bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Note on the Shipbuilding in Bengal in the Late Eighteenth Century
Authors: Bhattacharya Bhaswati
Published: June 2011

Both overseas trade and shipbuilding in India are of great antiquity. But even for the early modern period, maritime commerce is relatively better documented than the shipbuilding industry. When the Portuguese and later the North Europeans entered the intra-Asian trade, many of the ships they employed in order to supplement their shipping in Asia were obtained from the Indian dockyards. Detailed evidence with regard to shipbuilding, however, is very rare. It has been pointed out that the Portuguese in the sixteenth century were more particular than their North-European counter-parts in the following centuries in providing information on seafaring and shipbuilding. Shipbuilding on the west coast has been discussed more than that on the eastern coast of India, particularly the coast of Bengal. Though Bengal had a long tradition of shipbuilding, direct evidence of shipbuilding in the region is rare. Many changes were brought about in the history of India and the Indian Ocean trade of the eighteenth century, especially after the 1750s. When the English became the largest carriers of Bengal's trade with other parts of Asia, this had an impact on the shipbuilding in Bengal. It was in their interest that the British in Bengal had their ships built in that province.
Researching Chinese History in Russia: A Guide to Archives in Moscow and St. Petersburg
Authors: van der Oye David Schimmelpenninck
Published: June 2011

It is already a cliché that the fall of the Soviet Union is providing an archival bonanza to historians. Naturally most attention is on sensational revelations from previously-inaccessible collections about Russia's own past. Yet those interested in other nations can also profit from the new openness of Moscow's and St. Petersburg's archives. This is particularly true for specialists in nineteenth-century Chinese history: Tsarist diplomats, officers and geographers actively studied their Asian neighbour, and their documents provide a fascinating perspective on the latter years of the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, the years before 1917 mark the golden age of Russian Sinology. While their accomplishments are largely ignored in the West, St. Petersburg's Orientalists produced much original and important work.
How the Dutch Ran a Seventeenth-Century Colony: The Occupation and Loss of Formosa 1624–1662
Authors: van Veen Ernst
Published: June 2011

In 1861 the bookJava: Or, How to Manage a Colony, by J.W.B. Money, which compared the deficits suffered by British India with the profitability of the cultivation of Java and Madura, caused considerable discussion among the Dutch politicians. At an international level, the last word has yet to be spoken in the debate among historians and economists on the profits and losses of former colonies.
Brazil's Early Nineteenth-Century Policy Towards Denmark and Sweden, 1808–1831
Authors: Holten Birgitte
Published: June 2011

Brazil's active foreign policy tradition dates from the beginning of its existence as an independent state in the early nineteenth century. More than the former Spanish colonies in Latin America, Brazil considered the international recognition of its sovereignty an important goal. Therefore, Brazil demonstrated in the 1820s a great interest in the establishment of diplomatic relations and the negotiation of commercial treaties with the European nations and the United States.
India and the Indonesian Archipelago from theGenerale Missiven der VOC(Dutch East India Company)
Authors: Van Goor J.
Published: June 2011

Regularly, with the ships coming with the monsoon, the Governor-General and the councillors at Batavia received information from their subordinates from all over Asia. The Council of the Indies consisted of older members of the Company's bureaucracy, men who had served in several posts before being nominated to this ultimate position of honour. Together in council they constituted the best informed body on Asian affairs, in the East, as well as in the West. As a body they were responsible for the formulation of thegenerate missiven, the general letters in which theHeren Zeventien(Gentlemen Seventeen) were briefed on the state of affairs. Themissivenhad to be signed by all, dissent was not permissable. According to a a set pattern, all factories were dealt with in the same fashion. Any member of the council in principle would have been able to make an overview of the differing areas in which the Company was active. If any, they seem to have been the people able to make a comparison of the Indian subcontinent and the Indonesian archipelago. The following is an attempt to show what insights might have been expected from an interview with an elder servant of the ‘honourable Company’.
Controversial Views on Writing Colonial History
Authors: Breman Jan
Published: June 2011

The discovery of an official report, so far unpublished, about coolie scandals on the plantations on Sumatra's East Coast around the year 1900, motivated me to produce a full-length book on this theme. My original intention had been merely to write a short introduction to the publication of a shocking historical document. However, I changed my mind when it became obvious that proper understanding of the source required more background information on the social and policy framework within which the plantation system operated. This applied both to conditions on the estates themselves and to the evaluation of those affairs by official and non-official outsiders. The main aim of my study is to contribute to the historiography of industrial labour in Southeast Asia. However, it also analyses die linkage that came about between capitalist industry and colonial policy in a region that formed part of the so-called Outer Provinces of die Netherlands Indies.
Agricultural Technology Depicted in Mughal Paintings
Authors: Qaisar A. Jan
Published: June 2011

