An Instrumental Connection. Economic Diplomacy, International Arms Trade and Overseas Aspirations between Portugal and Sweden, 1640–80

This paper offers an Iberian perspective on Sweden’s ‘Age of Greatness’ by looking at the intersection of international politics and trade involving Portugal and Sweden after Portugal regained its independence from Spain at the end of 1640. Sweden’s exports of timber, naval stores, iron, copper, and weapons to Braganza Portugal are seen in the context of the Portuguese wars for overseas trade and colonial settlement against the Dutch Republic and the struggle for autonomy against Spain in its home turf. By revisiting the accounts of diplomatic actors, this contribution will discuss how Portugal turned to Sweden for diplomatic recognition and new consumption markets and carriers for its export sector. It will also be shown how Sweden stood to gain by adding a new customer to its military export sector and by tapping into Portugal’s colonial goods and salt, while at the same time it entertained the prospect of using the Portuguese offshoots in West Africa and the East Indies to further its ambitions in overseas trade.

Mapping anthropogenic fill with GPR for unmarked grave detection: A case study from a possible location of Mokare’s grave, Albany, Western Australia

Geophysical techniques are a commonly used, non-invasive method for the location of unmarked graves. Contrary to popular perception, most studies rely not on directly imaging skeletal material but instead on locating the subsurface disturbance created by grave digging. This approach is effective only when sufficient contrast exists between detectable properties (such as structure, mineralogy or porosity) of the grave fill and the surrounding sediment. Resolving these features can be particularly problematic in disturbed areas where other anthropogenic fill is in place, as it is often complex in character and lacks a natural stratigraphy.In many cultural heritage projects, it is often more important to ensure that burials are not disturbed rather than to specifically locate them. Under these circumstances, ground penetrating radar (GPR) can be used to locate modern anthropogenic fill. This may show which areas of the site are younger than the targeted graves and therefore of no archaeological interest. This approach is trialled on a site thought to contain the grave of Mokare, a significant historical figure in the colonial settlement of the Albany area in Western Australia. The delineation of a package of modern fill in the shallow subsurface in the context of the probable history of earthworks on the site demonstrates that Mokare is not buried in the surveyed location. This approach, applied to suitable sites, could contribute to culturally sensitive non-invasive investigation of burial sites in other locations.

Remembering Miramar, Forgetting Whātaitai

<p>Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington City has a long history dating back to legendary individuals, including Maui and Kupe. The harbour is dotted with sites associated with a history that has accumulated over several centuries. Colonial settlement concealed many of these pre-European sites with what is now Wellington City. Today many of these buildings that constitute Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington are considered heritage fabric or relics of the past. This thesis aims to examine and define such a context of a site’s past that is both concealed and concealing. The research breaks the past of the harbour down into two periods; Te Ao Tawhito (the old world) and Te Ao Hou (the new world), allowing for a segregated study of pre-European and post-European history. Many of these relics evoke, express or give insight into the past of Te Ao Hou. At times this history seems privileged due to the existence of relics. While methods such as preservation or restoration are valuable tools for a relic based design project, they do not address the matter of concealment. Two issues arise: Firstly, how could an intervention such as a mnemonic device express, evoke or give insight into the past that for numerous reasons are not presently interpretable at a site? Secondly, how could such an intervention interact with a relic that now remains on a site, as a valued vestige of the past? Part one of the thesis consists of project one, which is a design for a Japanese bath-house on Seatoun Ridge in Motu-Kairangi Miramar. This design attempts to evoke, express and give insight into an era of the past from Te Ao Tawhito. This period is not presently apparent or evoked at the site although the era of concern is well known and important. The purpose of this project is to explore analogy as a design method, which through referencing the past, allows a new building to act as a mnemonic device expressing, evoking or giving insight into Te Ao Tawhito. Part two follows with a second project consisting of three designs for an aquarium that explore how a mnemonic intervention could exist on a site that hosts a relic. Point Gordon on the northern tip of the peninsula was once a pa during Te Ao Tawhito and a military base during Te Ao Hou. This site is well suited for the second project because a relic of the latter period remains, subsequently concealing the ancient site of the former period. This project explores a metamorphic design method that allows a site to be developed while considering the following values of a relic: its original intent, its age value or its historic meaning. The metamorphic approach used in the second project juxtaposes, weaves or wraps a mnemonic intervention into the site, allowing the relic to be valued for either of the above qualities, which it may possess. The two projects have resulted in two design methods that could guide further design projects acknowledging a site’s layered histories whether interpretable or not. The thesis discusses three issues that are important to this research. Firstly, the past is considered as an important aspect of a communities culture, identity and well-being. Secondly, relics and mnemonic interventions are discussed as having equal value and special attention should not lay with relics. Lastly, the research reflects on how questions can be more valuable than terminology.</p>

