Empires stretched around the world, but also made their presence felt in architecture and urban landscapes. The Architecture of Empire in Modern Europe traces the entanglement of the European built environment with overseas imperialism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As part of imperial networks between metropole and colonies, in cities as diverse as Glasgow, Hamburg, or Paris, numerous new buildings were erected such as factories, mission houses, offices, and museums. These sites developed into the physical manifestations of imperial networks. As Europeans designed, used, and portrayed them, these buildings became meaningful imperial places that conveyed the power relations of empire and Eurocentric self-images. Engaging with recent debates about colonial history and heritage, this book combines a variety of sources, an interdisciplinary approach, and an international scope to produce a cultural history of European imperial architecture across borders.
Miel Groten is a historian of modern colonial history, whose research areas include imperialism’s impact on European countries, its relation to architecture, and the role of transnational entanglements. He has previously worked as researcher and lecturer at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and as Johan Huizinga Fellow at the Rijksmuseum.
List of figures, Abbreviations, Introduction. The places of empire, Chapter 1. Gates to the 'heathen world', Part I. Mission houses, religion, and the civilising mission, Part II. The Missionshaus in Basel, Chapter 2. Imperial cities, imperial citizens, Part I. Imperial identities in government- and public buildings, Part II. The City Chambers in Glasgow, Chapter 3. The cultural effects of economic entanglements, Part I. Factories and industries in imperial culture, Part II. The rice mills in the Zaan region, Chapter 4. Business palaces to rule the waves, Part I. Maritime ambitions in shipping line offices, Part II. The HAPAG head office in Hamburg, Chapter 5. Propaganda and science in imperial museums, Part I. Ethnographic and colonial museums, Part II. The Musée des Colonies in Paris, Conclusion, Figures, Bibliography, Index.
This is a good and, in many respects, trailblazing book. It is full of astute and insightful analysis, by an author who has clearly done a great deal of research. Therefore, what we do get is scholarly and authoritative, written in clear and lucid prose. -G. A. Bremner, Fabrications, issue 3, 2024