Most of the historians of medieval India have been interested in the political, administrative and economic aspect of the period, while some have exhibited fondness for religious and cultural history, albeit in a limited sense. Of late, new sectors of study have been explored: for example, the development of technology during the medieval period.
Missionary Archives and Historical-Anthropological Research
Authors: Kooiman Dick
Published: June 2011

In the summer of 1992 the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London hosted a workshop that deserves the interest of the readers of Itinerario. It was a workshop on missionary archives exclusively meant to explore the rich potential of these missionary sources for social science research. The initiative for this two-day study-conference was taken by the historian David Arnold and the archivist Rosemary Seton, both of them associated with SOAS.
Portugal's Contribution to the Development of Mercantile Capitalism
Authors: Dos Santos Joāo Marinho
Published: June 2011

In analysing the history of the Portuguese expansion, it is tempting to use purely economic factors. This perspective minimizes two non-economic problems confronting Portuguese society at the beginning of the fifteenth century: on the one hand the general cohesion of Portuguese society, which could only be brought about by the noble and military élites, and on the other the problem of national independence, which at the time was under threat from Castile. In fact, these problems persisted, alongside others that were generated by the very solution that was found for them, namely by overseas expansion. The capture of Ceuta in 1415 was an ingenious attempt to overcome these problems in one go. Due to their military weakness, it had been impossible for the Portuguese elites to take part in the conquest of Granada. The project of Ceuta did permit territorial growth. Besides, it mobilized the nation ideologically, thus reinforcing its identity without threatening the unity of the Respublica Christiana.
Private Money for Company Trade: The Role of the Bills of Exchange in Financing the Return Cargoes of the VOC
Authors: Gaastra Femme S.
Published: June 2011

‘One does not write history with value judgements.’ Van Leur made this remark, countering the ‘Dutch refrain’ sung by Godée Molsbergen, which indicted the corruption of the VOC-servants as a cause of the Company's downfall. Van Leur explained that the standard for a modern officialdom was only created with the Napoleonic state and ‘it was therefore anachronistic to apply this standard to the 18th century’. Criticism of the integrity of the Company servants in this century is a post facto criticism. But if history cannot be written with value judgements, it cannot do without any judgements at all. Van Leur judged ‘the achievements of a Hartingh, a Von Hohendorff, a Mossel, a Van der Parra, and, on the Indonesian side, of a Mangkubumi, a Mas Sahid, a Cakraningrat certainly on par with those of Speelman, a Van Goens, and a Aru Palakka’.
Historiographical Reflections on the Period 1750–1870 in Southeast Asia and Korea
Authors: Reid Anthony
Published: June 2011

The historiography with which most of us interact outside our own country or area of expertise is predominantly western and primarily in English. Although increasingly diverse in authorship, this historiography continued to build on traditions and sources which were developed in a less universalist age. It is not surprising the find that the period (roughly mid-seventeenth to mid-eighteenth centuries) in which most independent countries of eastern Asia sought to disengage from the European-dominated world economy is poorly understood or appreciated. I am conscious of the danger that my own recent work on the Southeast Asian ‘Age of Commerce’ may unintentionally reinforce negative images of those states which reacted to the traumas of the seventeenth century by decreasing their interaction with European traders.
The Expansion of Europe Revisited: The European Impact on World History and Global Interaction, 1450–1800
Authors: Russell-Wood A.J.R.
Published: June 2011

The period from the fifteenth century to the end of the eighteenth century witnessed the creation, expansion, contraction, and fall of empires, enhanced and expanded communications, creation and growth – as measured by volume, range and intensity – of trading diasporas, diffusion of major religions far beyond their points of origin, intercontinental and transoceanic dissemination of flora and fauna, major movements – both coerced and voluntary – of population, growing technological sophistication, and advanced in humankind's knowledge of natural, earth, and planetary sciences. It also witnessed religious strife, conquest and war, decimation of populations through disease and hunger, and continued subjugation and oppression of groups of people. Taken by themselves, none of these aspects had been absent before this period and many had manifested themselves, albeit in vastly differing degrees of intensity on a very broad spectrum, on the major landmasses of the world.
Reconstructing British Imperialism: The Autobiography of a Research Project
Authors: Cain P.J. , Hopkins A.G.
Published: June 2011

Our joint work, like so much else in life, had its origin in an accident of fate. It would never have seen the light of day, at least in its published forms, had it not been for the chance that the authors both came to the University of Birmingham in the mid-1960s, from different backgrounds and with different interests, and then found that, by the mid-1970s, their research interests had converged to the point where co-operative work began to appear both logical and feasible. At that moment, like countless other scholars in all branches of research, we did not have a clear idea of what we were embarking on or, of course, how long it would take. But we made a conscious decision, at a time when we had built up a considerable amount of intellectual capital, to attack one of the big problems of modern history, namely the causes of imperial expansion, and to take a chance on the outcome.
The Origins of New Netherland. Interpreting Native American Responses to Henry Hudson's Visit
Authors: Otto Paul
Published: June 2011

