2022/01/07 by Kim Sebastian Todzi · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Colonialism, slavery, and trade #Global Maritime and Colonial Histories #Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis
paper · doi:10.1093/gerhis/ghac003
openalex publication_date 2022/01/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Interest in maritime history as a topic of global history studies has continued unabated for several years. This (re)discovery of the seas by historians as spaces of interaction in an increasingly interconnected world can be explained by the rise of global history on the one hand and the continuing importance of maritime globalization processes on the other: shipping is still the backbone of economic globalization. As the United Nations review of maritime transport tells us, more than 80 per cent of the world’s trade volume is still transported by sea today. Bert Becker examines the connection between maritime globalization, imperial competition and colonial rule based on four German and French companies. His study aims to demonstrate how the business history of multinational companies in particular is suited to the in-depth analysis of processes of imperial globalization. Although state territoriality and capitalism represent two different modes of rule, it is the...