Showing papers in "Itinerario in 1993"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that not all forms of coercion have the same social, political, and economic effects upon the coerced laborer and his (or her) employer.
Abstract: The problem of forced labor has been at the center of much recent historical literature. If anything, the debate has shown that not all coercion has the same social, political, and economic effects upon the coerced laborer and his (or her) employer. Central to this debate is the question why coerced labor is needed, and why certain forms of coerced labor are chosen under certain circumstances. Why do the specific forms of coerced labor change over time and differ across space, and why, even in a given area at a given time, do differing forms of coerced labor exist?
9 citations
TL;DR: Van Leur as mentioned in this paper made an appeal for the autonomy of Asian history in relation to that of Europe, arguing that Asia and Europe were two equal civilisations developing separately of each other, and that the oriental lands continued to form active factors in the course of events as valid entities, militarily, economically and politically.
Abstract: In an essay of extraordinary range and depth, which it is difficult to summarise without distortion, Jacob van Leur is above all making an appeal for the autonomy of Asian history in relation to that of Europe. He was reviewing volume IV by Godee Molsbergen of Geschiedenis van Nederlandsch Indie, which dealt with the eighteenth century. To Molsbergen the activities of the V.O.C. in Asia in the eighteenth century had characteristics distinct from those of the seventeenth-century Company or from what was to follow in Indonesia in the nineteenth century. These characteristics essentially reflected those of the Netherlands during the eighteenth century. Assuming that eighteenth-century European history has unifying characteristics (an assumption that he was inclined to question), Van Leur asked: ‘Is it possible to write the history of Indonesia in the eighteenth century as the history of the Company?’ His answer was a resounding ‘no’. In giving his answer he widened the issue from Indonesia to Asia as a whole. ‘A general view of the whole can only lead to the conclusion that any talk of a European Asia in the eighteenth century is out of the question, that a few European centres of power had been consolidated on a very limited scale, that in general – and here the emphasis should lie – the oriental lands continued to form active factors in the course of events as valid entities, militarily, economically and politically.’ He concluded that diere was an ‘unbroken unity’ of Asian history from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Until well into the nineteenth century Europe and Asia were ‘two equal civilisations developing separately of each other’.
6 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze how the traditional structure of Sino-Western trade lost its equilibrium and study the changing character of European expansion into China as a result of this imbalance during the period of 1740-1840.
Abstract: Sino-Western relations in the eighteenth century mainly found their expression in a particular mode of commercial transactions in Canton. The structure of the Western trade with China was based on silver and colonial products from India and the Malay archipelago, like silver, cotton, pepper, lead. These commodities were exchanged for Chinese tea, silk and porcelain by the mediation of the so-called Hong trades. As long as the trade structure was kept in balance the Westerners were able to make large profits and commercial relations remained the same. When the trade structure fell out balance through, for instance, a shortage of silver or the prohibition of opium smuggling, the Western powers resorted to force. The discontinuation of the traditional Sino-Western trade because of an imbalance in the trade structure eventually did not lead to the decline of trade, but to military conquest: the Opium War in 1840. This War enabled the Westerners, headed by the English, to revamp the structure of their trade with China on their own terms and forced the Chinese government into acceptance. Since then the process of the Western expansion into China was characterised by commercial expansion, military show of force and political control. In this essay I would like to analyze how the traditional structure of Sino-Western trade lost its equilibrium and to study the changing character of European expansion into China as a result of this imbalance during the period of 1740-1840.
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TL;DR: The Dutch difficulty to accept emotionally that Indonesia is an independent country entitled to follow its own course was illustrated in Dutch newspapers and magazines in the decade after Indonesian decolonisation until the end of the New Guinea dispute in 1962 as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Cartoons in Dutch newspapers and magazines in the decade after the Indonesian decolonisation until the end of the New Guinea dispute in 1962 illustrate the deteriorating relationship between the Netherlands and its former colony from Dutch perspective in all its different shades. They represent the Dutch difficulty to accept emotionally that Indonesia is an independent country entitled to follow its own course.