When Adriaen van der Donck wroteA Description of the New Netherlandsin 1655, he rightly pointed to Henry Hudson's 1609 voyage and discovery as the foundation of Dutch claims to the North American territory. Presumably arguing on the basis of the right of first discovery, he proposed that local Indian lore supported the fact that the Dutch-employed Englishman had been the first to discover and explore the Hudson River. As a settler in New Netherland, Van der Donck had often heard the native inhabitants claim that before Hudson came they had never seen such a thing as a European ship.
Women and Trade in New Netherland
Authors: Shattuck Martha Dickinson
Published: June 2011

If the average person was asked what the name New Netherland brought to mind, quite likely the response would be the fur trade. And to a great degree they would be right in making that association. In the years following Henry Hudson's exploration in 1609 of the river that eventually bore his name and before the founding of the West India Company in 1621, Dutch trading companies and private traders sailed to the New World for the sole purpose of exploiting the fur trade.
‘Here is No Resisting the Country’. The Realities of Power in Afro-European Relations on the West African ‘Slave Coast’
Authors: Law Robin
Published: June 2011

Perceptions of the earliest stages of interaction between European nations and the indigenous peoples of Africa, from the beginnings of European maritime expansion in the fifteenth century to the nineteenth century, are easily clouded by consciousness of the subsequent imposition of European rule over almost the entire African continent. There has, arguably, been a tendency to read back into earlier periods the military and political dominance which became manifest in the European Partition of Africa at the end of the nineteenth century. The temptation is, perhaps, especially strong in relation to the history of the Atlantic slave trade, which appears so obviously damaging to the African societies involved that it is readily assumed that their participation in it must have been somehow coerced. Although strongest in popular perceptions, this tendency has been reflected in the work of some academic historians also: perhaps most emphatically in the general survey of Afro-European commercial relations by the late Walter Rodney, which remains probably the most widely read book on African history. There we are told, for example, that ‘From the beginning, Europe assumed the power to make decisions within the international trading system […] Above all, European decision-making power was exercised in selecting what Africa should export – in accordance with European needs.’ Primarily, according to Rodney, this was a question of disparity of economic power; but ‘as a last resort’ armed force could be used ‘to ensure the pursuit of favourable policies in the dependent areas’.
Needs and Opportunities: British Expansion
Authors: Kupperman Karen Ordahl
Published: June 2011

Our picture of English expansion in the early modern period is being transformed. Earlier in this century the story of overseas enterprise was an imperial story; the historian stood in London, and institutional development dominated the story. Charles M. Andrews led this approach in America, and A.P. Newton was leader of the English school. These historians studied communication between the metropolis and the tiny developing centers in America. The hinterland was important as it contributed tonnage and value. As the colonies developed, the backcountry sometimes entered die story as its setders challenged the now-established governments in the east. Culture, especially religion, was studied as it influenced the peculiar colonial development of key institutions in government and society. And the history of the British colonies was the history of early America.
European Expansion and Unfree Labour: An Introduction
Authors: Emmer P. C.
Published: June 2011

Did the expansion of Europe create large numbers of unfree labourers in Africa, Asia and the New World or was the use of unfree labour in a colonial setting nothing else but an adaptation to the labour traditions of the non-European world? It is fascinating to see how unique free labour actually was in the early modern world. Historically speaking, free labour was usually the exception and unfree labour the rule, especially when we consider non-European controlled labour systems.
Does Bound Labour Have To Be Coerced Labour?: The Case of Colonial Immigrant Servitude Versus Craft Apprenticeship and Life-Cycle Servitude-in-Husbandry
Authors: Grubb Farley
Published: June 2011

Why are some forms of bound labour more coercive than others? Specifically, why was European indentured servitude in America more coercive than craft apprenticeship or life-cycle servitude-in-husbandry, despite the close similarity and derivative nature of these institutions? Concepts recently advanced in labour economics offer some preliminary answers to these questions. This investigation is exploratory in nature and focuses on three types of voluntary long-term labour contracts. However, the arguments and conclusions presented here may have wider applications and be useful for future research on other forms of bound labour which involve consent and contract.
Indian Immigrants and the Legacy of Marronage: Illegal Absence, Desertion and Vagrancy on Mauritius, 1835–1900
Authors: Allen Richard B.
Published: June 2011

