Colonial Territories Research Articles

The Return of the Repressed: Political Deportation in the 
Indian Ocean during the Age 
of Revolutions

Abstract Between the second half of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Indian Ocean became a theatre of the global war waged by European imperial states. This article compares how three colonial powers, in French, Danish, and British colonial territories, dealt with interconnected political threats, in a region where the limits of imperial sovereignty and jurisdictions were often blurred and frequently renegotiated. Rather than a formally sanctioned doctrine and legal category, deportation should be understood as a crude tool for solving a variety of problems. Although the forced removal of criminals, religious minorities or political opponents was not a new instrument to the late eighteenth century, it is often ignored that political deportation was also a widely used legal practice in the Indian Ocean during the ‘age of revolutions’. In this region, deportation was used by imperial centres to get rid of political enemies, but also by regional authorities, without referring to metropolitan orders. It was usually not a judicial punishment, but an administrative measure justified in the name of political necessity. This article focuses on three small colonial enclaves, French Reunion, Danish Tranquebar, and British Pondicherry, where a siege mentality and fear of political sedition were omnipresent in this period. Contemporaries believed, with some justifications, that a single conspiracy linked these three colonial theatres, involving the same set of protagonists, who redeployed their projects as they were removed from one place to the next. But in these three sites and societies, deportation raises different issues. Dumping radicals on a foreign shore might have been a short-term fix, but it rarely solved problems in the long term: deportees often returned after some time, which was a direct consequence of the colonial authorities’ reluctance to take irreparable decisions, and of the entanglement of empires and polities in the Indian Ocean.

The power of space opera: energetic melodrama and the ecologies of Dune

ABSTRACT This essay examines the history of space opera and melodrama through the lens of science fiction and especially Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune, with recent film adaptations by Denis Villeneuve (2021, 2024). Drawing on scholarship that explores the imperial and energy imaginary of science fiction, it argues that space opera is a subgenre of science fiction which amplifies melodrama’s ideological and structural critique of domestic and colonial power and the energetic regimes that produce them. As an energodrama, Dune deploys contemporary ecosystem science, with its tracing of energetic flows and circuits of resource interdependence, to detail the impact of resource extraction on ecologies and colonial territories, reading this pattern across a range of contested histories, from the guano wars of Peru, to the first Arab Revolt of WWI, to the nuclear brinksmanship of the cold war. Recent film adaptations of Dune restore the visual and sonic texture of this critique, amplifying the melodramatic texture of the novel and providing new sonic and visual ecologies that bring the viewer and auditor into visceral contact with those histories and the territories they remade.

Kutafuta Maisha: Connections Between Agency and Structure in Makonde Migratory Labour from Mozambique to Tanzania (ca. 1907-1964)

The drive for making colonial territories “profitable” through various means, such as commodity extraction, got entangled with complex events that stood well beyond the intervening capacity of colonial administrators, and labour migration was no exception. This article analyses Makonde migration from Northern Mozambique toward sisal plantations in neighbouring British Tanganyika during the twentieth century and argues that the interweaving of written and oral sources renders two contrasting pictures: one of an orderly planned commodity sector mediated by industrial pundits and sustained by a rhetoric of colonial “development”; and another of spontaneous, haphazard yet rational life decisions undertaken by migrant men and women. We challenge the conventional take on African labour migration by discussing a much more complex picture that shows how the colonial labour migration system had to address the migrants’ needs and how migrants successfully subverted coercive structures for their benefit, and by doing so, Makonde migrants established their own transformative connections with global phenomena that outreached their participation in commodity production chains

VOC dan Dinamika Kekuasaan di Sumenep Abad XVIII

The city of Sumenep is a traditional palace city which is located on the outskirts of the city and also close to the beach. The Palace City has the function of being the residence of kings and their families, and has a role as a place for cultural activities, government activities and the economy. Since 1705, after Sumenep came under the auspices of the VOC, elements of foreign culture began to enter into the formation of the city of Sumenep. The general aim of this research is to describe incidents or events in the past, and then use them for the learning process in the present. The research method used in this research is the historical research method which consists of five stages, first topic selection, second heuristics, third source criticism, fourth interpretation, and fifth historiography. Sumenep is located at the tip of Madura Island and occupies a strategic position that supports Sumenep as a stopping area which is often visited by ships and boats from the archipelago or from abroad. In 1705, when Mataram entered into an agreement, Sumenep as a whole became colonial territory and Sumenep was a busy trade center in the 18th century because it had a port as a stopping area for ships connecting with islands in the eastern region and had an important port for trade over long distances. Thus, the release of the Sumenep area from Mataram's control would certainly go through a long process. One of the influencing factors is the existence of an element of interest in maintaining the power that has mastered this issue.

