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Friday 9 and Saturday 10 May 2008
at the History Faculty, the Maison française d’Oxford and the European Studies Centre
An inter-disciplinary workshop jointly sponsored by the Modern History Faculty (Commonwealth History
Research Seminar), the European Studies Centre, the Maison française d’Oxford and the European
Research Group
Convenors: Jan-Georg Deutsch, Judith M. Brown, John Darwin, Kalypso Nicolaidis, Berny Sèbe, Rahul Rao
PROGRAMME
Friday 9 May:
Morning: Modern History Faculty, Old Boys’ School, George Street
Afternoon: Maison française d’Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road
9.15 am Welcome by conference organisers
9.20 – 10.15 am Opening statement
John Darwin (History, Oxford)
Echoes of Imperialism: A Research agenda
10.15 – 10.30 am Tea and biscuits
10.30 am – 12.45 Session 1 – European Imperialisms: The Present of the Past
Kalypso Nicolaïdis (Politics & IR, Oxford) and Juri Viehoff (Politics & IR, Oxford)
Echoes or Transcendence? From Standards of Civilisation to EU Conditionality
Luisa Pinto Teixeira (History, Camões Institute Portuguese Centre, Oxford)
Hidden Empire: memory in the making of a Lusophone world
Jean-Frédéric Schaub (History, EHESS, Maison française d’Oxford)
Monarquía, imperio, república, repúblicas: Latin American and its imperial past
Cha ir an d d isc us san t: B ern y Sè be (H isto ry, D u rham Un iv ersity an d Ma iso n fran ç aise d ’O xfo rd)
12.45 – 1.00 pm Participants walk to the Maison française d’Oxford
1.00 – 1.45 pm Buffet lunch at the Maison française d’Oxford
1.45 – 3.30 pm Session 2 – Colonialism and modernity in Africa and in Asia
Jan-Georg Deutsch (History, Oxford)
Colonialism and Modernity in Africa
Dane Kennedy (History, George Washington University, Washington DC)
Empires and the Parasitism of British Exploration in Africa
Yasmin Khan (History, Royal Holloway, University of London)
Nehruvian modernity and the decolonization of the South Asian state
Chair: Rahul Rao (Politics & IR, Oxford)
Discussant: Jean-Pascal Daloz (Political science, Maison française d’Oxford)
3.30 – 3.45 pm Tea and biscuits
3.45 – 5.30 pm Session 3 – Sea-borne imperial visions
Christopher Harding (History, University of Edinburgh)
‘A Dagger At Our Backs’:
Self-Defence, Self-Cultivation, and the Question of Modern Japanese Imperialism
Berny Sèbe (History, Durham University and Maison française d’Oxford)
‘Civilising miss ion’ vs ‘Gentlemanly capitalism’?
The French empire against the gauge of its more successful British counterpart
Alessandro Triulzi (University of Naples)
Italian perspectives on Empire
Chair: Jan-Georg Deutsh (History, Oxford)
Discussant: Dereck Duncan (Cultural Studies, Department of Italian, Bristol)
Saturday 10 May
European Studies Centre, 70 Woodstock Road
9.00 – 10.45 am Session 4 – Land-based imperial visions
Alexander Morrison (University of Liverpool)
Between western universalism and eastern practices: the Russian Empire
Nora Onar (Politics & IR, Oxford)
Echoes of a universalism lost:
Rival representations of the Ottomans in contemporary Turkey
Rana Mitter (Oriental Institute, Oxford)
Imperial China
Chair: Judith Brown (History, Oxford)
Discussant: John Darwin (History, Oxford)
10.45 – 11.15 am Tea and biscuits
11.15 am – 1.00 pm Session 5 – Imperial legacies in the EU project
Dimitar Bechev (Politics & IR, Oxford)
From myths of empire to EU hegemony
Robert Howse (Politics & IR, University of Michigan Law School)
European imperialism, Kojeve and the global trade agenda
Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann (History, Oxford)
German colonial history and post-war development policies
Chair and discussant: Kalypso Nicolaidis (Politics & IR, Oxford)
1.00 – 2.00 pm Lunch
2.00 – 3.45 pm Session 6 – The post-colonial agenda : A normative panel
Rahul Rao (Politics & IR, Oxford)
Postcolonial Cosmopolitanism: then and now
Ali Parchami (History and IR, Sandhurst Royal Military Academy)
The abuse of history: the normative effect of Pax Romana on modern imperial thought
Robert Young (English and Comparative Literature, New York University)
From the Anti-colonial Movements to the New Social Movements
Chair: Dane Kennedy (History, George Washington University, Washington DC)
Discussant: Taraq Barqawi (Political science, Centre of International Studies, Cambridge)
3.45 – 4.30 pm Concluding remarks
Jacques Frémeaux (History, University of Paris IV)
Andrew Thompson (History, University of Leeds)
4.30 – 5.00 pm Tea and biscuits
Workshop aims
Oxford University’s Modern History Faculty, the European Studies Centre, and the Maison française d’Oxford
are convening an inter-disciplinary workshop on Echoes of European imperialisms in comparative
perspective. Its core aims are to bring together specialists of different areas or ‘empires’ as well as historians
and political scientists from Oxford and beyond, to encourage better synergies between imperial history and
area studies and discuss the relevance of imperial history to today’s global affairs. We believe one of the
ways to achieve this is by ‘de-centering’ our understanding of imperialism from the ‘centre’ to the
‘peripheries’ and identifying differences and similarities in ‘colonial’ patterns of relationships between
peoples and states then and now. The workshop is an integral part of the Commonwealth History Research
Seminar and will link this seminar with the project ‘Re-Thinking Europe in a Non-European World’ led by
the European Studies Centre.
