Digital Commons Network^™

Geographies Of Resistance: Interpreting Blank Spaces And Locating Marronage On Imperial Maps Of Colonial Jamaica, Patrick J. Nichols

History Dissertations

European imperialism in the Americas was predicated on violent regimes of indigenous genocide, transatlantic enslavement, and environmental exploitation. Conquest of pre-contact indigenous societies in the New World intended to secure possession of valuable reserves of natural resources, like the gold and silver mines of colonial Mexico and Peru. European empires commissioned maps of these territories to generate and shape knowledge. Maps are the product of specific social and political frameworks and are informed by the priorities and preoccupations of empires. What they represent or omit reveals much about the colonial regimes that were imposed on the landscapes of the Americas. …

“Lands Of The Future:” German-Speaking Identity, Networks, And Territoriality In The South Atlantic, 1820-1930, Isabelle Rispler

History Dissertations

The movement of German-speakers to the South Atlantic did not begin with Nazis seeking refuge in Argentina in the aftermath of World War II, nor did it start with the organization of the German protectorate of South-West Africa in 1884. Throughout the nineteenth century, the great majority of German-speakers leaving Europe travelled and migrated to North America, but some German-speakers had begun settling in both Argentina and Namibia well before the turn of the twentieth century. German-speaking merchants and missionaries started travelling to and settling in the South Atlantic in the 1820s. These South Atlantic German-speakers were influenced by the …

“My Zeal For The Real Happiness Of Both Great Britain And The Colonies”: The Conflicting Imperial Career Of Sir James Wright, Robert G. Brooking

History Dissertations

This dissertation examines the life and conflicted career of Sir James Wright (1716-1785), in an effort to better understand the complex struggle for power in both colonial Georgia and eighteenth-century British Empire. Specifically, this project will highlight the contest for autonomy between four groups: Britains and Georgians (core-periphery), lowcountry and backcountry residents, whites and Natives, and Rebels and Loyalists.

An English-born grandson of Chief Justice Sir Robert Wright, James Wright was raised in Charleston, South Carolina following his father’s appointment as that colony’s chief justice. Young James served South Carolina in a number of capacities, public and ecclesiastical, prior to …