Even before the abolition of slavery on 1 February 1835, planters on Mauritius had begun to look for free agricultural labourers to work their estates. By the early 1830s, it had become apparent that the local slave population was inadequate to meet the labour needs of the colony's rapidly expanding sugar industry, and the long-term availability of this soon-to-be emancipated work force was also increasingly open to question as the decade progressed. The Act of Abolition promised owners the services of their former slaves, now transformed into ‘apprentices’, as agricultural labourers, but only for a period of six years. Some planters no doubt suspected that the apprenticeship system might come to an end earlier than scheduled, as indeed was to happen in 1839. Others had good reason to suspect that many, if not most, of their apprentices would leave the plantations upon their final emancipation, as indeed they subsequently did. Faced with these realities, Mauritian planters dispatched their agents as far afield as China, Singapore, Ethiopia and Madagascar to search out supplies of inexpensive labour. Their gaze returned continually, however, to the relative close and seemingly inexhaustible manpower of India.
Death among Coolies: Mortality of Chinese and Javanese Labourers on Sumatra in the Early Years of Recruitment, 1882–1909
Authors: Klaveren Marieke Van
Published: June 2011

Travel in search of a better future is an essential part of human history. This paper will examine one aspect of this phenomenon, that of migrating labourers, focusing on the migration and mortality of Javanese and Chinese labourers to the East Coast of Sumatra from 1869 to 1930. One of the goals of this investigation will be to better understand the condition in which they lived. The rate of mortality among Javanese and Chinese labourers is still based on appropriations, because previous scholarship focussed primarily on labour conditions on the plantations and not on the real evidence of mortality of the labourers. Perhaps this is because documentation in the early part of the period is incomplete and hard to come by. It is obvious, however, that from the outset of the plantation society, mortality was high. In Koelies, Planters en Koloniale Politiek, Jan Breman estimated that on Sumatra's East Coast one out of three or four coolies died before his contract had ended. However, reports of hospitals in the area are a source for new evidence about the mortality of the labourers in the early years of their recruitment. This paper will present this evidence.
Mortality and the Javanese Diaspora
Authors: Emmer P. C. , Shlomowitz Ralph
Published: June 2011

During the past few decades, many scholars have studied the various demographic consequences of European overseas expansion. One focus of attention has been the fatal impact of European expansion on the native populations of the New World. Before contact with Europeans, the native populations of the Americas, Australia, and the Pacific were generally free of infectious diseases, and so lacked immunity to diseases such as smallpox, measles, and influenza, which were introduced by Europeans. A second focus of attention has been the mortality among Europeans when they went overseas and encountered new diseases, such as malaria, yellow fever, and cholera, to which they had no immunity. And a third focus of attention has been the mortality among various African, Asian, and Pacific Islander labourers when they were procured as slaves or indentured servants for work on European plantations in various parts of the world.
Political Centralization and Labour Coercion: Latin America and Russia in Comparative Perspective
Authors: Pastore Mario , Freudenberger Herman
Published: June 2011

Government requires coercion, if only to arrest free riding. Physical coercion alone may not suffice for this purpose, however, and ideological means may be needed as well. This basic principle underlies all government. In market economies the coercive capabilities of government may be expected to be financed out of taxes ultimately levied on factor owners' money incomes, that is, on wages, profits, and rent. On the other hand, in economies where markets have not developed due to high transactions costs individuals' contributions to the provision of public goods will take the form of payments in kind and labour services. In this case, the free rider problem suggests labourers will attempt to shirk; the government, therefore, will have to compel labourers to work and, therefore, will appear to be coercing labour even though it may only be seeking to curtail shirking.
Images and Ideologies of Dutch-South Asian Contact: Cross-Cultural Encounters between the Nayaka State of Madurai and the Dutch East India Company in the Seventeenth Century
Authors: Vink Markus P. M.
Published: June 2011

The founding of a coastal trading factory at Kayalpatnam in south-eastern India in 1645 initiated a period of nearly a century of cross-cultural contacts between representatives of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Nayaka state of Madurai. Traditionally this area has received little attention in both Dutch and Indian colonial historiography. While Company historians have tended to focus on either Coromandel or Ceylon, the main centres of VOC activity in the region, their Indian counterparts have concentrated on the epic struggle of the Mughals with the Deccan sultanates, and subsequently the Marathas, during this time period. In the true spirit of the great chartered companies, one historian has held a virtual monopoly in the field for more than two decades, from the late fifties to the early eighties. Only recently have other (ethno)historians, anthropologists, indologists, and sociologists turned their attention to the area south of the Kollidam (Coleroon) River and east of the Western Ghats.
British and German Passivity in the Face of the Spanish Neo-Mercantilist Resurgence in the Philippines, c. 1883-1898
Authors: Salazar Wigan
Published: June 2011

In the two final decades of the nineteenth century, Spain introduced a number of measures promoting Spanish economic interests in the Philippines which culminated in a protectionist tariff established in 1891. As a consequence, Spain's trade with the archipelago rose unprecedentedly, particularly evident in the import of textiles and other manufactured goods. Through their neo-mercantilist policies, ‘the Spanish were able to recover something of their former economic position in their own colony’, that they in the course of the nineteenth century had lost to foreign, particularly British, competitors.
III. ‘Al-Hind’ India and Indonesia in the Islamic World-Economy, c. 700–1800 A.D.
Authors: Wink André
Published: June 2011

