During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln’s administration engaged in protracted negotiations with representatives of the Netherlands to aid in the voluntarily colonization of free African Americans to Suriname. Scores of diplomatic letters in Dutch, English, and French, dating to the period 1862 to 1866 attest to the very real possibility that such a migration stream could have become a reality. They also indicate reasons why this scheme failed: it was bogged down by differe...

How Muslims in Indonesia consider their religious practices, politics and culture as Islamic is described in this volume. By examining the various ways Bima Muslims constitute their Islamic identities and agencies through rituals and festivals, this book argues that religious practice is still vigorous in present Bima. It explores the reproduction of religious meanings among various local Muslims and the differences between social groups. Islam is represented as divided between the traditiona...

This book provides a fresh reinterpretation of the global spread of modern leisure travel in the middle of the nineteenth century through a critical comparative reading of twenty-two works of popular travel writing from maritime Southeast Asia and Ceylon. The examination of these books reveals a coherent genre that was seemingly frivolous yet in fact intensely political, with shared rules and tropes that served to legitimise colonial rule and codify aspects of colonial culture in the popular ...

For almost half a century, NATO’s armies deterred a Soviet attack on Western Europe. Today, they once again provide a check on Russia's revanchist agenda. As in the Cold War, if Russia’s aggression escalates to armed conflict, the Alliance’s armies will likely bear the brunt of the fighting. Thus, a study of the national armies that comprised NATO during the Cold War has both historical and current relevance.

Each chapter offers an analysis of how the respective constituent NATO army ...

In 2006 Leiden University has initiated a series Leiden Dissertations at Leiden University Press. This series affords an opportunity to those who have recently obtained their doctorate to publish the results of their doctoral research so as to ensure a wide distribution among colleagues and the interested public. The dissertations will become available both in printed and in digital versions. Books from this LUP series can be ordered through www.lup.nl.

The large majority of Leiden dissertati...

Sinds de jaren '90 is er in Taiwan sprake van een groeiend bewustzijn over het koloniale verleden. Dit uit zich in een flinke toename van het aantal musea en beschermd cultureel erfgoed. Samen met het oorspronkeljike Taiwanese erfgoed vormen ze een nieuwe politieke, culturele en economische richting. Met andere woorden, de voormalig koloniale locaties werden een bestanddeel van de nieuwe identiteit en cultuur van het postkoloniale Taiwan van de jaren 1990-2000.

Aan de hand van vijf locaties u...

This book is intended for Chinese Studies majors, China-focused students in other fields, heritage learners, and professionals. It will help improve vocabulary and grammar competence, and foster reading strategies and writing and translation skills, for use in academic and professional settings.

Paint Feet on a Snake

*is available in full-form and simplified character editions

*is aimed at learners of Mandarin with a command of about 850 characters and 1200 vocabulary items

*is suitable for...

This work analyzes ritual practices and knowledge related to the Mesoamerican calendar with the aim of contributing to the understanding of the use and conceptualization of this calendar system in the contemporary K'iche' community of Momostenango, in the Highlands of Guatemala. The research presented here discusses the indigenous calendar system, forms of synergy between the Christian and the Highland Guatemalan calendar, the indigenous perception of history and continuity in time-related sy...

The creation of new capital cities are watershed moments in the lives of ancient empires. Assyria, arguably the most successful imperial state of the ancient Near East, repeatedly engaged in capital creation. Capital creation denotes the development of a monumental capital, either in a new location or through the profound transformation of a pre-existing settlement. This volume focusses on the rationale, construction, and function of the imperial capitals of Assyria: Kār-Tukultī-Ninurta, Ka...