Outposts of science: placing scientific infrastructures at the margins of French (post)colonial territories

ABSTRACT Deserts, tropical forests, high mountains, and polar areas, have shaped the history of science. They serve not only as sites for field research and expeditions but also as territories where imperialist States have erected specialised infrastructures to facilitate scientific work and human habitation. Three scientific sites are compared: a volcanological and seismological observatory, a rocket launch base, and a biological station, each located in different French overseas territories. The article inquires how the development of these remote scientific infrastructures reflected common patterns that transcend historical epochs and decolonisation processes. This historical and comparative approach, makes it possible to conceptualise a new ‘place as institution,’ ‘scientific outposts’ that bridge the history of colonial sciences with postcolonial STS. Specifically, three (post)colonial processes are scrutinised and combined: the establishment of scientific infrastructure, the dynamics of centre–periphery relations within sciences, and the engagement with local populations – a set of processes we term ‘(post)colonial placing.’ This conceptual framework enables a fresh perspective on STS spatial concepts such as the ‘truth spot’ as well as relations between ‘field stations’ and ‘calculations centers,’ linking them with postcolonial scientific practices as epistemological and material ‘boundary work.’ Postcolonial placing gives rise to ‘scientific outposts,’ distinct from laboratories and field camps. Their analysis links an geopolitical imperial perspective with concrete infrastructures, highlighting continuity beyond formal decolonisation processes. A comprehensive definition of scientific outposts finally grounds these places in the interconnection of five criteria referring to their: materiality, geography, politics, sociability, and epistemology.

Forgotten project of a private agricultural plantation in the Khanate of Khiva, Uzbekistan

ABSTRACT This article re-evaluates a failed large irrigation enterprise and agricultural plantation in the Khanate of Khiva, an Imperial Russian protectorate in contemporary Uzbekistan, during the 1910s. Co-initiated by Russian entrepreneurs and the Khivan government, this project has been considered one of several lucrative, speculative ventures by Russian capitalists exploiting imperial privileges. This article demonstrates that the entrepreneurs involved in the dacha Lawzan enterprise possessed adequate capital and technology for this large-scale project. However, the project was hampered by legal restrictions put in place by the imperial government and by lingering conflict with nomads in the Khanate and ultimately failed. The case of dacha Lawzan exemplifies government–entrepreneur tension in the colonial territories of Imperial Russia, which impeded the economic development projects initiated by local governments to attract private capital to irrigation and cotton cultivation.

Genetic analysis and natural history of Parkinson's disease due to the LRRK2 G2019S variant.

The LRRK2 G2019S variant is the most common cause of monogenic Parkinson's disease (PD); however, questions remain regarding the penetrance, clinical phenotype and natural history of carriers. We performed a 3.5-year prospective longitudinal online study in a large number of 1286 genotyped LRRK2 G2019S carriers and 109 154 controls, with and without PD, recruited from the 23andMe Research Cohort. We collected self-reported motor and non-motor symptoms every 6 months, as well as demographics, family histories and environmental risk factors. Incident cases of PD (phenoconverters) were identified at follow-up. We determined lifetime risk of PD using accelerated failure time modelling and explored the impact of polygenic risk on penetrance. We also computed the genetic ancestry of all LRRK2 G2019S carriers in the 23andMe database and identified regions of the world where carrier frequencies are highest. We observed that despite a 1 year longer disease duration (P = 0.016), LRRK2 G2019S carriers with PD had similar burden of motor symptoms, yet significantly fewer non-motor symptoms including cognitive difficulties, REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) and hyposmia (all P-values ≤ 0.0002). The cumulative incidence of PD in G2019S carriers by age 80 was 49%. G2019S carriers had a 10-fold risk of developing PD versus non-carriers. This rose to a 27-fold risk in G2019S carriers with a PD polygenic risk score in the top 25% versus non-carriers in the bottom 25%. In addition to identifying ancient founding events in people of North African and Ashkenazi descent, our genetic ancestry analyses infer that the G2019S variant was later introduced to Spanish colonial territories in the Americas. Our results suggest LRRK2 G2019S PD appears to be a slowly progressive predominantly motor subtype of PD with a lower prevalence of hyposmia, RBD and cognitive impairment. This suggests that the current prodromal criteria, which are based on idiopathic PD, may lack sensitivity to detect the early phases of LRRK2 PD in G2019S carriers. We show that polygenic burden may contribute to the development of PD in the LRRK2 G2019S carrier population. Collectively, the results should help support screening programmes and candidate enrichment strategies for upcoming trials of LRRK2 inhibitors in early-stage disease.

