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Africa

Ship Plan of a Late-19th Century Steamship
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Ship Plan of a Late-19th Century Steamship

This ship plan from the late-19th century offers a partial view of spatial arrangements within a Messageries steamship.

Shipping Company Route Map from 1889
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Shipping Company Route Map from 1889

This route-map of the Messageries Maritimes shipping company displays the main routes connecting metropolitan France to its empire in the Indo-Pacific. While the map dates to 1889, these routes retained their basic structure through the 1950s.

A image of a kasai velvet textile, woven in a diamond pattern in cream and black
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Kasai Velvet, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Despite its name, Kasai velvet, or velours du kasai, is not actually a velvet.

Thumbnail of a propaganda poster that features a black man dressed in robes holding up a gun against a backdrop of flames
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“Drive the old and new colonialists out of Africa!” Propaganda Poster, 1964

This Chinese propaganda poster, dated August 1964, was designed by Chinese painters Wang Datong and Du Yongqiao and published by the People’s Fine Arts Publishing House in Beijing.

1844 Business contract between Richard P. Waters and his Omani-Zanzibari trading partner, Esau bin Abdul Rahman
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Business contract between Richard P. Waters and his Omani-Zanzibari trading partner, Esau bin Abdul Rahman

This contract represents how business was typically transacted in Zanzibar and throughout the Omani Empire.

First page of a letter from President Andrew Jackson to the Senate in 1834 on the expansion of US trade.
Teaching

Short Teaching Unit: The Omani Empire and the Center of the Emerging Global Economy, 1500-1850

This essay pushes back against European-dominated narratives of world history to suggest that the Omani Empire was a crucial space for the emergence of our present-day system of global capitalism.

First page of a letter from President Andrew Jackson to the Senate in 1834 on the expansion of US trade.
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A letter from U.S. President Andrew Jackson to the Senate Dated Washington, May 30, 1834

A letter from President Andrew Jackson to the Senate where the President discusses the possibility of extending US trade. Jackson was particularly interested in the potential trade connections with areas around the Indian Ocean. 

Large spreadsheet documenting each foreign vessel that arrived in the port of Zanzibar which kept track of things such as the origin, size, and cargo of each visiting ship.
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List of Foreign Arrivals in the Port of Zanzibar from the 16th September 1832 to 26th May 1835

This is an ostensibly mundane document that contains a tremendous amount of information for interpreting the global dynamics of this period of history, all while peering out into the world from the tiny island of Zanzibar.

Image of newspaper. Transcription in folder.
Teaching

Short Teaching Module: Music and Decolonization in the Black Atlantic

The decades after World War II witnessed rapid decolonization of European empires and a dramatic increase in independence movements for colonized peoples.

Album cover shows people marching on the left. On the right is the shape of Ghana with the colors of the Ghana flag. Text below it reads "United We Build a Strong Nation".
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Lord Kitchener, “Birth of Ghana,” 1957

On March 6, 1957, the Gold Coast Colony declared its independence from Britain and became Ghana, the first West African nation to break from European colonial rule.