In the aftermath of the Islamic conquests of the seventh and early eighth centuries the territory which came under effective domination of the caliphate extended from the Iberian peninsula and North Africa to Central Asia and into the Persian-Indian borderland of Sind which for three centuries remained its easternmost frontier. Beyond Sind a vast area was left unconquered which the Arabs calledal-Hindand which, in their conception, embraced both India and the Indianised states of the Indonesian archipelago and Southeast Asia. In the countless kingdoms ofal-Hindthe Muslims penetrated, up to the eleventh century, only as traders. By the time that Islamic power was established in North India the political unity of the Abbasid caliphate was already lost. Neither India nor Indonesia were provinces of the classical Islamic state. But in the Middle East three decisive developments had occurred and these created patterns which were to survive the political fragmentation of the empire. Most important was that a thoroughly commercialized and monetised economy with a bureaucracy and a fiscal polity had been established which continued to expand. Secondly, from the ninth century onwards, the Islamic military-bureaucratic apparatus had begun to be staffed with imported slaves on an extended scale. And thirdly, from its Arab roots the Islamic conquest state had shifted to a Persianised foundation, adopting Persian culture and the Sassanid tradition of monarchy and statecraft.
V. State Formation and Transformation in Early Modern India and Southeast Asia
Authors: Subrahmanyam Sanjay
Published: June 2011

Orthodox viewpoints on the formation and transformation of states in early modern (or late pre-colonial) South and Southeast Asia fall broadly into two strands. On the one hand, there are those who see the state as ephemeral, and essentially divorced from society in general.
X. The Run to the Coast: Comparative Notes on Early Dutch and English Expansion and State Formation in Asia
Authors: Blussé Leonard
Published: June 2011

Certain stages of the European expansion process into Asia during the Age of Commercial Capitalism lend themselves well to the comparative historical approach because of the startling similarities and contrasts they offer. The Dutch and English commercial leaps forward into the Orient, for instance, occurred at the same time in the organisational framework of chartered East India Companies - the English East India Company (EIC) and the Dutch Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) — which, moreover, chose the same theatre of action: Southeast Asia (Banten, Spice Islands) and South Asia (Surat and Coromandel). But although the aims, modes of operation and organisation of the two companies had much in common, these nonetheless each finally carved out their own sphere of influence in the trading world of Asia - the Dutch in Southeast Asia and the English in South Asia. While this consolidation process was taking place, the EIC and VOC gradually shed their semblance of being purely maritime trading organisations and, towards the second half of the eighteenth century, acquired the character of territorial powers. A shift in the balance of power also occurred between the two companies: if the Dutch were still paramount in the seventeenth century, the English totally overshadowed them as powerbrokers in Asian waters during the eighteenth. Did this transition of maritime hegemony occur gradually or should we rather speak of a ‘passage brusque et rapide’ as Fernand Braudel has suggested? Was it, as the traditional explanation has it, the inevitable outcome of the decline of the Dutch Republic to a second-rate power in Europe, or were local Asian developments, be they political or commercial, also involved?
ReOrient or Not: That IS the Question
Authors: Frank Andre Gunder
Published: June 2011

Peer Vries asks ‘Should we really ReORIENT?’ He never really tells us but instead like my political science professor fifty years ago answers ‘yes and no, with certain reservations’. Fortunately for me, he certainly does not say no with no reservations, but rather yes with some reservations — ‘again I think Frank has truth on his side’. I accept with thanks. Vries does, however, give a careful reading and quite accurate summary rendering of the argument in the book. I wish I could have done as well myself. Then he sets out his legitimate reservations about the same within the universe of discourse that the book sets out, which he also accepts. Unlike so many reviewers, he does not discuss a book that was not written and/or set up only straw men to knock down. For all that, the author and our readers can only be very thankful to Vries, and it behooves the author also to take his critiques and reservations seriously, that is to attempt to use them constructively. Unfortunately in his good effort to be critical, Vries also makes several factually wrong attributions to me, some of which bear correction.
Culture, Clocks, and Comparative Costs David Landes on the Wealth of the West and the Poverty of the Rest
Authors: Vries Peer
Published: June 2011

It would be hard to find a more fundamental question in economic history than the one professor Landes asks in his latest book: why are some nations so rich and some so poor? To every economist and economic historian analysing this problem is an immense intellectual challenge. Landes however does not merely tackle it from a strictly intellectual perspective. He also hopes that by writing the book under review he can contribute to an answer and thereby help the poor to become healthier and wealthier. He approaches his subject historically. He does so not just because he is a historian, but also because he thinks the best way to understand a problem is to ask: How and why did we get where we are?
The Recuperation of Sovereign Rights by Asian Countries, circa 1870–1945: From Capitulations to Equal Relations, the Dutch Experience
Authors: Bootsma N. A.
Published: June 2011