Botanic Gardens and Taxonomy - their Economic Role

An account is given of how the development of botanic gardens and of taxonomy have been linked throughout much of their history. After the period of physic gardens in which botany and medicine were intimately associated, there came a phase of exploration and commercial and agricultural development of colonial territories by European powers in which botanic gardens and taxonomists played a vital role. In the twentieth century with the creation of separate agricultural institutions and research stations, botanic gardens lost their link with agriculture, and went througn a phase of uncertainty and decline. With the rise of experimental botany, the role of taxonomy declined and efforts were concentrated on evolutionary or biosystematic, largely non-classificatory aspects, to the neglect of the information-processing role of the subject. In recent years, taxonomy is again seen to have a major practical role, in the conservation and resources crisis, a responsibility which taxonomists should willingly accept.

EMERGING EMPIRES AND OPPORTUNISTIC LAND-USE LEGACIES: TESTING A NEW MODEL ON ROME'S CONQUEST AND COLONIZATION THROUGH ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY DATA IN THE TERRITORIES OF COSA AND TARRACO

This paper tests a new model to study the Roman conquest and colonization of the Western Mediterranean. This recent model depicts Roman expansion as a more sustainable process than previously assumed, which tapped into, reinforced and integrated wider Mediterranean settlement trends. Contrary to what is assumed by traditional narratives, colonization did not entail the immediate destruction and restructuring of native landscapes — but rather the integration, opportunistic reuse, appropriation and development of previous land-uses and settlements. Two legacy datasets collected through pedestrian survey in the colonial territories of Cosa (Italy) and Tarraco (Spain) were used to test this model on a supranational scale. The analysis indicated that certain portions of the native landscape were possibly integrated into the Roman Empire without initial drastic changes being reflected in the settlement patterns or the landscape.

Neo-extractivism and ‘sustainable’ construction: two faces of financialized capitalism

This article investigates how extractivism, operated in colonial territories, enabled the worldwide consolidation and expansion of the capitalist system, the viability of which has continued through to the present day. In order to illustrate our arguments, we have used the example of mining. We then move on to indicate the existing complicity between the construction sector, which involves the practice of architecture, and global capitalism, based on the production of commodities for export. We also demonstrate how belief in the eco-efficiency of 'green' technologies and buildings masks the externalization of socio-environmental impacts generated by hegemonic production processes, such as those that are part of the iron and steel production chain (materials we widely use in civil construction). Lastly, we analyze the emblematic case of the Piquiá de Baixo community (Brazil), through which the problems presented in this work may be better explained.

Constructing decolonisation: the Greenland case and the birth of integration as decolonisation in the United Nations, 1946–1954

How did it become possible for Denmark to integrate Greenland into the colonial metropole during anti-colonial post-Second World War multilateral diplomacy on decolonisation? Scholarship on the evolution of international society generally equates post-war political decolonisation with the universalisation of sovereign independence. This leaves unaddressed that a quarter of colonial territories did not emerge as sovereign states in post-war political decolonisation. Through multi-archival research, this articles starts to address this conundrum by tracing the emergence of integration into the colonial metropole as a route to political decolonisation in early multilateral diplomacy within the United Nations and how this option was first applied to Greenland. Entering the diplomatic engine room, I demonstrate the generative impact of Danish diplomatic practices and the constitutive importance of a discourse of Danish colonial exceptionalism to explain the legal emergence of decolonisation as integration by 1952 and Denmark’s ability to employ this option in the United Nations by 1954. The implications of the paper for scholarship on the evolution of international society go beyond uncovering the emergence of integration as a legal option in political decolonisation. Through its attention to everyday discursive negotiation and diplomatic practice, the article nuances extant scholarship by demonstrating that early post-war multilateral diplomacy was less a quick propagation of universal sovereignty than a contentious, ongoing, negotiation over the meaning and application of self-determination.

