[Discussion] lost colonies

[Paksoy, Hb]

From: Amy Baxter-Bellamy <abaxter@sas.upenn.edu>

LOST COLONIES CONFERENCE

Sponsored by the McNeil Center for Early American Studies,
University of Pennsylvania

March 26-27, 2004

The global expansion of European economic, military, and political power
and the subsequent creation of European colonial regimes (whether through
migration or conquest) in America, Africa, and Asia together comprised one
of the most important forces shaping world history in the early modern
era.
Although today it is as likely to be depicted as tragedy rather than as a
triumph, the subsequent European (or western) domination over the rest of
the world is generally accepted as an inevitable part of the historical
processes of imperialism, capitalism, and/or modernization. In these
progressive (and often nationalistic) narratives of expanding power and
influence, episodes of unsuccessful European colonial initiatives have
long
occupied an awkward place. They are usually portrayed as faltering first
steps, wrong directions, or evolutionary dead ends in the genealogical
tree
of Europe's rise to empire.

However, by examining and comparing a number of these "lost colonies,"
spread across the world, over four centuries, and among many different
political, cultural, and economic contexts, one might begin to challenge
or
at least to problematize the "rise of the west."  Focusing attention on
the
many cases in which European colonial enterprises did not achieve their
purpose can begin both to illuminate the many difficulties that confronted
European expansionism and to open the larger historical narrative of
western expansion to new questions and perspectives.

To this end, we invite scholars to submit proposals for papers on failed
colonial enterprises anywhere around the globe that took place in the four
centuries from 1450 to 1850. By "lost colonies," we mean to refer not
merely to those examples in which the settlement literally disappeared or
died out, but also to cases in which settlers abandoned a settlement, or
in
which metropolitan support (whether state or private) was withdrawn in
effect, abandoning the colonial settlers, who may in fact have remained,
and also to cases in which colonies were conquered by rival powers, or
"lost" to another European state by treaty, wherein this imperial transfer
led to the abandonment of the original colony and the departure of its
colonial inhabitants. We urge participants to define the term broadly and
inclusively. "Lost Colonies" might appear within larger existing colonies,
such as maroon settlements, or religious communities, for example. We also
invite proposals on the failed colonial enterprises of non-European
societies. Our one limitation, besides the chronological parameters, is
that before being "lost" the colonial enterprise must have actually had a
physical existence (however brief), and did not merely exist on the
"drawing board," or in the plans and imagination of would-be colonizers.

The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2003. Send paper proposals of
250
words and C.V.s (of no more than one page) to Alison Games, Department of
History, ICC 600, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 20057-1035 or
by
email to gamesa@georgetown.edu. Those invited to participate in the
conference will be asked to submit papers of approximately 30 pages in
length by January 15, 2004, for pre-circulation to conference attendees.
Limited support for travel expenses may be available for participants. For
additional information, email the conference organizers, Alison Games
(gamesa@georgetown.edu) or Robert Olwell (rolwell@mail.utexas.edu).