Empire

"This study focuses on the different ways the Byzantine Empire managed to govern during the ‘Dark Age’ and on how the Empire retained control over a shrinking territory. A selection of evidence has been made: the character of cities, the ceramic typology, lead seals and iconoclasm. The main research question is the following: How does (this) archaeological evidence reflect the imperial strategies used by the Byzantine Empire during the ‘Dark Age’?
A profound change in the character of cities is visible with the aid of archaeological evidence. A number of open civic urban centres took on the role as fortified shelters and centres of military activity to avoid direct conflicts with enemies. The ceramic typology also reflects the imperial strategies used by the Byzantine Empire. By creating a distinction between the regional and the international market, the state tried to ‘manage the crisis’. As a result, localised and regionalised production of more functional and non-decorative pottery (both wheelmade and handmade) emerged while export decreased. Imperial depictions disappeared during the ‘Dark Age’, indicating a ruralisation of the landscape and a change in Imperial influence. The Iconoclastic evidence shows that the Empire actively tried to retain control over a shrinking territory"

What is the meaning of Diaspora today? Has the notion of dispersion associated with the origin of the concept, a meaning in the times of globalization? Is there only one or several Diasporas? With this article we intend to observe the evolution of the concept of Diaspora based in the idea of Said (1994) who argues that the end of colonialism did not stop imperialism. We connected the problematizations made on the Diaspora, among others, by Cohen (1997), Hall (1998), Bhabha (1998), Riggs (2000) and Morier-Genoud & Cahen (2013), to the Portuguese case and the idea of Lusophony. Is interculturality, which promotes identity interpenetration, reflected in Diaspora? What happens when combining Diaspora with “portugalidade”? Eduardo Lourenço (1999) is ironic about the idea of Diaspora, claiming that that is an abnormality that our long emigrant history will be perceived as such. And, even if one starts from the idea that “meaning is use” (Wittgenstein, 1958), the 'naturalization' of certain realities, ideologically aligned can increase misunderstandings and prevent an ethical dimension, which happens when the 'other' comes into play (Eco, 1997).

"This study examines the unclear political nature of the European Union and current academic theories on how to understand and classify the EU. Placing the EU in the macrohistorical context from which it emerged, the project first critiques competing definitions of “empire” before examining the etymological and philosophical genealogy of imperium. It then uses textual analysis to trace how evolving interpretations of imperium and “empire” have influenced European historiography and political philosophy. This analysis demonstrates that “empire” is not a descriptive taxonomy but a normative discourse, expressing an imagination of power, legitimacy and sole sovereignty, used to validate the inherent inequality and manifest destiny of an imagined European community. This discourse must be publicly expressed in order to have validity, and it is most effectively conveyed in visual language. The study demonstrates that of the many forms of visual language, by far the most powerful is cartography. But while maps represent the world rather than reflect it, mapreaders ascribe to maps an authority that is rarely questioned, accepting maps’ portrayals as truthful.

Having established and justified a methodology based in semiotics and semantics, the book moves into an analytical focus by semiotically deconstructing the most publicly-accessible EU maps in print and virtual form and on Euro currency. These analyses demonstrate that EU maps intersect with EU iconography and inadvertently construct an imagined community defined by the discourse of empire. Such maps show the Union not as it is but as it should be – the sole sovereign of European civilisation, with supreme power, exclusive legitimacy, a manifest destiny to unite the Europeans, and inhabited by an imagined community whose imagined history partly masks an inherent, yet acknowledged, inequality. The book concludes that the EU is not a sui generis construct but instead embodies a familiar historical discourse – the European Union as Empire."

"Empire is one of the oldest forms of political organisation and has dominated societies in all parts of the world. Yet, despite the emergence of nation-states in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the apparent end of empire with the breakup of European colonial regimes and the Soviet Union in the twentieth century, empire remains powerful in the modern world. The EU’s accession policies, the United States’ War on Terror, China’s economic developments in Africa, among others, draw accusations of imperial agendas. Empire is no stranger to crisis but, in recent years, the effects of global austerity have forced states, both powerful and weak, to adapt, with varying degrees of success and failure. The confusions, contradictions, and contestations which emerge from imperial crisis point to a vital question – how is Austerity changing Empire and how will this shape tomorrow’s world?

This book was published as a special issue of Global Discourse."

