Date: 2018
Type: Thesis
Fragmented empire : popular imperialism in the Netherlands around the turn of the twentieth century
Florence : European University Institute, 2018, EUI, HEC, PhD Thesis
KUIPERS, Matthijs, Fragmented empire : popular imperialism in the Netherlands around the turn of the twentieth century, Florence : European University Institute, 2018, EUI, HEC, PhD Thesis - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/51970
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
This study examines popular imperial culture in The Netherlands around the turn of the twentieth century. In various and sometimes unexpected places in civil society the empire played a prominent role, and was key in mobilizing people for causes that were directly and indirectly related to the Dutch overseas colonies. At the same time, however, the empire was ostensibly absent from people’s minds. Except for some jingoist outbursts during the Aceh War and the Boer War, indifference seems to be the main attitude with which imperial affairs were greeted. How could the empire simultaneously be present and absent in metropolitan life? Drawing upon the works of scholars from fields ranging from postcolonial studies to Habsburg imperialism, I argue here that indifference to empire was not an anomaly of the idea of an all-permeating imperial culture, but the consequence of imperial ideas that rendered metropole and colony as firmly separated entities. The different groups and individuals that advocated imperial or anti-imperial causes – such as missionaries, former colonials, Indonesian students, and boy scouts – hardly ever related to each other explicitly and had their own distinctive modes of expression, but were nonetheless part of what I call a fragmented empire, and shared the common thread of Dutch imperial ideology. This suggests we should not take this culture’s invisiblity for a lack of strength.
Additional information:
Defence date: 26 February 2018; Examining Board: Prof. Pieter Judson, European University Institute; Prof. Laura Lee Downs, European University Institute; Prof. Remco Raben, Utrecht University; Prof. Elizabeth Buettner, University of Amsterdam
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/51970
Full-text via DOI: 10.2870/734450
Series/Number: EUI; HEC; PhD Thesis
Publisher: European University Institute
LC Subject Heading: Imperialism in popular culture -- Netherlands -- History -- 20th century; Imperialism -- Social aspects -- Netherlands History -- 20th century; Netherlands -- Colonies -- History.
Preceding version: http://hdl.handle.net/1814/51971
Version: Chapter 2 'Culinary colonisation : a cultural history of the rijsttafel in The Netherlands' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article ''Makanlah Nasi! (eat rice!)' : colonial cuisine and popular imperialism in The Netherlands during the twentieth century' (2017) in the journal 'Global food history'