History

In 1901, a small group of Norwegian immigrants relocated from Minnesota to Eastern Washington. The community grew quickly, with other immigrants coming directly from Norway. The group maintained a strong Norwegian character for several decades; for example, their church continued to hold services in Norwegian until the late 1920’s. Assimilation into American society was evidenced by the names the community members gave to their children, as traditional Norwegian names were quickly replaced by more typically American monikers. This paper examines the extent to which the assignment of forenames represents the assimilation of Washington’s Selbu community into the broader American society around it.

Xiaolin DUAN (North Carolina State University), in Remembering West
Lake: Place, Mobility, and Geographical Knowledge in Ming China, explores
how the information in Song Dynasty gazetteers and journals about Hangzhou
were reproduced, adapted, and disseminated during the Ming, as Hangzhou’s
West Lake became the first sightseeing destination in response to the developing
commercialized tourism. Travels, collective memory and imagery, legends and
literary production contributed to the broadening of geographical knowledge,
because – as the author notes – “temporality-in-place reveals the contrast
between the cyclical time of nature and the linear time of human history.”

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Japanese monks traveled to Hangzhou and spent time around West Lake. At the time, Hangzhou was known for hosting five temples among the imperially recognised "Five Mountains and Ten Monasteries". During their stay in Hangzhou, Japanese monks communicated with local monks and scholars, wrote poems, and observed the monasteries. Diagrams of the Five Mountains and Ten Temples, which details the temples' architecture and furniture styles, was later referred to in constructing the Japanese Buddhist system. At the same time, these monks rendered their sightseeing experience in poems, circulating words about the lake's scenic beauty. Place names around the lake frequently appeared in poetry gatherings, and more poems were composed for paintings about the lake. The lake became a cultural trope within and beyond the Gozan literature, featuring iconic place names, visual culture, and multilayered mobility in real and imagined dimensions. The example of West Lake in Gozan culture offers a case study for cultural appropriation and the role that landscape appreciation can play in this process. Locations were crucial in trans-cultural appropriations. Specific places serve as anchored loci for organising and systemising a developing body of cultural knowledge.

This is part of the dossier “Connecting both Indies: rethinking archaic globalisation and global history from a Pacific perspective: actors, spaces, and exchanges”
Starting  in  1573  with  the  establishment  of  Manila,  the  circulation of Chinese goods along the trans-Pacific route brought the Ming  Dynasty  and  the  Spanish  Empire  into  contact.  Consequently,  many  people  from  Fujian  Province,  especially  Zhangzhou  city,  went  to Manila and facilitated the operation of the city. This paper examines the  interactions  of  Zhangzhou  immigrants  in  Manila,  focusing  their  roles  and  living  situations  in  Parián,  the  designated  neighborhood  for  the Sangleys. In particular, the diplomatic conversation concerning the 1603 Incident is analyzed to elucidate how the Sangleys were perceived by both the Ming court and the Spanish governors. Records produced by Chinese elites, local gazetteers, and Spanish correspondence reveal the  conflicts  and  negotiations  between  the  Ming  government  and officials of the Spanish Empire concerning this matter, as well as local and state differences in views. While the contributions of the Sangleys were  recognized  and  used  to  promote  the  moral  superiority  of  both  sides,  they  were  not  seriously  considered  by  either  the  Chinese  court  or the Spanish government. The Sangleys offer a unique perspective on the positioning of these two state powers: Each desired to maintain a  peaceful  relationship  yet  simultaneously  adopted  a  cautious  stance.  This study illuminates some of the connections and conflicts which emerged during early modern globalization.

West Lake has been a cultural landmark since the twelfth century, when the capital was relocated to Hangzhou and the lake witnessed an increasing number of visits from elites and commoners alike. Since then, the lake has become an icon for China's landscape appreciation, literary and visual creation, and tourism. The scenic beauty of the lake has always been both the result of human enhancement and inspired garden designs. This paper delves into the reciprocal relationship between admiration of West Lake's natural surroundings and the creation of gardens that have collectively reinforced the notion of idealistic nature. First and foremost, the transformation of West Lake into a picturesque place and its development as a leisure destination blurred the boundaries between the natural landscape and cultivated gardens. At the same time, the aesthetics and allure of garden design enriched the lake's scenic grandeur. Privately owned lakeside gardens belonging to noble families added charm and entertainment to the area. Furthermore, West Lake views inspired garden design in other locations. The adoption and dissemination of naming conventions blurred the distinction between gardens and natural landscapes by emphasizing bordered, artistically depicted, and collectively cherished scenic panoramas. These vistas contributed to crafting individual experiences and establishing public spaces, thus fostering a harmonious coexistence between a sense of place and placelessness.

Part of the attempt by European powers to consolidate colonial rule in the wake of the scramble for and partition of Africa was the creation of security instruments designed, inter alia, to curb resistance to the initial European thrust. In the complex and evolving configurations of European alignments and alliances which dominated the last quarter of the nineteenth and first two decades of the twentieth century, the European quest for colonies meant shielding imperial frontiers from competition and guarding colonial interests against penetration by ambitious rivals. While secret and clandestine arrangements were contracted to forestall any attempt at territorial aggrandizement by any one European power, in Africa, military and police forces evolved to serve as the main bulwarks of Empire. 1 In West Africa, in which Britain's territorial holdings exceeded those of many European rivals, a composite formation, the West African Frontier Force (WAFF) was organized. This marked the beginnings of the Sierra Leone Battalion, WAFF, established by ordinance in 1901. Very little attention has however been devoted to the role of the Battalion during the colonial period. Military historians so far have concerned themselves with the origins and development of the establishment from its inception up to 1959 or the attainment of independence, when Sierra Leone assumed control in principle of her armed forces. 2 Consequently, the difficulties encountered by British authorities in delimiting the precise role 2 of the Battalion, as distinct from that of the Sierra Leone Police, have been largely ignored in the literature. The heavy concentration on military combatants and service personnel, focus on the exploits of African recruits in the African theaters of war during the First and Second World Wars, military organization and logistics, mobilization and deployment, have so far failed to establish a historical framework which embraces the relationship between the military and society. This paper sheds light on the efforts made by the colonial authorities to adequately define roles and functions for the Battalion. If the origins of the institution were directly related to the need for contingency, the efforts of the authorities were handicapped by the existence of other security structures such as the Sierra Leone Frontier Police, The West India Regiment, The West African Regiment, different volunteer corps, and a Court Messenger