Suchergebnisse

Preliminary Materials /R. Wenzlhuemer -- Chapter One. Introduction /R. Wenzlhuemer -- Chapter Two. Geography /R. Wenzlhuemer -- Chapter Three. History /R. Wenzlhuemer -- Chapter Four. Demography /R. Wenzlhuemer -- Chapter Five. Export Economy /R. Wenzlhuemer -- Chapter Six. Resources /R. Wenzlhuemer -- Chapter Seven. Subsistence /R. Wenzlhuemer -- Chapter Eight. Administration /R. Wenzlhuemer -- Chapter Nine. Education /R. Wenzlhuemer -- Chapter Ten. New Elites /R. Wenzlhuemer -- Chapter Eleven. Immigrants /R. Wenzlhuemer -- Chapter Twelve. Revivals /R. Wenzlhuemer -- Chapter Thirteen. Conclusion /R. Wenzlhuemer -- Bibliography /R. Wenzlhuemer -- Index /R. Wenzlhuemer.

In the early 1880s a disastrous plant disease diminished the yields of the hitherto flourishing coffee plantation of Ceylon. Coincidentally, world market conditions for coffee were becoming increasingly unfavourable. The combination of these factors brought a swift end to coffee cultivation in the British crown colony and pushed the island into a severe economic crisis. When Ceylon re-emerged from this crisis only a decade later, its economy had been thoroughly transformed and now rested on the large-scale cultivation of tea. This book uses the unprecedented intensity and swiftness of this process to highlight the socioeconomic interconnections and dependencies in tropical export economies in the late nineteenth century and it shows how dramatically Ceylonese society was affected by the economic transformation.

Historical research has recently discovered its interest in the study of transregional and global networks of communication and their significance for the so-called "shrinking of the world". In this context, the emergence and the role of a global telegraph network since the middle of the nineteenth century has started to attract scholarly attention. The foundations of this network have mostly been laid by actors from the United Kingdom, the United States, and other important colonial powers. The role of smaller European or non-European states and their position in the emerging global network has rarely been examined. Switzerland usually only enters this discussion as the host of the International Telegraph Union (ITU), which played a decisive role in the development of international telegraphic standards. However, Switzerland's role within the network and the ways Swiss actors made use of telegraphic communication during the nineteenth century have not been studied so far. This study seeks to fill this gap by examining the development of telegraphy in Switzerland as well as the position of the country within a wider European and global communication network. It looks at a number of markers regarding telegraphic development in Switzerland, both from a structural and from a use perspective. The overall goal is to test how well-developed the Swiss telegraph network was during the period of observation and how the country compares to other European (and some non-European) countries. It aims to shed light on how Switzerland was structurally integrated into a wider European and global network, and on how intensively the existing infrastructure was put to use. Furthermore, the study aims to reveal what other countries across the globe the Swiss chose to communicate with telegraphically.

'Ein Schwerpunkt der Globalgeschichte liegt auf der Analyse sich verändernder globaler Kommunikations-, Interaktions- und Transfermuster. Solche transformierten Konnektivitätsmuster produzieren neue Räume, welche mit dem physisch-geographischen Raum koexistieren und komplementär zu diesem sind. Die Entstehung, Transformation und Interaktion dieser Räume ist ein zentraler Forschungsgegenstand der Globalgeschichte, mit Hilfe dessen wir Globalisierungsprozesse - wie etwa das angebliche 'shrinking of the world' - besser beschreiben und verstehen können. Zugleich sehen sich globalgeschichtlich arbeitende Historiker immer auch mit dem Problem konfrontiert, ihren globalen Forschungsgegenstand räumlich einzugrenzen. Daher braucht die Globalgeschichte ein neues, inklusives Raumkonzept, das einen Rahmen sowohl für die Arbeit zu sich verändernden Räumen einerseits, aber auch zur Identifikation und Abgrenzung eines Forschungsgegenstandes andererseits zur Verfügung stellen kann. Dieser Aufsatz entwickelt daher ein abstraktes, vielschichtiges und streng relativistisches Verständnis von Raum, dass globalgeschichtlich arbeitenden Historikern helfen kann, beiden Herausforderungen gerecht zu werden.' (Autorenreferat)

