History Commons^™

Settler Colonial Strategies And Indigenous Resistance On The Great Lakes Lumber Frontier, Theodore Karamanski

Theodore J. Karamanski

The geographic and economic setting of the nineteenth century Upper Great Lakes region created unique challenges to American settler colonialism and encounters with the Indigenous people of this land of lakes and forests. Many Anishinaabeg bands responded creatively through the use of Christianity, education, and American law in an attempt to fortify their presence in the region. European Americans, who sought to appropriate the wealth of the Upper Midwest’s vast stands of hardwood and pine forests, only seldom needed to resort to guns to take control of the land. Instead of a war of conquest they entangled Anishinaabeg property owners …

New Approaches To The Founding Of The Sierra Leone Colony, 1786–1808, Isaac Land, Andrew M. Schocket

Andrew M Schocket

This special issue of the Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History consists of a forum of innovative ways to consider and reappraise the founding of Britain’s Sierra Leone colony. It originated with a conversation among the two of us and Pamela Scully – all having research interests touching on Sierra Leone in that period – noting that the recent historical inquiry into the origins of this colony had begun to reach an important critical mass. Having long been dominated by a few seminal works, it has begun to attract interest from a number of scholars, both young and established, from …

Katama Mkangi's Subaltern Sociology: Legacies Of Race And Colonialism At The Coast Of East Africa, Jesse Benjamin

Jesse Benjamin

No abstract provided.

The Opium Problem: A Review Essay, David Courtwright

David T. Courtwright

Opium is one of the most useful and complex drugs in medical history. Made from the juice of the unripe seed capsule of the opium poppy, it contains several valuable alkaloids. Three of these, morphine, codeine, and thebaine—the last when processed into semisynthetic opioids like oxycodone—have potent analgesic effects. The rub is that opium-based drugs present as many risks as benefits. Overdose and addiction threaten individual lives. Widespread abuse and trafficking can threaten society itself.

Examples of personal and social ruin fill the pages of Thomas Dormandy's and Hans Derks's ambitious histories of opium. Dormandy begins his narrative in antiquity, …

Contact And Missionization At Tayasal, Peten, Guatemala, Timothy W. Pugh

Timothy W Pugh

Until their conquest by the Spanish in 1697, many Itza Maya occupied a large village at Tayasal, Peten, Guatemala. After the conquest, two missions were built there. The village and missions are located within 2 km of modern Flores, which was once Nojpete´n, the Itza capital, and later the Spanish presidio (fortified administrative center). Our excavations uncovered the San Bernabe´ mission on the Tayasal peninsula and defined the Late Postclassic-period (A.D. 1400–1525) occupation of the site. San Bernabe´ was established in the early 18th century as part of Spanish efforts to control indigenous populations in Peten. Our research demonstrates that …

French Caribbeans In Africa: Diasporic Connections And Colonial Administration, 1880-1939, Veronique Helenon

Veronique Helenon

This is the first book-length study of the French Caribbean presence in Africa, and serves as a unique contribution to the field of African Diaspora and Colonial studies. By using administrative records, newspapers, and interviews, Véronique Hélénon explores the French Caribbean presence in the colonial administration in Africa before World War II. The phenomenon of this colonial administration is an especially productive site for understanding the complex relations established both within the African Diaspora and with the French colonial power.

Pan-Africanism And African Unity: Any Prospects?, Conrad John Masabo Mr.

Conrad John Masabo Mr.

At the close of 50 years of independence, Africa is still yearning for unity despite of the more than 100 years of the initiatives made by the pan-Africanists. The essay addresses important issues of political, economic, social and cultural rebirth of the African continent. It argues that, if the ideas of Pan-Africanism or Africanisms are deeply persuaded they can make Africa successfully in coping with its problems and orient itself in a rapidly globalising world. While there is hope for Africa in the continental unity and pan-African political and economic projects; the paper also points out imperialism and neo-colonialism as …

“Knowledge In The Service Of The Cause”:Education And The Sahrawi Struggle For Self-Determination, Randa Farah

Randa R Farah Dr.

This article examines the education strategy of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), the state-in-exile with partial sovereignty on “borrowed territory” in Algeria. The article, which opens with a historical glance at the conflict, argues that SADR’s education program not only succeeded in fostering self-reliance by developing skilled human resources, but was forward looking, using education as a vehicle to instill “new traditions of citizenship” and a new imagined national community, in preparation for future repatriation. In managing refugee camps as provinces of a state, the boundaries between the “refugee” as status and the “citizen” as a political identity were …

Refugee Camps In The Palestinian And Sahrawi National Liberation Movements: A Comparative Perspective, Randa Farah

Randa R Farah Dr.

Drawing on ethnographic field research, this analysis compares the evolution of refugee camps as incubators of political organization and repositories of collective memory for Palestinian refugees in Jordan and Sahrawi refugees of the Western Sahara. While recognizing the significant differences between the historical and geopolitical contexts of the two groups and their national movements (the PLO and Polisario, respectively), the author examines the Palestinian and Sahrawi projects of national consciousness formation and institution-building, concluding that Palestinian camps are “mapped” in relation to the past, while political organization in Sahrawi camps evidences a forward-looking vision.

Race, Empire And Liberalism: Interpreting John Crawfurd’S History Of The Indian Archipelago, Gareth Knapman

Gareth Knapman

No abstract provided.

Orang-Utans, Tribes, And Nations: Degeneracy, Primordialism, And The Chain Of Being, Gareth Knapman

Gareth Knapman