Research about nineteenth and twentieth century imperialisms has suffered from two major shortcomings.
First, it has narrowly focussed on imperial traditions based upon the history of the nation-state at the expense
of a broader vision acknowledging the shared features of a phenomenon that swept through Europe at
approximately the same time and against the same world historical backdrop. Secondly, historiography has
all too often been Eurocentric. It has thus tended to overlook both the reciprocal effects of the contact
between European and non-European worlds that colonial practice inevitably brought about, and the
peripheral, non-European imperialisms which remain misrepresented or ignored.
The conference will address these issues comparatively across different European imperial traditions and link
them to present concerns. A ‘decentered’ approach implies examining both non-European forms of
imperialism and European imperialisms from a non-European perspective. To what extent were imperialisms
originating in Europe based upon the same political and social principles and practices? How did European
colonial theories and practices compare with their Chinese, Japanese or Ottoman counterparts? What is the
impact of imperial legacies on today’s international relations and more particularly on the principles and
workings of the EU? How can the global study of European empires provide a better understanding of current
discourses and practices, including that of Europe as a ‘normative power’? And normatively, what would a
truly post-colonial approach to global affairs look like today?
Through this workshop, the convenors hope to initiate a dialogue that will continue in the years to come and
foster cross-disciplinary debates about the colonial and post-colonial condition. By combining their tools of
enquiry and sharing their research agendas, historians and political scientists can hopefully better tackle
what remains a highly sensitive and contested episode of human history.
Sessions
Session 1 – European Imperialisms: The Present of the Past
Contemporary inquiries brought about by globalisation have tended to cast a shadow on the main
assumptions of post-modern and post-colonial thinking. However, only a few decades have elapsed since the
demise of the European empires which blossomed in the nineteenth century and it is arguable that the legacy
of colonial times remains palpable in post-colonial Euro-American initiatives, as well as in the reaction of the
former colonised peoples to these initiatives. The third and fourth papers, which expand the timeline of the
workshop in order to include the case of Latin America, consider the long-lasting influence of Portuguese
and Spanish imperialism on countries which have been independent from mainland Europe for nearly two
centuries. They provide examples which will complement those of the second panel.
Session 2 – Colonialism and modernity in Africa and in Asia
Colonial rule projected directly African and Asian colonies from a pre-industrial stage to the post-colonial
era; imperialism therefore appeared as a powerful agent of modernity in most of these former colonies. The
three papers intend to analyse the ideas, practices and concepts of modernity in former colonies which
(unlike the British Dominions) left the Western world at independence. Not only do they intend to
summarize the impact of the colonial past on two continents which display non-European identities, but they
also place into context the meanings of the ‘post-colonial’ and ‘post-modern’ concepts.
Session 3 – Sea-borne imperial visions
Session 4 – Land-based imperial visions
By adopting an approach based on the geographical modus operandi rather than the classic distinction
between European and non-European empires, the third and fourth panels intend to radically ‘de-centre’ the
study of imperialism and evaluate to what extent colonial projects and practices were dictated as much by
factors internal to the conquering power as by the conditions that prevailed in the conquered territory.
Presenters will be invited to bear in mind the following questions when producing their papers:
1) Is there genuinely a pan-European idea of imperialism?
2) Is there a distinctively European tradition of imperialism?
3) Were there fundamental differences between land-based and sea-borne empires?
Session 5 – Imperial legacies in the EU project
This panel will draw on the preceding ones and confront their insights with an analysis of the EU’s policies
and narratives today. It will ask to what extent the EU still carries within itself the “colonial DNA” of some of
its member states or to what extent on the contrary it has been able to transcend these imperial legacies.
Alternatively, since structures of power asymmetries are a given in our world order, are certain patterns of
hierarchical relationship inevitable irrespective of a colonial past? And what is the impact of the difference in
legacies present in the different member states?
Session 6 – The post-colonial agenda: A normative panel
This panel will explore the normative constitution of the ideas and practices of imperialism and resistance
thereto. What sorts of normative influences do imperialisms of the past exert on those of the present?
Similarly, does the normative thinking of earlier resistances to imperialism have any bearing on
contemporary struggles and movements?