Remembering Miramar, Forgetting Whātaitai

<p>Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington City has a long history dating back to legendary individuals, including Maui and Kupe. The harbour is dotted with sites associated with a history that has accumulated over several centuries. Colonial settlement concealed many of these pre-European sites with what is now Wellington City. Today many of these buildings that constitute Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington are considered heritage fabric or relics of the past. This thesis aims to examine and define such a context of a site’s past that is both concealed and concealing. The research breaks the past of the harbour down into two periods; Te Ao Tawhito (the old world) and Te Ao Hou (the new world), allowing for a segregated study of pre-European and post-European history. Many of these relics evoke, express or give insight into the past of Te Ao Hou. At times this history seems privileged due to the existence of relics. While methods such as preservation or restoration are valuable tools for a relic based design project, they do not address the matter of concealment. Two issues arise: Firstly, how could an intervention such as a mnemonic device express, evoke or give insight into the past that for numerous reasons are not presently interpretable at a site? Secondly, how could such an intervention interact with a relic that now remains on a site, as a valued vestige of the past? Part one of the thesis consists of project one, which is a design for a Japanese bath-house on Seatoun Ridge in Motu-Kairangi Miramar. This design attempts to evoke, express and give insight into an era of the past from Te Ao Tawhito. This period is not presently apparent or evoked at the site although the era of concern is well known and important. The purpose of this project is to explore analogy as a design method, which through referencing the past, allows a new building to act as a mnemonic device expressing, evoking or giving insight into Te Ao Tawhito. Part two follows with a second project consisting of three designs for an aquarium that explore how a mnemonic intervention could exist on a site that hosts a relic. Point Gordon on the northern tip of the peninsula was once a pa during Te Ao Tawhito and a military base during Te Ao Hou. This site is well suited for the second project because a relic of the latter period remains, subsequently concealing the ancient site of the former period. This project explores a metamorphic design method that allows a site to be developed while considering the following values of a relic: its original intent, its age value or its historic meaning. The metamorphic approach used in the second project juxtaposes, weaves or wraps a mnemonic intervention into the site, allowing the relic to be valued for either of the above qualities, which it may possess. The two projects have resulted in two design methods that could guide further design projects acknowledging a site’s layered histories whether interpretable or not. The thesis discusses three issues that are important to this research. Firstly, the past is considered as an important aspect of a communities culture, identity and well-being. Secondly, relics and mnemonic interventions are discussed as having equal value and special attention should not lay with relics. Lastly, the research reflects on how questions can be more valuable than terminology.</p>

Carcerality and the legacies of settler colonial punishment in Nairobi

From the beginning of its colonial settlement in Kenya, the British administration criminalized Kenyans. Even now, colonial modes of punishment, incarceration, closure, interrogation, curfew, confiscation, separation, displacement, and detention without trial are deeply embedded in the spatial and ideological arrangements of post-colonial Kenya. Initially assumed to herald a rupture from colonial modes of criminalization and punishment, the post-colonial period instead normalized them. Through ethnographic, scholarly, and visual encounters, the paper engages five interconnecting structures that engendered the legacy of a seamless system of control, containment, and punishment evident in the ‘afterlives’ of empire. These are settler colonialism, violence, racism, colonial corporeality, and capitalism. The paper attends to the violence and brutality that endures in the very geographies that were the urban targets of colonial siege and links the carceral practices of settler colonialism and the everyday post-colonial governance of Nairobi’s poor neighbourhoods, encounters with the debris and ruination of empire found in the material and spatial fabric of Mathare. We take up a critical encounter with colonial files to both discern the continuity and lineage of carceral practices and to disrupt the authorial totality and continuity the colonial archive files assembled. The paper includes archival and authored photographs:

Islands and the British Empire in the Age of Sail

Islands are not just geographical units or physical facts; their importance and significance arise from the human activities associated with them. The maritime routes of sailing ships, victualling requirements of their sailors, and strategic demands of seaborne empires in the age of sail – as well as their intrinsic value as sources of rare commodities – meant that islands across the globe played prominent parts in imperial consolidation and expansion. This volume examines the ways in which islands (and groups of islands) contributed to the establishment, extension, and maintenance of the British Empire in the age of sail. Chapters explore the geographical, topographical, economic, and social diversity of the islands that comprised a large component of the British Empire in an era of rapid and significant expansion. Although many were isolated rocky outcrops, they acted as crucial nodal points, providing critical assistance for ships and men embarked on the long-distance voyages that characterized British overseas activities in the period. Intercontinental maritime trade, colonial settlement, and scientific exploration would have been impossible without these oceanic islands. They also acted as sites of strategic competition, contestation, and conflict for rival European powers keen to outstrip each other in developing and maintaining overseas markets, plantations, and settlements. The importance of islands outstripped their physical size, populations, or individual economic contribution to the imperial balance sheet. Standing at the centre of maritime routes of global connectivity, islands offer historians fresh perspectives on the intercontinental communication, commercial connections, and territorial expansion that characterized the British Empire.

Introduction

Islands (and groups of islands) across the globe played crucial roles in the establishment and development of the British Empire. This chapter sets out the main themes and contours of the volume that follows. Islands acted as key nodal points, providing critical assistance for those embarked on long-distance voyages. Intercontinental maritime trade, colonial settlement, and scientific exploration would have been impossible without them. They also acted as sites of competition and conflict for rival European powers. The importance of islands outstripped their physical size, the populations they sustained, or their individual economic contribution to the imperial balance sheet. Standing at the centre of maritime routes of global connectivity, islands offer historians of the British Empire fresh perspectives on the intercontinental communication, commercial connections, and territorial expansion that characterized that empire.

General characteristics of the intensity of elimination in the early ontogenesis of colonial bird species

This paper examines the rate of elimination in the early ontogeny of colonial bird species. The research objects were colonial nesting species - black-necked gull ( Larus ridibundus L.) and black-necked grebe ( Podiceps nigricollis C.L. Brehm), which form monospecific and poly-species colonial settlements. The rate of elimination was determined taking into account the stage of completion of the clutch, as well as the position of the nest in the structure of the colonial settlement: in the biological center or at the periphery of the colony. The nesting life of colonially nesting species was studied according to the generally accepted method, taking into account the choice of a place for building a nest by birds, the morphology of the nest, the intensity of oviposition and other characteristics. In the course of many years of research 3 types of nest placement within the colony have been identified. The maximum elimination rate has been proven for fixing the nest on the floodplain of common reed. The minimum rate of elimination was found for black-headed gull nests built on the fold of common reed ( Phragmites australis ) and narrow-leaved cattail ( Typha angustifolia ). Near-nesting vegetation is located around the nests of black-necked gull and black-necked grebe. The variant of placing vegetation around the nest prevails. Less common are options in which vegetation is located on one side. Observations have not revealed a relationship between the rate of elimination and the nature of the distribution of vegetation around the nest. The authors have compared the rate of elimination of black-headed gull nests located in the biological center and at the periphery of the colony. Elimination is possible both during the laying of the first egg and after the end of the clutch. Observations have shown that the rate of elimination is higher for nests from the periphery of the colony, which may be associated with differences in the size of the nests, the rate of their construction, as well as with the behavior of birds incubating eggs. The maximum rate of elimination of nests and eggs at the periphery of the colony is also manifested in the early ontogenesis of the black-necked grebe. The intensity of elimination and the forms of its manifestation affect the structure of the colonial settlement of birds and characterize the level of individual and group adaptation of birds to the conditions in which the nesting period takes place.