Juan Vegue Martín (1884-ca. 1949). Del Guijuelo salmantino a la Guinea española

Using as main source the documentation kept in the Official Colleges of Pharmacists of Madrid and Toledo, the University of Santiago de Compostela, the section of Africa in the General Archive of the Administration and the local periodical press, particularly the one printed in Salamanca and Santa Isabel (Guinea), we reconstruct the biography of the pharmacist Juan Vegue Martín, from his homeland in the Guijuelo region of Salamanca to the latest known data, in the colonial territories of Spanish Guinea. A biography that can serve as a case study for other rural pharmacists, with a nomadic life, who lived through -and suffered- the years of the Spanish Civil War. Keywords: Juan Vegue Martín (1884-ca. 1949); Biography; Pharmacy; Twentieth century; Spain

КОЛОНІАЛЬНИЙ ТУРИЗМ: РОЗВИТОК, ВИДИ, ХАРАКТЕРНІ ОСОБЛИВОСТІ

The article is devoted to the study of the history of the development of colonial tourism in the second half of the 19th – at the beginning of the 20th century in the countries of the East. The relationship between the formation of the colonial system, the new needs of the capitalist development of European countries in the 19th century, and the emergence of tourism as an important tool for the study of colonized territories and peoples is revealed. It is emphasized that gradually the market of impressions and recreation became an important factor in the economic and cultural exploitation of the colonies. It is proposed to define colonial tourism as a type of travel organization that involved visiting colonially dependent territories to get to know the history, culture, historical and cultural heritage, everyday life of local residents, as well as for the purpose of health and recreation. Colonial tourism is characterized as internal (trips by representatives of the colonial community to the country of their stay) and as external (visiting by residents of metropolises and colonial dependent territories for tourist purposes). This type of tourism is characterized by a special elite social and ethnic composition of tourists. The connection between tourist trips and the formation of transport infrastructure, in particular rail and sea transport, which significantly increased the possibilities for the mass movement of people and goods, is analysed. Such forms of colonial tourism are characterized as trips with sightseeing and educational purposes, colonial cruises, colonial hunting, and organization of rest places in the form of “stations on the hills”. Attention is focused on the distribution of such popular types of information about colonial territories as postal (colonial) postcards during the researched period. It is emphasized that the relevance of this topic is because in the modern tourism of many countries there is a historical injustice, which is manifested in exploitation, abuse of images of the past, fascination with colonial nostalgia, the illegal transformation into a commodity of the cultural and ethnic heritage of once colonial dependent peoples.

Coronelismo sem sujeito: ilegalismos coloniais e concentração de poder

Abstract In Society Must Be Defended, Foucault approaches the movement between political practices that, originated in colonial territories, return to Europe (“internal colonialism”). Graham makes a metaphor out of this concept, through which he addresses the growing militarization of the world’s great capitals according to the model of colonial occupation. However, what returns from the peripheries to the great world centers is not just militarization, but a whole set of relationships that escape the laws and the official dimension, which Foucault called illegalisms. Although he never analyzed the interplay of these relationships between center and periphery, the tactics of circumventing norms appear as a matter of reflection for a certain Brazilian critical theory, whose analytical acuity we intend to revisit.

Understanding the disconnection in royal colonial leadership of the british Commanders-in-Chief (1775-1783): Gage, W. Howe, and Clinton

When the British lost their American colonial territories in 1781 at the end of the American Revolutionary War, it was the culmination of events that began during the conclusion of the American Theater of the Seven Years' War (the French and Indian War, 1763). Examples include changing dynamics in British Parliamentary charters, the involvement of American international allies (primarily France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic) seeking retribution for the French and Indian War, shortages of supplies and munitions, misjudgments regarding Loyalist support, and independent British generals failing to coordinate their military offensives. However, one less-discussed example is the disconnection in leadership styles among the three British Commanders-in-Chief of the American Colonies from 1775 to 1783: Thomas Gage, William Howe, and Henry Clinton. This paper assesses their leadership failures as they navigated their varying styles during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783).

Citizens, Subjects, Enemies: The First World War and Citizenship Policies in the Italian Colonies

There are few research fields in European history that have received as much scholarly attention over the last few years as citizenship and the First World War. While this is also true for the Italian case, there is still a striking absence of research on citizenship laws in the colonial territories under Italian sovereignty. The present article addresses this gap and challenges the long-established assumption – due to an all too narrow focus on the historical military framework – that the First World War did not really affect the colonies of the Kingdom of Italy. An investigation of how the legal status of the colonial population – especially in Eritrea, on the one hand, and in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, on the other – was regulated, but also contested, claimed and negotiated, both during the conflict and in its immediate aftermath, reveals that a global event like the First World War actually had a significant impact on the Italian territories in the Horn of Africa and in North Africa. To illustrate this point, the article adopts an approach based on local players in the colonies rather than on legislators or policymakers in the metropole. Contemporary sources collected from several different archives are used to retrace personal stories and administrative processes which reveal important aspects in the story not only of Italian colonialism but of the Italian state in general. Citizenship in the Italian territories in Africa, as much as in other European colonies, was marked by the prejudicial concept of the backwardness of Africans, who were thus excluded from metropolitan citizenship. Beyond that, the article highlights utilitarianism as a concept that can help us to understand how Italy dealt with the inhabitants of its colonies during the First World War.