1 citations
TL;DR: The main force behind abolitionism in England and in the United States was quakerism as mentioned in this paper, which held the opposite view, that slavery was a consequence of sin, not the other way around.
Abstract: The main force behind abolitionism in England and in the United States was quakerism. The first quakerish attack on slavery was unleashed by William Edmundson in 1676, after he visited Barbados. He attributed the many sins practiced in that island to the existence of slavery. This was a radical departure from the traditional Christian way of looking at slavery. This tradition, consolidated by St. Augustine, held the opposite view, that is, that slavery was a consequence of sin, not the other way around. Sin was, according to St. Augustine, the worst slavery – it turned men into slaves of their own passions. Soon the inversion was complete. Slavery itself became sin.
1 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the theme of "l'emigration Indienne outre-mer" devrait etre l'essentiel de notre propos ne va en fait representer qu'une partie fort reduite et imprecise dans ce texte.
Abstract: Le theme de ‘l'emigration Indienne outre-mer’ qui devrait etre l'essentiel de notre propos ne va en fait representer qu'une partie fort reduite et imprecise dans ce texte. L'historiographie prendra le pas sur l'histoire et le sujet derivera vers des interrogations d'une nature differente. Nous essayerons d'expliquer la faiblesse de notre connaissance historique et d'en trouver le fondement dans la maniere dont ont ete rediges les ouvrages dont nous nous sommes servis et dans les orientations des auteurs eux-memes. Cette derive de l'histoire vers la critique historiographique vient presque naturellement dans notre cas dans la mesure ou nous n'avons pas eu acces aux archives qui concernent notre propos. Nous avons donc travaille sur une bibliographie. Il nous faut constater des a present que les problemes sociaux et sociologiques des Indiens entre les deux guerres ont peu ete etudies, rares sont les ouvrages qui en parlent, surtout d'une maniere argumentee.
TL;DR: The traite des Noirs in Guadeloupe et al. as discussed by the authors, 1802-1910: Esclaves et Citoyens, les Noirs a la Guadeloupème au XIXe siecle dans le processus de resistance and d'integration, 1802−1910.
Abstract: La traite des Noirs; Bastilles negrieres et velleites abolitionnistes. SERGE DAGET. Editions Quest‐France Universite, 1990. 300 pp. 132 Ffr 70. Esclaves et Citoyens, les Noirs a la Guadeloupe au XIXe siecle dans le processus de resistance et d'integration, 1802–1910. JOSETTE FALLOPE. Basse Terre: Societe d'Histoire de la Guadeloupe, 1992. 713 pp.
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TL;DR: The quincentenary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World is now safely past as discussed by the authors, and despite such outpourings we know little more about the man himself than was known a century ago.
Abstract: The quincentenary of Columbus' arrival in the New World is now safely past. The spate of timely studies, instant media wisdom, abysmal films, ecological outrage, mediocre drama and politically correct comment is subsiding. Yet ironically enough, despite such outpourings we know little more about the man himself than was known a century ago. His legacy is another matter. The successful crossing of the Atlantic, followed by European conquest and settlement of part of the Americas were eventually to affect most of mankind, though not always in such a manner as publicists in early-modern Castile predicted or as has been alleged by Columbus' modern detractors. But before we turn to this vast and emotive subject it should be emphasized that the Admiral's achievements in a brief, enigmatic and turbulent public career were of an astounding and probably unparallelled order. A man of foreign and obscure birth, he managed to secure employment in race and caste-ridden Spain, and from such unpropitious beginnings went on to prove himself a superlative seaman. He inspired and accomplished four voyages which revealed to Europeans a huge continent of which they were unaware. He discovered more unknown territory than any other navigator. He achieved some understanding of the true size of the Atlantic – and just how much of the globe was covered by water came as a horrible shock to his contemporaries – and, uniquely, he set in motion a staggering sequence of exploration and conquest.