From Slave Trade to Empire - More Information

Much has been written about the origins of the great push which led Europe to colonise sub-Saharan Africa at the end of the nineteenth century. This book provides a new perspective on this controversial subject by focussing on Europe and a range of empire-building states, Germany, France, Italy and Portugal. The essays in this volume consider economic themes in addition to the political and cultural aspects of the transition from commerce to colonies.
Unlike other texts on the subject, this refreshing new volume redresses many imbalances, by:
*considering of a number of empire building states, instead of just one of them
*Giving prominence to powers other than Britain
*Giving weight to economic themes without losing sight of the equally important political and cultural aspects of the transition from commerce to colonies
*Taking the analysis beyond the 1880s, and revealing the broader picture - covering the time of the first attacks against the slave trade (during the 1780s) to the premise of the ''scramble'' (1880s)
*Reviewing the colonial process (excepting that of Great Britain) as the reaffirmation and exacerbation of the Ancien Régime, and as a reflection of the highest form of mercantilism rather than the highest form of capitalism
*Illuminating the importance of circumstantial phenomena, at the scale of Europe and of its different countries.
By emphasising the variety of those involved, and the diversity of regional and local situations, this book shows how necessary it is to link the general history of ideas, national- and micro-history. The contributors suggest a true cosmopolitan history of imperialism, one which is of great relevance in our times of globalisation and reconstruction since September 11th, 2001.

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Table of contents : 1. Introduction: A missing link? The significance of the Years 1780s-1880s - Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau, Lorient University and the Institut Universitaire de France, Paris
Part One: Economic Relations between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa: a Global Weighing up
2. African and European Relations in the Last Century of the Transatlantic Slave Trade - David Eltis, Emory University, USA
3. Background to Annexation: Anglo-African Credit Relations in the Bight of Biafra, 1700-1891 - David Richardson, Hull University, UK
4. Economic Relations between Europe and Black Africa c. 1780-1938. A Quantitative Analysis - Bouda Etemad, Lausanne and Geneva Universities, Switzerland
Part Two: Southern Europe and Germany: About the 'Imperialism of the Poor' and the Desire for Power
5. An Imperialism with no Economic Basis: the Case of Italy, 1869-1939 - Romain Rainero, Milan University, Italy
6. The Continental Drift: the Independence of Brazil (1822), Portugal and Africa - Luis Felipe de Alencastro, Paris-IV Sorbonne University, France)
7. The Portuguese Empire (1825-1890): Ideology and Economics - Valentim Alexandre, Lisbon University, Portugal
8. The Scramble for Africa: icon and idiom of modernity - Albert Wirz, Humboldt University, Berlin and Andreas Eckert, Hamburg University, Germany
Part Three: France: From a Civilising Mission to the Highest Form of Mercantilism?
9. Cultural Systems of Representations, Economic Interests and French Penetration into Black Africa 1780s-1880s Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau, Lorient University and the Institut Universitaire de France, Paris
10. The Place and Role of the Players in Colonial Expansion: France and East Africa in the Nineteenth Century - Valérie Valey, Lorient University
11. Commercial Presence, Colonial Penetration: Traders of Marseilles in West Africa in the Nineteenth Century - Xavier Daumalin, Aix-Marseille University, France