«Фотограф щёлкает, и …» (странички истории Судакского фонтана)

Three photographs of different years have fixed the same sightseeing located in the vicinity of the Sudak Fortress — the fountain in the territory of the former German colony in the village Uyutnoe. They are an eloquent demonstration of the metamorphoses this structure has been exposed to during over 150 years of its existence, and what’ s more, how the children’s entertainment and home duties have strikingly transformed over this time. All three shots exhibit one permanent feature, i.e. a carved architectural detail of unknown origin, reutilized by the builders as a decorative element of masonry in the fountain. The spolia is a well preserved fragment of a 215 cm high door framing. Its frame exceeded the plane of the wall just by 2 cm. The item can be dated within the third quarter of the 14th century, although some wider chronological span is also possible, partly extending into the 15th century. It would be challenging to identify the donor building with any degree of certainty, yet it is quite likely that it was the Mosque of the Sudak Fortress.

British Food (In)security Policies in Colonial Nigeria and Popular Reactions in the Southwestern and Southeastern Provinces, 1939–45

Abstract: The effects of the Second World War on food insecurity in Africa have gained scholarly attention over the past few years; however, there have been no comprehensive attempts to provide historical evidence and analyze the experience of food insecurity in the colonial territories that later transformed into Southern Nigeria. This article fills this gap in research and argues that the demands of the British colonial government for food supplies, along with other policies geared toward agricultural regulation such as the Pullen Scheme, led to such inflation of food prices in urban centers that rural producers could not meet the demand for foodstuffs. The resulting food shortage triggered reactions from indigenous peoples, particularly market women in the southern and eastern provinces of colonial Nigeria. The article supports its arguments using a combination of sources from the Nigerian National Archives, newspaper reports, and peer-reviewed journals.

Prelude to Genocide or Late-Stage “Territorialism”? The Nazi “Madagascar Plan” in Comparative and Colonial Context, 1936–1940

ABSTRACT Most scholars argue that the “Madagascar Plan” constituted the penultimate stage in the development of the Nazi “Final Solution,” representing a commitment to physical attrition presaging outright extermination. The idea of mass Jewish resettlement in Madagascar or another African colonial territory was no Nazi invention, however. It had been broached by various parties since the late nineteenth century, not least of which the Poles, French, British and even Jewish “territorialists” seeking an alternative to Zionism. Nor was the Nazi Madagascar Plan, for all its problematic assumptions about race, space, minority rights, and “permanent security,” inherently (proto-) genocidal. The goal of this article is to place the Nazi version of the Madagascar Plan back in this broader historical lineage of late-stage European colonialism and more specifically “territorialism,” avoiding the teleological assumption that such a solution represented an attritionist prelude to genocide. After a brief summary of its pre-history, this article draws on extensive primary source research to reconstruct the Polish, French, and British discussions of such plans between 1936 and 1938. It then turns to similar investigations conducted by Nazi officials between Summer 1937 and Summer 1940, based largely on primary sources, comparing the two projects and their implications for understanding the (Nazi) “Jewish Question.” The article concludes that the Madagascar Plan constituted the Third Reich’s last, most ambitious effort to “solve” the “Jewish Question” within the colonial framework that had defined most “territorialist solutions” to Jewish and other refugee and minority “questions” since the late nineteenth century. Such continuities between German and European colonialism and Nazi “solutions” to the “Jewish Question,” while racist and disdainful of Jews and indigenous populations, had less to do with Windhoek, much less Auschwitz, and more to do with pre-1940 plans to settle “surplus” European minority and refugee populations in colonial spaces.

Отражение проблемы рабства на страницах каталонских журналов республиканских взглядов в годы Демократического шестилетия (1868-1874)

This article explores the portrayal of the slavery issue and the Ten Years' War (1868-1878) in the cartoons of Catalan republican journals La Flaca, La Carcajada, and La Madeja dur-ing the Democratic Sexennium (1868-1874). The analysis reveals that Thomas Padró's cartoons delve into the complex socio-political processes of the mid-19th century, associated with the abolitionist movement in Spain and its impact on colonial territories. While the journal's editorial stance supported the abolition of slavery, it opposed the separation of Cuba from Spain, envisioning prosperity for the territory only with-in the unity of Spain. Following the proclamation of the First Spanish Republic, the editorial focus shifted away from the colonies, emphasizing internal events.