The Italian colonial archives
For our project, we had to study how Italian colonial authorities described the market for textiles in the Horn of Africa, and how they tried to shape it for their purposes. How can we do that? Most of the relevant documents have survived, but finding them is not necessarily easy.…
Read moreChoosing the right beads
Henry Morton Stanley struggled to understand the complexities of what he called “African currency”—the diverse and nuanced systems of exchange used in Africa—when, in February 1871, he was preparing for the expedition that would lead him to find David Livingstone on Lake Tanganyika later that year. The travel journals by…
Read moreHow Zanzibar helped build US factories
Zanzibar is a beautiful archipelago off the Eastern coast of Tanzania. It comprises an island which is also called Zanzibar, which hosts a city which is also called… you got it. “Zanzibar” means “coast of the Black (people)”, in Persian and in Arabic, and this name is indicative of its…
Read moreA “special” map
[caption id="attachment_428" align="aligncenter" width="506"] Composite map: Spezial-Karte von Afrika. Sheets 1-10 & Suppl. I-II. Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1885, https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~317161~90086034:Composite-Map--Spezial-Karte-von-Af (accessed on November 12, 2024).[/caption] Before the 1850s, the African interior was largely an unknown land in Europe. The mystery surrounding the sources of the Nile, for instance, captivated the imaginations…
Read moreIn search for African trade: the Società d’Esplorazione Commerciale in Africa
Nineteenth-century European colonialism was a complicated process. It involved armies and missionary societies, merchants, politicians, and adventurers; however, a small but significant role was also played by learned societies, which produced, gathered, and distributed geographical knowledge. Some of these associations were specifically devoted to “commercial geography”, and businessmen financed them…
Read moreAfrican Map
At the end of the issue of “L’Esploratore” from January 1882, after 48 black-and-white pages, readers found a colour map of Africa, updated to the last geographical discoveries: Nowadays, we are probably struck at first sight by its colours. There are many areas that are painted with only slightly different…
Read moreBack to the source
To understand the role of beads in nineteenth century East Africa and their changing trends and patterns of circulation, we decided to travel back, along the commodity chain, to the sites of their production. The picture portraits a newly conceived multi-functional space, half residential complex half public square, on the…
Read moreThe Archives Nationales, Marais
The Archives Nationales, established during the French Revolution in 1790, serve as the national archives of France. A decree in 1794 mandated the centralization of all pre-Revolution private and public archives confiscated by the revolutionaries.Furthermore, a law enacted in 1796 instituted departmental archives (archives départementales) across the departments of France…
Read moreA New History of Commodities: The Arms Trade in the Lower Congo in the 19th Century
The history of the production and commerce of trade guns in the second half of the 19th century evokes an African centrality that most existing accounts of the growth of international economic integration have tended to obscure from view and reminds us that a focus on African consumer demand might…
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