Drivers of Divergence: Textile Manufacturing in East and West Africa from the Early Modern Period to the Post-Colonial Era

Author(s):  
Katharine Frederick
2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie Anderson

Although textiles were key facilitators in global diplomacy in the early modern period, there has been little scholarly consideration of the dynamic role they played in shaping diplomatic relationships during a time when textiles of all types from both east and west were circulating actively as wholesale commodities across world markets. This case study addresses this lacuna by examining the role that textiles, including linens, silks, and tapestries, played in mediating the inter- and intra-cultural diplomatic negotiations of Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen (1604-1679), the governor-general of Dutch Brazil from 1637 to 1644. As I argue, the production and dissemination of objects such as linens and especially the Old Indies tapestry series, based on designs made under Johan Maurits’s patronage, demonstrate how textiles, in their many forms and formats, were uniquely suited to negotiate the dynamic shifts that characterized cross-cultural diplomacy in the early modern period.


Balcanica ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 85-103
Author(s):  
Lothar Höbelt

At the beginning of the early modern period, the concept of Europe did not yet exist. Religion, not politics or geography, was the defining criterion. It was Christendom that people referred to - not Europe - when they wanted to introduce the concept of burdensharing. In military terms, differences between Oriental and Occidental empires were less obvious; if anything, the Ottomans seemed to have a head-start in terms of centralization and professionalism. It was not the impact of Ottoman rule as such that created the conditions for ?Balkan warfare?. It was the unsettled character of the borders between ?East? and ?West? that gave rise to a form of low-intensity conflict that might be said to provide a foretaste of what came to be known as Balkan warfare.


2001 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 430-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Birchwood ◽  
Jerry Brotton ◽  
Matt Dimmock

2020 ◽  
Vol 88 (2) ◽  
pp. 460-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Fromont

Abstract In 1730, the Inquisition of Lisbon arrested José Francisco Pereira, a man raised in West Africa and enslaved in Brazil then Portugal, who had learned along his transatlantic journeys the art of making amulets known in the eighteenth century Portuguese-speaking world as bolsas de mandinga. Mixing European esoteric material into objects of Afro-Atlantic agency, bolsa-makers such as José Francisco created objects of trustworthy might that brought empowerment and security of body and mind to a diverse clientele. The bolsas, as well as similar empowered objects created in Atlantic Africa reveal the deep and mutually transformative spiritual and material connections that the slave trade engendered between Europeans and Africans in the early modern period. Common concerns produced similar answers, not least newly defined or redefined notions of witchcraft and fetish and, more broadly, conceptions about the nature of power and its multivalent entanglements with the material world.


Author(s):  
Inge Van Hulle

Africa often remains neglected in studies that discuss the historical relationship between international law and imperialism during the nineteenth century. When it does feature, scholarly focus tends to be on the late nineteenth century and on the treaties concluded between European powers and African polities in which sovereignty and territory were ceded. Through a contextual historical analysis, Inge Van Hulle complicates this traditional narrative. By reviewing the use and creation of legal instruments that expanded or delineated the boundaries between British jurisdiction and African communities in West Africa, she highlights the practicality and flexibility of international legal discourse in imperial contexts. The chronological focus of the book is the period between the end of the eighteenth century and the 1880s which the author identifies as an important phase of legal experimentation which saw substantial deviations in the legal relationship between African polities and British imperial agents, not merely from traditional Euro-African normative patterns as they had existed during the Early Modern period, but also from inter-Western international law. By the 1880s the legal techniques that were fashioned in the language of international law in West Africa had largely developed their own substantive characteristics and which included apart from treaties of cession, also commercial treaties, the abolition of the slave trade, extraterritoriality and the use of force. During this period, legal ordering was not done in reference to adjudication before Western courts or the writings of Western learned lawyers, but in reference to what was deemed politically expedient and practically feasible by imperial agents for the preservation of social peace, commercial interaction and humanitarian agendas.