Western expansion in Asia during the nineteenth and early twentieth century resulted in two different groups of Asian countries: those which fell victim to European colonialism and those which managed to maintain the basis of their sovereign rights. This contribution will concentrate on the second group, including not only the countries of the so-called Far East but those of the Middle Eastern Ottoman Empire as well. The link between these two otherwise separate worlds is the concept of consular jurisdiction. It originated in the Islamic world and was transplanted by the West to China, Japan and Siam in the second half of the nineteenth century. In the twentieth, it became the touchstone in the relations of the Asian countries with the West in their struggle for equality.
Balance Sheets for the Acquisition, Retention and Loss of European Empires Overseas
Authors: O'Brien Patrick Karl , de la Escosura Leandro Prados
Published: June 2011

Our essay will critically survey and attempt to offer an overall interpretation of a growing volume of publications by historians who have attempted to evaluate the costs and benefits for Europe's domestic economies flowing from some five centuries of involvement with empires overseas. That involvement began with the conquest of Ceuta by the Portuguese in 1417 and passed through two epochs: 1417-1825 and 1825-1974. After a first conjuncture marked by the French Revolution, a quarter of a century of global warfare and movements for independence in Southern America, Britain emerged as the hegemonic imperial power in Europe. Its major rivals for commerce and dominion in Africa, Asia and the Americas (Portugal, Spain, France and Holland) ceded control over parts of their possessions overseas to Britain or (in the cases of Spain and Portugal), lost sovereignty over their colonies in Latin America.
What Was the Late Colonial State?
Authors: Darwin John
Published: June 2011

The historiography of the late colonial era has had a love-hate relationship with the colonial state. In the early years of post-colonial independence, much history was written to record and celebrate the achievements of ‘nation-building’. The founding fathers of independence had defeated the colonial state in their struggle against its oppressions. The old state, now under new management, but with the same boundaries, language and (usually) administrative structure, had become a nation, with an undisputed claim to the loyalty of its former colonial subjects. The task of the historian was to show how a national identity had emerged ineluctably from the bundle of districts cellotaped together by colonialism into a dependency, and how it had been mobilised to throw off colonial rule and create a sovereign nation. Subsequently, as this version of the recent colonial past was undermined by the difficulties and divisions of the independent present, and, in some cases, by disillusionment with its ruling elite, the focus shifted towards the sources of popular resistance in the colonial period. In this ‘subaltern’ history, the emphasis was upon uncovering rural struggles, local solidarities, and ‘hidden’ communities of belief that colonial rulers had ignored, or suppressed but which had played a key part in destroying the legitimacy and exercise of their power. The implication here was that the colonial state was an alien coercive force whose continuation into the post-colonial era (even with a change of crew) had frustrated social justice and the achievement of an authentic post-colonial identity.
The Late Colonial State in Malawi: Some Ideas on the Transition from Inter-War Timidity to Post-War Confidence, 1930-1950
Authors: Fairweather-Tall Andrew
Published: June 2011

On 24 June 1930, the Governor of Nyasaland opened the first session of the Advisory Committee on Education; the Committee had been constituted in accordance with the recently enacted Education Ordinance to replace the Board of Education. He observed that the Ordinance was ‘a radical change in our education policy’ because ‘it does not attempt to control education: schools of any description however inefficient may be opened’.
The Late Colonial State in Portuguese Africa
Authors: Newitt Malyn
Published: June 2011

Since their independence in 1975 the former Portuguese African colonies of Guiné, Angola and Mozambique have been notorious for their instability, while the microstate of Sāo Tome has sunk to become one of the poorest and most debt-burdened countries in the world. The easiest explanation for these disasters can be found in the circumstances of the Portuguese withdrawal from Africa and the maelstrom of the final phases of the Cold War in which these states became embroiled. But are these explanations adequate?
Fin des Etats coloniaux et nouvelles donnes du politique en Afrique équatoriale française
Authors: Bernault Florence
Published: June 2011

Les Etats coloniaux, en dépit de leur origine extérieure et de leur imposition brutale en Afrique, développèrent des liens organiques avec les sociétés colonisées. C'est ce qu'ont montré en particulier Bruce Berman et John Lonsdale dans leur analyse sur la ‘formation’ de l'Etat colonial, c'est-à-dire la capacité de celui-ci à être en partie modelé par les sociétés dominées afin de survivre. L'Etat colonial tardif (late colonial state) en Afrique équato-riale française obéit comme d'autres à ce principe, et l'on ne peut découvrir savraie nature qu'en se détournant d'une approche strictement chronologique occupée à découvrir le moment et les causes de son déclin, au profit d'un questionnement sur les conséquences locales et à long terme de cette période. C'est la raison pour laquelle, à parcourir la trajectoire classique des décennies terminales de l'empire français dans cette zone, on préfèrera sonder la mise en place dans cette région d'une culture du politique dont les effets de continuité modèlent encore aujourd'hui les comportements publics.
Moving towards a National Economy in Late Colonial Indonesia
Authors: Touwen Jeroen
Published: June 2011