"The article contextualizes the current NATO intervention into the Libyan civil war in the debates about the new imperialism and the crisis of global capitalism. It poses the question as to whether it can be interpreted as an act of militarily locking up an oil state which is immune to IMF/World Bank types of structural
adjustment. Based on an analysis of the political economy of Libya from decolonization to the contemporary Gadhafi regime, it argues that the integration of Libya into the world order of global capitalism had already occurred as an act of free will. Therefore other reasons must have led to the hesitant decision to go to war. Denouncing the idea of humanitarian interventions, the article argues that in the context of the global crisis mainly three goals are being pursued: Guaranteeing the free flow of cheap oil; reestablishing control over a geopolitically essential region that as a result of the toppling of friendly dictators has been at the verge of slipping away; and reconstructing the indispensable ideology of „humanitarian interventions“ after their seeming demise in the quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan."

"The Singapore History Anthology Project (or SHAP for short) has been spearheaded at the Department of History of the National University of Singapore to heighten awareness of the region’s history before the founding of the British settlement in 1819. The project foresees the identification, translation into English and inclusion into the anthology deliverable documents of European and Asian origin, including especially also documents translated from Portuguese
and Dutch. This paper casts a glance at the specifically Portuguese materials that have been found and discusses some of the key issues pertaining to selection, translation and arrangement of materials for inclusion. The paper will also address how the materials taken as
a whole fit into the evolving historiographical discourses in Singapore at large. "

This article reexamines the role and influence of University of Michigan alumni (“Michigan Men”) in the Insular Government of the American-occupied Philippines during the Progressive Era. It contends that, due to the lack of an undisputed unifying figure around which to rally — such as future President William Howard Taft for the alumni of Yale, and Governor-General W. Cameron Forbes for graduates of Harvard — their contribution to the governance of the Philippine Archipelago at this time remains undeservedly overshadowed by that of their Ivy League contemporaries. The piece also explores tensions among leading members of the University of Michigan Alumni Association of the Philippine Islands over the constitutional future of the archipelago, and examines shifts in the thought of this sample regarding the capacity of Filipinos for clean, efficient, and representative (“Anglo-Saxon style”) self-government.

"SUMMARY
With its 2 212 entries, the Who is Who in the Russian Tea Industry reference
edition transports its readers into the world of Russian tea and tea merchants,
the world unfamiliar to most of our contemporaries, even to those who have many
years of experience in the tea industry. The book includes biographies of the people
who worked in the tea trade during the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union,
covering the period from 1700 to 1923. The entries contain information not only on
tea merchants themselves, but also on their family members and some ancestors
and descendants.
The biographical information comes primarily from archives and academic
publications, allowing readers to trace the evolution of tea merchant dynasties and
their fortunes, following longer dynasties through several generations as they shifted
from the merchant class during the tsarist Russia to members of the professional
intelligentsia during the early Soviet period. The coverage is not limited to those who
worked exclusively with tea, as some tea merchants also sold other commodities,
such as sugar or coffee.
Many distinguished Russians have tea merchants among their relatives. The
list includes the Schukin family (famous collectors), A. A. Fet (poet), F. M.
Dostoyevsky (writer), F. I. Shalyapin (opera singer) and scores of others.
The information in the book sheds light on commercial ties between various
merchants, as well as between tea merchants and other large commercial entities,
such as the Russian-American Company. The reader can also follow the profits
from the tea business, as they were invested in other areas of industry (chemicals,
metallurgy, agriculture, textiles) as well as real estate and fine art.
This reference edition will be a useful tool for tea industry professionals,
businesspeople, historians, advertising specialists, genealogists, economists,
sociologists and many others.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
2.212 Artikel des Nachschlagewerks „Menschen, die mit Tee handeln“ führen
den Leser in die Welt des Tees und der Teehändler Russlands, dabei ist diese
Welt unseren Zeitgenossen kaum bekannt, sogar denen, die schon mehrere Jahre
ihre Geschäfte mit Tee betreiben.
Das Buch beinhaltet Biographien von Menschen, die mit Tee in Russland
handelten, und zwar im Zeitraum von 1700 im Russischen Kaiserreich bis hin zum
Jahr 1923 im sowjetischen Staat. Neben den Informationen über die Teehändler
selbst gibt es Angaben über ihre Familienangehörigen, Vorfahren und
Nachkommen.
Die Abhandlung vereinigt biographische Informationen aus Archiven mit
solchen aus wissenschaftlichen Quellen. Die zusammengetragenen Dokumente
lassen den Leser die Evolution von Kapitalen der Kaufleute und Teehändler-
Dynastien verfolgen. Das Buch enthält auch einige Informationen über solche
Zucker- und Kaffeehändler, die gleichzeitig mit dem Tee gehandelt haben.
Diese wissenschaftliche Abhandlung bietet eine Gelegenheit, die
Verwandlung der Nachkommen von Kaufleuten zur wissenschaftlich-technischen
und schaffenden Intelligenz zu verfolgen (für dritte bzw. vierte
Nachfolgegenerationen der Teekaufleute).
Die Teehändler wurden durch familiäre Verhältnisse mit vielen russischen
Forschern, Künstlern und Schriftstellern verbunden. Zu den Familienangehörigen
der Teehändler gehörten zum Beispiel Kunstsammler Schtschukins, Dichter A.A.
Fet, Schriftsteller F.M. Dostojewski, Sänger F.I. Schaljapin und viele andere.
Die gesammelten Informationen helfen, die kommerziellen Verbindungen
zwischen den Teehändler zu verfolgen. Eine große Aufmerksamkeit wurde den
Verbindungen der Teehändler mit großen Gesellschaften geschenkt, z.B. mit der
Russisch-Amerikanischen Handelskompagnie.
Das Buch erlaubt es, Geldanlagen-Vorgänge zu verstehen und zu verfolgen:
wie die im Teehandel angesammelten Mittel in andere Wirtschaftszweige investiert
wurden. Die mit dem Teehandel gewonnenen Gelder wurden in Chemie- und
Hüttenindustrie, in die Landwirtschaft und Textilindustrie angelegt. Die Kapitale
wurden in Immobilien und Kunstobjekte investiert.
Dieses Buch soll für die zeitgenössischen Geschäftsleute und Historiker, für
Fachleute auf dem Gebiet der Werbung und Ahnenforschung, für Kapitalismus-
Forscher, Soziologen und viele andere interessant sein.