'Telekommunikationssysteme entmaterialisieren die von ihnen übertragene Information und entkoppeln dadurch Informationsflüsse von materiellen Trägermedien wie etwa Menschen oder Dingen. Unmittelbar führt eine solche Entmaterialisierung zu einem beachtlichen Anstieg von Übertragungsgeschwindigkeiten, was häufig als das prinzipielle Charakteristikum von Telekommunikationssystem angesehen wird. Aus analytischer Perspektive viel wichtiger ist allerdings die Beschleunigung des Informationsflusses relativ zur Bewegung von Menschen und Dingen. Entmaterialisierte Informationsflüsse funktionieren nach einer völlig neuen Logik. Da sie für gewöhnlich schneller sind als materieller Transport, können sie selbigen koordinieren und kontrollieren. Der Telegraf als erstes, voll entwickeltes Telekommunikationssystem hat diesen qualitativen Sprung erstmals ermöglicht und so das Funktionsprinzip der globalen Kommunikation (und damit der Globalisierung) des 19. Jahrhunderts komplett transformiert.' (Autorenreferat)

'Seiner angeblichen Nutzlosigkeit zum Trotz begegnen wir in unserem Alltagsleben unzähligen Beispielen kontrafaktischen Denkens. In den letzten zwanzig Jahren ist dieses Phänomen von Psychologen eingehend analysiert worden. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass kontrafaktische Gedanken über vergangene (und daher unveränderbare) Ereignisse oder Situationen für den Denkenden durchaus nützlich sein kann. Dieser Beitrag fasst die Effekte kontrafaktischen Denkens in Alltagssituationen zusammen und versucht daraufhin, diese in einen akademischen Kontext zu übertragen. Können counterfactuals in der Wissenschaft ähnliche analytische Qualitäten entfalten wie im Alltagsleben? Und falls ja, welche Beispiele gibt es dafür? Nach einer kurzen Betrachtung der psychologischen Aspekte kontrafaktischen Denkens, diskutiert der Text daher dessen Nutzen aus wissenschaftlicher Sicht bevor er sich der kontrafaktischen Geschichte als konkretem Anwendungsbeispiel widmet. Der Artikel schließt mit einer Betrachtung der potentiellen Gefahren kontrafaktischen Denkens in der Wissenschaft.' (Autorenreferat)

"While it has always been present in our everyday-life practices, counterfactual thinking currently stages a comeback as a scientific method. Of late, a renewed interest in counterfactuals can be witnessed in academic disciplines that have traditionally been suspicious of studying events or processes that have never happened (and will never happen). Is it mere coincidence that an impressive
number of unconnected initiatives have started to re-discuss counterfactual thinking at the same time? Or are we living through times that somehow foster such a renewed interest in unpredictability, contingency and counterfactuals?" (author's abstract)

During most of the nineteenth century, the economy of the British crown colony Ceylon depended almost exclusively on the export of plantation products. After modest beginnings in the 1820s and 1830s, coffee cultivation spread on the island in the 1840s. During the 1880s, the coffee plantations were superseded by plantations of a new crop—tea. Both cultivation systems were almost pure export monocultures, and both relied almost exclusively on imported wage labour from South India. Thus, it is surprising that labour immigration—a process vital to the efficient functioning of the plantation economy—received practically no government attention for the better part of the nineteenth century. Migration between South India and Ceylon was free of government control, support or regulation. Instead, certain functional equivalents—such as the kangany system—organised immigration and coordinated supply and demand. Only very late in the century, when the kangany system had revealed a number of dramatic organisational weaknesses, the Ceylon Government started to get directly involved in labour and immigration policy.The author can be contacted at roland.wenzlhuemer@staff.hu-berlin.de

During most of the nineteenth century, the economy of the British crown colony Ceylon depended almost exclusively on the export of plantation products. After modest beginnings in the 1820s and 1830s, coffee cultivation spread on the island in the 1840s. During the 1880s, the coffee plantations were superseded by plantations of a new crop—tea. Both cultivation systems were almost pure export monocultures, and both relied almost exclusively on imported wage labour from South India. Thus, it is surprising that labour immigration—a process vital to the efficient functioning of the plantation economy—received practically no government attention for the better part of the nineteenth century. Migration between South India and Ceylon was free of government control, support or regulation. Instead, certain functional equivalents—such as the kangany system—organised immigration and coordinated supply and demand. Only very late in the century, when the kangany system had revealed a number of dramatic organisational weaknesses, the Ceylon Government started to get directly involved in labour and immigration policy.

Interregional communication has been a key constituent of the process of globalization since its very origins. For most of its history, information has moved between world regions and along the routes according to the rationales established by interregional trade and migration. The dematerialization of telecommunication in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century eventually detached long-distance information transmission from transport and transformed the global communication structure. New communication centres (and new peripheries) emerged. Some regions moved closer to the global data stream than others. It is still unclear how such different degrees of global connectivity impacted on local development. This essay contributes to the identification and valuation of global communication centres and peripheries in order to provide suitable candidates for future case studies. To this end, statistical data on the development of domestic telegraph networks in selected countries has been analysed and interpreted. In a second step, Social Network Analysis methods have been employed to measure the centrality of almost three hundred cities and towns in the European telecommunication network of the early twentieth century.