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Asia

Painting of The Batavia Castle seen from the Kali Besar West
Teaching

Short Teaching Module: Spatial Histories of Law, Race and Empire

Law is not only to be found in doctrine and documents, but also in structures and materials, in buildings and in cloth, in paintings and in photos.

Photograph of the landraad in Pati in 1865
Source

The landraad in Pati

This is a photo of a mixed colonial law court, the landraad, in Pati, a town located on the island of Java, now part of Indonesia. The photo was made by the British photographers Woodbury & Page on the request of the bupati (regent) Raden Adipati Ario Tjondro Adhi Negoro.

Painting of The Batavia Castle seen from the Kali Besar West
Source

The Batavia Castle

Seventeenth-century market in the city Batavia (nowadays Jakarta, Indonesia), the central node of Dutch imperial activities in the Indian Ocean region. The Batavia Castle is visible in the background and to its right the Council of Justice with the gallows and whipping post in front of it.

Inset of Prester John from larger world map. Shows a man sitting in front of a tent.
Teaching

Short Teaching Module: Examining Early Genoese Voyages through Maps

The medieval Genoese ranged from China to the Atlantic, and their experience in navigation, the sugar industry, and the slave trade were the elemental foundation of Iberian colonial expansion.

Map with network lines radiating from fixed points
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Nautical Chart, 1385

This nautical chart is signed by Majorcan cartographer Guglielmo Soler and dated to 1385, and ranges from the Black Sea to the Atlantic. Less beautiful than the Catalan map, it was also more practical for navigators to use.

Cartoon of a giant man wearing a kilt and a turban straddling two land masses separated by water
Teaching

Short Teaching Module: Making Empire Global - British Imperialism in India, 1750-1800

The study of world history has often overlapped with scholarship on empire and imperialism.

Front page of Hicky's Bengal Gazette Newspaper
Source

Hicky's Bengal Gazette

Hicky’s Bengal Gazette was the first printed newspaper to be published in India.

Cartoon depicts a tug of war over a pie.
Source

Cartoon Depicts Debate at Hasting's Impeachment Trial, 1788

Printed in London in 1788, this satirical print was a response to the debate unleashed by the impeachment trial of Warren Hastings, the former and first Governor General of India, as well as the impeachment proceedings initiated against Elijah Impey, the former and first Chief Justice of the Supr

Cartoon of a giant man wearing a kilt and a turban straddling two land masses separated by water
Source

Cartoon Mocking British Policy toward India, 1788

This satirical print from 1788 constituted a cartoonist’s effort to make sense of and criticize growing governmental control over territories in South Asia.

Photo of girls dressed as Indian women. Description in annotation below.
Source

Photograph of “Indian Tableaux at Endon”

This photograph, which was originally published in the G.F.S. Magazine in September 1923, is from a tableau performed by members of the Girls’ Friendly Society (GFS), which was a youth organization akin to the more popular Girl Guides.