In Tapanuli, a province in western Sumatra, economic expansion in the late colonial period was frustrated by the problems of transportation in its mountainous and inaccessible terrain. In 1921, Resident F.C. Vorstman of Tapanuli stated in his succession report: ‘The construction of main roads is one of the most powerful means to improve economically backward regions’. This statement is not very surprising in itself, but it does reveal that some government officials had a clear idea of the impediments of economic development in the Outer Islands of colonial Indonesia, and how these obstacles could be overcome. As I will argue in this contribution, the development of infrastructure was one of the major factors in a process of increasing economic integration in Indonesia in the late colonial period. Moreover, infrastructural improvements were more significant in stimulating national economic development than the government policies under the Ethical Policy.
British and Indian Ideas of ‘Development’: Decoding Political Conventions in the Late Colonial State
Authors: Zachariah Benjamin
Published: June 2011

What was the ‘late colonial state’ in India? Purely chronologically, it might be taken to be a period from the 1920s or the 1930s onwards; but this is with the benefit of hindsight. Most writers are in agreement that, despite the political rhetoric of British imperialism in India, it was not until the Second World War that an actual withdrawal from India was seriously contemplated by Britain, with the definite reservation that matters of imperial importance such as defence and economic interest should be controlled by Britain as far as possible. If an acceptance by the colonial power of impending decolonisation is to be the basis of such a characterisation, then it is doubtful whether there was a late colonial state at all. If, on the other hand, a difference in the forms of control and of exercise of power over the colony from earlier periods is to be the basis of the characterisation ‘late’, then perhaps there is more of a case for a use of the term ‘late colonial state’ as more than a mere chronological device.
Slamming the ‘Open Door’: British Protectionist Fiscal Policy in Inter-War Nigeria
Authors: Olukoju Ayodeji
Published: June 2011

Until recently, when it ceased to be an important pastime, scholars engaged in debate over the motives behind, and the nature of, European imperial enterprise in the colonial territories of Africa. Opinion was divided between those who stressed the altruistic goals and the positive impact of the European ‘civilising’ mission in Africa and others who highlighted the ulterior motives behind, and the uncomplimentary features of, colonial rule. One issue in contention as far as British imperialism was concerned, was the policy of ‘free trade’ in the colonies. It was held by some that Britain operated the ‘imperialism of Free Trade’, that is, it hid under the espousal of that policy in order to acquire colonies and to gain advantage over its rivals in the contest for colonial trade. On the other hand, much was made of Britain's ‘open door’ policy in its colonies as contrasted with the French, for example, who were for the most part protectionists. Yet, as a number of studies have shown, the British were no less protectionist given certain circumstances, and this case study provides further examples of this tendency in inter-war Nigeria. To place the discussion in a proper context, we shall clarify the nature of the fiscal system in British colonies, for this was the linchpin of the administration and the key to understanding economic policy.
CHOICE, INTERNAL CONSISTENCY AND RATIONALITY
Authors: Bhattacharyya Aditi , Pattanaik Prasanta K. , Xu Yongsheng
Published: June 2011

The classical theory of rational choice is built on several important internal consistency conditions. In recent years, the reasonableness of those internal consistency conditions has been questioned and criticized, and several responses to accommodate such criticisms have been proposed in the literature. This paper develops a general framework to accommodate the issues raised by the criticisms of classical rational choice theory, and examines the broad impact of these criticisms from both normative and positive points of view.
LUCK-EGALITARIANISM: FAULTS AND COLLECTIVE CHOICE
Authors: Lippert-Rasmussen Kasper
Published: June 2011

A standard formulation of luck-egalitarianism says that ‘it is [in itself] bad – unjust and unfair – for some to be worse off than others [through no fault or choice of their own]’, where ‘fault or choice’ means substantive responsibility-generating fault or choice. This formulation is ambiguous: one ambiguity concerns the possible existence of a gap between what is true of each worse-off individual and what is true of the group of worse-off individuals, fault or choice-wise, the other concerns the notion of fault. I show that certain ways of resolving these ambiguities lead to counterintuitive results; and that the most plausible way of resolving them leads to a theory of distributive justice in which responsibility plays a role significantly different from that in standard luck-egalitarian thinking. My main conclusion here is that luck-egalitarianism is best formulated as the view that it is [in itself] bad – unjust and unfair – for an individual to be worse off than others if, and only if, her being worse off does not fit the degree to which she is at fault in a not purely prudential sense.
Young children fail to fully generalize a novel argument structure construction when exposed to the same input as older learners
Authors: BOYD JEREMY K. , GOLDBERG ADELE E.
Published: June 2011

