Human base on a new planet, aerial view

Astronomers Have Warned against Colonial Practices in the Space Industry

A philosopher of science explains how the industry could explore other planets without exploiting them.
Nature Morte Aux Citrons, 1918 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

When French Citrus Colonized Algeria

The citrus industry in Algeria honed French imperial apparatuses and provided a means for France to define and shape the behavior of its colonial subjects.
Aerial view towards waterfront of Road Town, Tortola

Becoming the British Virgin Islands

Grappling with a history shaped by colonialism, the British Virgin Islands have built a national identity that embraces change while distancing the neighbors.
Children with their Indian nanny at St Ann's Well in the spa town of Buxton, Derbyshire, August 1922.

Ayahs Abroad: Colonial Nannies Cross The Empire

South Asian maids and nannies journeyed to Britain by the thousands in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century with returning colonials.
Delhi Durbar of 1903

The Delhi Durbars

Elaborate demonstrations of British royal ceremony fused with Indian tradition, these assemblies were meant to assert political dominance over Indian subjects.
Prince of Wales, Edward VII with Sir Jung Bahadoor shooting a tiger during a hunting expedition in India,1876

Resisting British Hunters in India

In nineteenth-century India, many locals stood up against British hunting—sometimes at the cost of their own lives—as a means of cultural conservation.
Monrovia, Liberia, 1910

Poland’s Colonial Dreams

With the resurrection of a Polish state in the aftermath of World War I, Poland seriously flirted with colonialism—in Liberia.
Children walk with their surfboards after surfing in Teahupo'o Bay on August 17, 2023 in Teahupo'o, French Polynesia.

Decolonizing the Language of Overseas France

School systems in French Polynesia and New Caledonia are attempting to revitalize vernacular languages that were suppressed under French colonialism.
Painting of Louis Eugène Cavaignac

What Are Colonies For? France and Algeria, 1848

Algeria was a safety valve for the Second Republic: a place to funnel the militant working class to subdue them as colonists and farmers.
A view of the Raffles Hotel, Singapore, between 1920 and 1939

“Microcosms of Empire” in the Colonial Grand Hotel

While Singapore's iconic Raffles Hotel may be marketed as a tranquil throwback to a bygone age, it also reveals the complicated truths of imperialism.