總結
手册 2 212 章节的《茶人》使读者沉浸于俄罗斯茶和茶商的世界 ，
这是我们当代人，甚至一些并非第一年在俄罗斯从事茶叶贸易的商人都鲜
为人知的。书中列举了从18世纪起到1923年间在俄罗斯，以及在沙俄和
苏维埃国家从事茶叶贸易的人物生平经历。除了茶商本人的经历，书中还
讲述了他们的家庭成员，祖先和后辈的故事。
研究结合了从档案和科学文献中提取出来的生平资料。所收集的资料使我
们追溯到商人资本以及茶商世家的演化。书中还包括了一些从事糖贸易和
咖啡贸易，同时也从事茶叶贸易的商人资料。
这种科学研究使我们观察到茶商后代们从商人到科技和创新知识分子的过
渡（第三和第四代及其后代茶商的代表）。
茶商们同俄罗斯很多杰出的研究者，画家和作家都有亲属关系。在他们的
亲属中有收藏家休金，诗人A.A.费特，作家F.M.陀思妥耶夫斯基，歌唱
家F.I.夏里亚宾等。
所收集的资料有助于研究茶商之间的商业关系，其中很大比重是同大公司
的联系，例如俄罗斯-美国公司。
这本书可以让你了解到在茶叶贸易中积累的资金向其他贸易领域投资的过
程。茶贸易中挣到的钱投入到了化工、冶金、农业和纺织等行业中。所积
累的资本还投入到不动产和艺术品中。本书将引起现代商业代表，历史学
家，广告领域和家谱学领域的专家，资本主义关系研究者，经济学家，社
会学家及其他领域专家的关注。"

Current scholarship by legal commentators and political scientists recognizes that the weapons of American empire have involved non-militaristic activities as much as militaristic ones. Such non-militaristic activities include the hegemonic influence of trade agreements, the imposition of legal and procedural norms, and the dissemination of ideological and cultural predispositions through corporations and diverse medias. In this paper, we examine an under-explored area on the “soft” belly of the American leviathan, focusing specifically on how property and intellectual property law have operated on physical and ideological frontiers to comprehend, participate in, and legitimate the expansion of American empire. We offer new accounts of two historical instances of empire-building: the acquisition and seizure of property from Native Americans in the early- and mid-19th century, and the expropriation of intellectual property rights to plant genetic resources from indigenous communities in the global South in the late 20th century. These two stories, taken together, offer unique insights into both the process and the substance of law’s operation on the frontier of empire. They illuminate how the authority of law has fused with private power and legal legitimacy to enable the nation to expand swiftly, energetically, and powerfully. These insights, in turn, lead toward the more general conclusion that the rhetoric of property has functioned to subjugate peoples and places, cultures and natures, to an imperial regime.