The present study1exposed five-year-olds (M=5 ; 2), seven-year-olds (M=7 ; 6) and adults (M=22 ; 4) to instances of a novel phrasal construction, then used a forced choice comprehension task to evaluate their learning of the construction. The abstractness of participants' acquired representations of the novel construction was evaluated by varying the degree of lexical overlap that test items had with exposure items. We found that both child groups were less proficient than adults, but seven-year-olds showed evidence of across-the-board generalization whereas five-year-olds were sensitive to lexical overlap at test. This outcome is consistent with more conservative, item-based learning of syntactic patterns in younger children. Additionally, unlike adults and seven-year-olds, five-year-olds showed no evidence of having mastered the novel construction's linking rules. Thus, younger learners are less likely to generalize abstract argument structure constructions when exposed to thesamesystematic input as older learners.
Dwelling space and social identities: the Roman bourgeoisie,c. 1950–80
Authors: BONOMO BRUNO
Published: June 2011

This article explores the relationship between dwelling space and the lifestyles and social identities of the Roman bourgeoisie during a period of great social and cultural change. Concentrating on a few exemplary situations, the neighbourhoods and homes of the bourgeoisie are examined through the analysis of elements such as forms of behaviour, social relations, dress codes, building typologies and domestic interior furnishings. What emerges is the importance of dwelling space to the development and expression of bourgeois social identities, as well as the plurality of the latter and their evolution over the period examined.
Asphalt kids and the matrix city: reminiscences of children's urban environmental history
Authors: LAAKKONEN SIMO
Published: June 2011

Existing research in urban environmental history is often characterized by a narrow viewpoint or limited material reflecting the rationalist approach typical of white, middle-aged, middle-class and educated men. This orientation risks overlooking the viewpoint of the majority of urban dwellers: ordinary men, women, children, the elderly and different ethnic groups. The article focuses on the urban environmental history of children, because childhood forms the foundation for our relationship with nature. Environmental reminiscences offer fruitful material for the study of children's urban environmental history as well as children's contemporary relationships with the urban landscape. The article integrates aspects of urban history, environmental history and evolutionary psychology.
Urban history of the medieval Low Countries: research trends and new perspectives (2000–10)
Authors: HAEMERS JELLE
Published: June 2011

The historiography of medieval cities in the Low Countries has long been influenced by the legacy of Henri Pirenne (1862–1935) and his pupils. The Belgian historian and his followers used new (positivist) methods to study history, such as critical source analysis and teaching in seminars, which had a great impact on contemporary scholars in Belgium and elsewhere. Furthermore, Pirenne's selection of original research topics drastically changed the study of medieval history on the Continent. Influenced by research trends in France and Germany, Pirenne did ground-breaking new research, for instance, in the field of urban history. His publications on the origins of towns, on the ‘early democracies’ in the Low Countries, and on the socio-economic background of urban growth and decline inspired many colleagues and his students. His research on particular topics in the field of urban history has, until the present day, been a fruitful starting point for many Ph.D. students. Three of these topics constitute the subject of this review article: first, the origins of towns; secondly, the social history of urban politics and thirdly, the economy and finances of cities. This review of recent Ph.D. theses on the urban history of the Low Countries will demonstrate the importance of Pirenne's legacy, paying close attention to the valuable refinements that have been made to his findings in the last decade. Moreover, the actual research trends and the fresh perspectives of young scholars on the Low Countries’ history can be of great use for scholars of the history of cities in other regions in late medieval Europe.
Cannabisbezogene Störungen bei Jugendlichen und jungen Erwachsenen
Authors: Aden Anneke , Stolle Martin , Thomasius Rainer
Published: June 2011

Umfang des Problems: Die Zahlen für Lebenszeitprävalenzen von Cannabis sowie regelmäßige Konsummuster unter Jugendlichen zeigen nach starkem Anstieg der Vorjahre in den Jahren 2007 und 2008 erstmals einen leichten Rückgang. Die Behandlungsnachfrage scheint dagegen weiter anzusteigen, die Prävalenzen cannabisbezogener Störungen bei Jugendlichen und jungen Erwachsenen sind bereits sehr hoch. Ätiologie: Individuelle Vulnerabilität und Risikofaktoren prägen in einer Interaktion von psychosozialen, substanzbezogenen, intra- und interpersonellen (familiären) Variablen die Initiation sowie die Progression zu regelmäßigem Konsum, zum Teil resultieren cannabisbezogene Störungen. Behandlung: Die Behandlung dieser Klientel erfordert ein hohes Maß an störungs- und altersspezifischer Orientierung. Besondere psychosoziale und suchtmedizinische Umstände sowie die Auswirkungen des Cannabiskonsums müssen ebenso berücksichtigt werden wie die entwicklungspsychologischen und –psychopathologischen Besonderheiten des Kindes-, Jugend- und jungen Erwachsenenalters. Aufgrund oft gering ausgeprägter Eigenmotivation zu Verhaltensänderung und Behandlung kommt motivationsfördernden Ansätzen eine wichtige Bedeutung zu.