Book Spotlight “German and United States Colonialism in a Connected World: Entangled Empires, Palgrave 2021”
My book advances fresh insights to the study of German and United States colonial histories by turning attention to their transimperial and global dimensions.[1] More specifically, it approaches the German and United States colonial empires as entangled histories, abounding with exchanges. First, when envisioning this anthology, I wanted to counter the view that Germany and the United States represent an … Read More
Afro-Asian States, the Congo Crisis, and the United Nations: Solidly United in an Anti-imperial Agenda?
On 21 November 1960, in the United Nations General Assembly debate the representative of Liberia expressed his regret about “the bitterness that has characterized the discussion” – a bitterness that had come “from the recently independent African States”.[1] The hostile discussions the Liberian delegate referred to were over current events in the Congo. Since its independence on 30 June, the … Read More
Book Spotlight “Asiaten in Europa. Begegnungen zwischen Asiaten und Europäern 1880–1914 [Asians in Europe: Encounters between Asians and Europeans, 1880–1914], Paderborn 2016”
European imperial expansion was, in many regards, strongly connected to the concept of modernity. In my book, I deal with Asian contributions to European debates around the concept of modernity and decadence, thereby exploring interactions between Indians, Chinese, Japanese on the one side, and Europeans in turn-of-the-century England and Germany, on the other. The question of modernity had a special … Read More
Indian and Chinese Anti-imperial Networks in the 1930s and 1940s
In August 1939, Jawaharlal Nehru, an influential leader of the Indian national movement and the future prime minister of independent India, explained his decision to visit China by evoking solidarity among oppressed people: ‘I go to China because China is the symbol today of magnificent courage in the struggle for freedom, of a determination which has survived untold misery and … Read More
Naturverinselung im Viktoriasee: Ökologische Erbschaften der transimperialen Kampagne gegen die Schlafkrankheit
Zur Eindämmung der Schlafkrankheit gingen die Kolonialmächte in Afrika am Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts gesundheitspolitische und wissenschaftliche Kooperationen ein. Im Gebiet des Viktoriasees, das als zentraler Epidemieherd galt, wirkten sich die ergriffenen Maßnahmen auch auf die ökologische Umwelt gravierend aus. Eine bedeutende Folge der Epidemiepolitik bestand in der Verinselung von Natur. Dieser Ausdruck verweist auf einen Zusammenhang zwischen ökologischen, epidemiologischen, … Read More