Europeans Globalizing

Mapping, Exploiting, Exchanging

How have technologies mediated European influence in other parts of the world? And how did this mediation, in turn, transform Europeans?

By focusing on technology in European - non-European relations, Globalizing Europe presents a story of European colonialism that will leave you in awe. It turns colonialism into a vivid narrative of cultural clashes and cultural adoptions. European nations had high aspirations for expanding into the non-European world. They desired to map new lands and exploit these for European benefit. In the process, they established treaties of cooperation as well as elaborate colonial infrastructures like telegraph systems and huge railway networks. Quite opposite to most expectations, these cultural transfers were hardly unidirectional, and often a kind of Pidgin-knowledge emerged – a hybrid fusion of European and local knowledge and skills. By means of beautifully illustrated case studies, this book takes you to all corners of the world, from Africa to Australia and from Asia to America.

Authors

Maria Paula Diogo Professor

Maria Paula Diogo is Full Professor of History of Technology and Engineering at the School of Science and Technology, NOVA University of Lisbon (FCT/NOVA), Portugal, and member of the Centre for the History of Science and Technology (CIUHCT). in the early 90s, she has pioneered the study of Portuguese engineering and engineers and is currently working on engineering, the Portuguese colonial agenda and the Anthropocene, as well as the role of technology in European history and diplomacy, particularly in peripheral countries. She publishes on a regular basis both nationally and internationally. She is a member of several societies and international research networks.

Dirk van Laak Professor

Dirk van Laak is Full Professor of German and European History from the 19th to the 21st Century at the History Department of Leipzig University, Germany. From 2007 to 2016, he was Full Professor of Contemporary History at the History Department, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany, He has worked on German, European, colonial and global history, as well as the history of technology and intellectual history. He also pioneered the history of infrastructures. He has published and (co)edited several books on a wide range of topics. His most recent book addressed the everyday and cultural history of infrastructures (“Alles im Fluss. Die Lebensadern unserer Gesellschaft – Vergangenheit und Zukunft der Infrastruktur” Frankfurt/Main: S. Fischer 2018).

Praise

“From guns to railways to maps, from aeroplanes to Club Med, the machines and techniques of the Europeans have travelled the world leaving neither untouched. This admirably multi-continental book, drawing on materials in many languages, is a veritable Great Exhibition of machines and methods in many very different historical contexts.”

David Edgerton

Hans Rausing Professor of the History of Science and Technology, King’s College London, UK.
“Europeans Globalizing is a wonderful addition to the Making Europe series.Taking the theme of technological circulation seriously, it offers a much needed antidote to diffusionist histories of European technology. The authors offer fresh insights into the diverse character of the technological encounters between Europeans and peoples around the world, and show how, in their words, “technology mediated European influence in the rest of the world, and how this mediation in turn transformed Europeans.” This thought-provoking volume is a must for those interested in the histories of modern globalization.”

Suzanne Moon

Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma, USA, and Editor-in-Chief, Technology and Culture