuthorsFiona Williamson (0000-0002-1203-8546, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume100
Issue1
Pages104-126
Publication date2026-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAgricultural History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-1482 • E-ISSN: 1533-8290
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00021482-12134508
OpenAlexW7127618773
LanguageEN
References cited16

This article investigates how American interests influenced the evolution of one of British Malaya's most significant agricultural exports—natural rubber—from the 1920s into the 1950s. It situates colonial plantations as the loci of the relationship between two contemporary world powers as they locked horns over one of the world's most valuable commodities. In so doing, it frames the colonial plantation as a contested site where international politics fashioned the fortunes of rubber estates and smallholdings in Malaya, speaking to the global entanglements and challenges that informed the industry's evolution. Following the industry over four decades, it charts the story of one of the world's largest rubber producers across a period of intense economic challenges, warfare, and a changing world order as Britain trailed toward the end of empire and sought to reposition the Malayan smallholder in an increasingly aggressive international market

Agriculture · Colonial period · Colonialism · Empire · Natural rubber · Order (exchange · Politics · Asian Studies and History · Australian History and Society · Caribbean history, culture, and politics

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