2012 ◽  
pp. 135-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Volkova

The article describes the evolution of accounting from the simple registration technique to economic and social institution in medieval Italy. We used methods of institutional analysis and historical research. It is shown that the institutionalization of accounting had been completed by the XIV century, when it became a system of codified technical standards, scholar discipline and a professional field. We examine the interrelations of this process with business environment, political, social, economic and cultural factors of Italy by the XII—XVI centuries. Stages of institutionalization are outlined.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-50
Author(s):  
Camilla Russell

The Jesuit missions in Asia were among the most audacious undertakings by Europeans in the early modern period. This article focuses on a still relatively little understood aspect of the enterprise: its appointment process. It draws together disparate archival documents to recreate the steps to becoming a Jesuit missionary, specifically the Litterae indipetae (petitions for the “Indies”), provincial reports about missionary candidates, and replies to applicants from the Jesuit superior general. Focusing on candidates from the Italian provinces of the Society of Jesus, the article outlines not just how Jesuit missionaries were appointed but also the priorities, motivations, and attitudes that informed their assessment and selection. Missionaries were made, the study shows, through a specific “way of proceeding” that was negotiated between all parties and seen in both organizational and spiritual terms, beginning with the vocation itself, which, whether the applicant departed or not, earned him the name indiano.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-79
Author(s):  
Sara Zandi Karimi

This article is a critical translation of the “History of the Ardalānids.” In doing so, it hopes to make available to a wider academic audience this invaluable source on the study of Iranian Kurdistan during the early modern period. While a number of important texts pertaining to the Kurds during this era, most notably the writings of the Ottoman traveler Evliya Chalabi, focus primarily on Ottoman Kurdistan, this piece in contrast puts Iranian Kurdistan in general and the Ardalān dynasty in particular at the center of its historical narrative. Thus it will be of interest not only to scholars of Kurdish history but also to those seeking more generally to research life on the frontiers of empires.Keywords: Ẕayl; Ardalān; Kurdistan; Iran.ABSTRACT IN KURMANJIDîroka Erdelaniyan (1590-1810)Ev gotar wergereke rexneyî ya “Dîroka Erdelaniyan” e. Bi vê yekê, merema xebatê ew e ku vê çavkaniya pir biqîmet a li ser Kurdistana Îranê ya di serdema pêş-modern de ji bo cemawerê akademîk berdest bike. Hejmareke metnên girîng li ser Kurdên wê serdemê, bi taybetî nivîsînên Evliya Çelebî yê seyyahê osmanî, zêdetir berê xwe didine Kurdistana di bin hukmê Osmaniyan de. Lê belê, di navenda vê xebatê de, bi giştî Kurdistana Îranê û bi taybetî jî xanedana Erdelaniyan heye. Wisa jî ew dê ne tenê ji bo lêkolerên dîroka kurdî belku ji bo ewên ku dixwazin bi rengekî berfirehtir derheq jiyana li ser tixûbên împeretoriyan lêkolînan bikin jî dê balkêş be.ABSTRACT IN SORANIMêjûy Erdellan (1590-1810)Em wutare wergêrranêkî rexneyî “Mêjûy Erdellan”e, bew mebestey em serçawe girînge le ser Kurdistanî Êran le seretakanî serdemî nwê bixate berdest cemawerî ekademî. Jimareyek serçawey girîng le ser kurdekan lew serdeme da hen, diyartirînyan nûsînekanî gerîdey ‘Usmanî Ewliya Çelebîye, ke zortir serincyan le ser ‘Kurdistanî ‘Usmanî bûwe. Em berheme be pêçewanewe Kurdistanî Êran be giştî, we emaretî Erdelan be taybetî dexate senterî xwêndinewekewe. Boye nek tenya bo twêjeranî biwarî mêjûy kurdî, belku bo ewaney le ser jiyan le sinûre împiratoriyekan twêjînewe deken, cêgay serinc debêt.


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