Suchergebnisse

The Gold Frontier in South Africa. This paper uses the concept of commodity frontiers to compare the expansions and contractions of the South African gold frontier. Similarities and differences to its counterparts in the USA or Australia become visible in the South African gold frontier's rapid industrialization, massive exploitation of low-skilled workers and tremendous damage to the natural environment. In addition to these regional factors, the approach also shows to what extent the gold economy has its own specific functional interrelations. Finally, the study also demonstrates how global changes and local dynamics can interact in very different and sometimes unexpected ways. ; The Gold Frontier in South Africa. This paper uses the concept of commodity frontiers to compare the expansions and contractions of the South African gold frontier. Similarities and differences to its counterparts in the USA or Australia become visible in the South African gold frontier's rapid industrialization, massive exploitation of low-skilled workers and tremendous damage to the natural environment. In addition to these regional factors, the approach also shows to what extent the gold economy has its own specific functional interrelations. Finally, the study also demonstrates how global changes and local dynamics can interact in very different and sometimes unexpected ways.

Abstract
Focusing on the major flows of gold in early 20th century offers new perspectives on the various and often overlapping political, sociocultural and economic spaces that are linked to the production, transport, marketing and consumption of gold around the world. A material, but not materialistic, biography of gold helps to overcome the narrow "centrist" logic that still dominates many narratives of globalization as well as the historiography on gold. The paper studies different spatial impacts such as the geology and geographical conditions of the places where gold was found, the newly built infrastructures for energy and water with far-reaching effects, the political segregation of different ethnic groups, the systems of migrant work across national and imperial boundaries, work in mines on the surface and underground, channels of transport, the informal arrangements to direct the international flow of gold towards London, strategies of workers and unionists, the difficult conditions of peasant families in India as well as in South African reserves, and the important question of by whom and from where the global commodity chain of gold may have been directed.

"Global history is predicated on connections and exchange: how connections between far-flung people, places, and objects are forged through a variety of exchanges. As world history has matured as a field, its practitioners have found the movement of commodities between peoples, places, and time a fruitful vehicle for research and teaching. Studies of 'bulk' items like salt, spices, coffee, and other globally-traded commodities abound, but few scholars have examined the role of luxury goods from a global perspective. This anthology charts the many different contexts in which luxury objects have been used across the globe, ranging from the social practices linked to these objects to their production, exchange, and consumption, as well as how these practices varied over time and space and how different societies attributed diverse meanings to the same objects. Using luxury goods as a conduit, Luxury in Global Perspective enriches our understanding of global history"--

Wie tief waren die Stadt Freiburg und ihre Bürgerschaft in die deutsche Kolonialgeschichte verstrickt? Und welche Bedeutung besaß der Kolonialismus für die Freiburgerinnen und Freiburger? Diese Studie zeichnet Freiburg als eine vom Kolonialismus stark geprägte Stadtgesellschaft. In allen sozialen Milieus war koloniales Gedankengut fest verankert: Sowohl im bürgerlich-nationalen wie im katholischen als auch im Arbeiter-Milieu dachten die meisten Menschen kolonial. Über alle politischen Gräben hinweg teilten sie die Überzeugung von einer zivilisatorischen Überlegenheit der Deutschen gegenüber den kolonisierten Bevölkerungen. Nationale und koloniale Vereine trommelten für die Errichtung neuer Kolonien und verteidigten die brutale Niederschlagung von Widerständen. Zahlreiche Gesellschaften und wissenschaftliche Vortragsserien widmeten sich kolonialen Themen, ein Völkerkundemuseum wurde eingerichtet, und die Lokalpresse berichtete ausführlich von den Kolonialkriegen, wo auch Freiburger Soldaten in die Kämpfe verwickelt waren. Das Interesse und Engagement für die Kolonien überdauerte auch das Ende der deutschen Kolonialherrschaft (1918). In der Weimarer Republik und im Nationalsozialismus war der Kolonialrevisionismus in Freiburg besonders stark, wie sich auch bei der Reichskolonialtagung 1935 in Freiburg zeigte - dem lokalen Höhepunkt der Kolonialbegeisterung