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While the study of "indigenous intermediaries" is today the focus of some of the most interesting research in the historiography of colonialism, its roots extend back to at least the 1970s. The contributions to this volume revisit Ronald E. Robinson's theory of collaboration in a range of historical contexts by melding it with theoretical perspectives derived from postcolonial studies and transnational history. In case studies ranging globally over the course of four centuries, these essays offer nuanced explorations of the varied, complex interactions between imperial and local actors, with particular attention to those shifting and ambivalent roles that transcend simple binaries of colonizer and colonized.
List of contents
List of Figures and Tables
Introduction: Cooperation and Empire. Local Realities of Global Processes¿
Tanja Bührer, Flavio Eichmann, Stig Förster and Benedikt Stuchtey PART I: CASE STUDIES Chapter 1. ¿Caciques: Indigenous Rulers and the Colonial Regime in Yucatán in the Sixteenth Century¿
Ute Schüren Chapter 2. ¿Connecting Worlds: Women as Intermediaries in the Portuguese Overseas Empire, 1500-1600
¿Amélia Polónia and Rosa Capelão Chapter 3. ¿Cooperation and Cultural Adaption: British Diplomats at the Court of the Nizam of Hyderabad, c. 1779-1815¿
Tanja Bührer Chapter 4. ¿Local Cooperation in a Subversive Colony: Martinique 1802-09¿
Flavio Eichmann Chapter 5¿. Uncle Toms and
Kupapas: 'Collaboration' versus Alliance in a Nineteenth-Century New Zealand Context
¿Vincent O'Malley Chapter 6¿. 'Collaboration' or Sabotage? The Settlers in German Southwest Africa between Colonial State and Indigenous Polities¿
Matthias Häußler Chapter 7¿. Chieftaincy as a Political Resource in the German Colony of Cameroon, 1884-1916¿
Ulrike Schaper Chapter 8¿. Cooperation at its Limits: Re-Reading the British Constitution in South Africä
Charles V. Reed Chapter 9. ¿Key Alliance? 'Native Guards' and European Administrators in Sub-Saharan Africa from a Comparative Perspective (1918-59)¿
Alexander Keese Chapter 10¿. The Cooperation between the British and Faisal I of Iraq (1921-32): Evolution of a Romance
¿Myriam Yakoubi Chapter 11¿. Collaborating on Unequal Terms: Cross-Cultural Co-operation and Educational Work in Colonial Sudan, 1934-56¿
Iris Seri-Hersch PART II: CONCLUDING ESSAYS Chapter 12. ¿Indigenous Agents of Colonial Rule in Africa and India: Defining the Colonial State through its Secondary Bureaucracy
¿Ralph A. Austen Chapter 13¿. Indigenous Cooperation: Foundation of Colonial Empires or New Historical Myth?
¿Wolfgang Reinhard Index
About the author
Tanja Bührer is Assistant Professor at the University of Bern, Switzerland, and teaches European and Global History.
Flavio Eichmann is Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the department of Modern History, University of Bern, Switzerland, and teaches Caribbean, European and Global History.
Stig Förster is Professor Emeritus at the University of Bern, Switzerland, where he taught European and Global History.
Benedikt Stuchtey is Full Professor at the University of Marburg, Germany, and teaches European and Global History.
Summary
While the study of “indigenous intermediaries” is today the focus of some of the most interesting research in the historiography of colonialism, its roots extend back to at least the 1970s. The contributions to this volume revisit Ronald E. Robinson’s theory of collaboration in a range of historical contexts by melding it with theoretical perspectives derived from postcolonial studies and transnational history. In case studies ranging globally over the course of four centuries, these essays offer nuanced explorations of the varied, complex interactions between imperial and local actors, with particular attention to those shifting and ambivalent roles that transcend simple binaries of colonizer and colonized.
Additional text
“Provocative and original, these contributions challenge us to rethink the basic tenets of colonial governance. The editors avoid the pitfall common to numerous collections: atomized chapters that fail to relate to each other. Here, the contributions are strongly connected by the issue of local or indigenous co-operation in imperial conquest, administration and fiscal exaction.” · Martin Thomas, University of Exeter
