From Herbert Gibson to Don Heriberto: Scottish-Argentine Connections in a Global Age
By Claire C. Arnold In April of 1888 Herbert Gibson made a momentous decision. Writing in his personal diary, he switched from writing in English to writing in Spanish to declare that after seven years in Argentina he had “ceased to be Scottish” and “adopted a new country.” [1] Over the following years, the newly […]
Why You Have (Probably) Never Heard of the Gulf of Fonseca, and What that Means for its Archaeology
Thinking about the media, colonialization, nation-building discourses and their impact on the reconstruction of the precolonial past in Southern Central America. By Marie Kolbenstetter The Gulf of …what? Fair enough – it is not the biggest of Gulfs, and if you have never been to this neck of the woods, or if your research doesn’t have […]
Political Education, Imperialism, and India in Inter-war Britain
By Adrian J. Browne In the world of party schools for political education in inter-war Britain, one of the most dedicated participants was a middle-aged Indian intellectual advancing a very particular agenda. The political pedagogue in question was one of Bengal’s wealthiest land magnates, Sir Bijay Chand Mahtab, the Maharajadhiraja Bahadur of Burdwan. He was […]
Resurgence of Filipino Nationalism: Post-colonial Forces against Foreign Control of the Economy in the Philippines
By Luis Zuriel P. Domingo Recently, the Filipino government’s Congress started its plenary deliberations proposing amendments in what they call the “restrictive” economic provisions of the current 1987 Constitution. President Duterte and his close allies in Congress wish to empower the government through freedom to adopt such measures that will pave way for economic development. […]
Covenanters in Europe and Empire: The Military and Colonial Endeavours of Alexander Shields and Samuel Vetch
By Xiang Wei In a letter to his mother dated 2 February 1700, Alexander Shields (1659/60–1700), a Covenanting Church of Scotland minister, described the Darien colony (Panama) as ‘a remote, but very pleasant Land, and one of the most fruitful spots of the Earth, where God reigns’. The promising picture of ‘the Rising Sun in […]
Trade, Political Economy and Empires, or the Triad that Turned Us into Merchants
By Mattia Steardo Fernand Braudel famously argued that the economy was a tripartite system, in which capitalism was forming the upper layer, the world of rich merchants and bankers well-acquainted with political power. Hence, the central question related to the advent of modern economies was to understand how and when the “capitalist sector”, the one […]
In Search of the First Domino: The Credit Crisis of 1772-1773 in a Global History Perspective
By Patrick van der Geest. @ideesdupasse The credit crisis of 1772-1773 is perhaps the least known financial crisis of the eighteenth century. It took place between two infamous events: the banking crisis of 1763 and the economic turmoil of the American Revolutionary War. Yet it is just as, if not more, historically significant, because it […]
The city of Lucknow and the Partition of India
By Parul Srivastava “…but I am not an important person, why do you want to record my experience? Who will want to listen to my experience when my children have never cared to ask me about how I came to India from Karachi, Pakistan…”?[1] – An interviewee’s words when I explained why I wanted to […]
Politics and Problem Formation: Why Do We Talk About Climate Change the Way We Do?
By Isha Sharma The ongoing ecological crisis, mainly in the form of climate change presents two crucial challenges for global public policy: to enable cooperation among countries to deal with its impacts and to bring about a global shift towards sustainable development. Both challenges arise from the acknowledgment of climate change as an issue that […]
(Anti)Economics of Slavery: Adam Smith on the Productivity and Profitability of Slave-Labor in American Colonies
By Ana Londe Silva (anapls@cedeplar.ufmg.br) “The experience of all ages and nations, I believe, demonstrates that the work done by slaves, though it appears to cost only their maintenance, is in the end the dearest of any”.[1] Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (1776) Ancient Greece and Rome, feudal Western Europe, and 18th-century American […]
Fighting Apartheid Locally: Southern African Solidarity Activism in Chicago
Feature Image: Soweto Day Walkathon in Chicago, June 16, 1988. Link: https://africanactivist.msu.edu/image.php?objectid=210-809-1121 (permission granted by Joan Gerig) By Zeb Larson Studies of the anti-apartheid movement have proliferated over the past few years, owed in no small part to greater archival access as well as the legacy of the movement today.[1] The anti-apartheid movement in the […]
Socialism(s) in Global History: Decolonisation, Internationalism, and Development in the Mid-Twentieth Century
By Tom Shillam As Christopher Lee has written, decolonisation in the mid-twentieth century constituted ‘a complex dialectical intersection of competing views and claims over colonial pasts, transitional presents, and inchoate futures’ as much as ‘a linear, diplomatic transfer of power’.[1] This is also an observation which scholars of the transnational cultural and intellectual histories of […]
Welcome to the Scottish Centre for Global History
The Scottish Centre for Global History is a research centre and public history space for post-graduates and academics from around the world to share their ideas and research in Global History.
Through our Global History Blog and Podcast, our platform focuses on the development of global history; the democratisation of the field; and stimulating debate. Additionally, our Global History Resources provide researchers with a variety of resources to aid their research, such as our repository of online archives and databases.
We are flexible in how contributors would like to approach any potential project with us, for more information see our Write For Us and Podcast pages.