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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 04/10/2025

I include some excellent excerpts of Asian women challenging European imperialism

Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 26/07/2025

This first post includes lots of maps and two 10th-century primary source excerpts describing Swahili Coast trade. One is by Coast. Buzurg ibn Shahriyar.

Because the land had trade goods, … such as ivory, tortoise-shell, panther skins, and ambergris, and because they [Arab and Persian traders] wanted to obtain Zanj [slaves], … they could not take it because the town is surrounded by a strong wall and an estuary, in the middle of which Qanbalu is like a castle.

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 15/01/2025

For example, Punjabi artist Pran Nath Margo’s painted Farewell in 1945. It shows Indian soldiers leaving for war on a train (something captured in photos and paintings all over the world) but also includes a distinctly Indian practice.

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 10/01/2025

The British, Dutch, French, & Spanish all depended on revenue from opium to finance their colonies in Southeast Asia in the late 19th century

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 10/01/2025

Opium production and exports expanded dramatically in Qatar Persia and Ottoman Anatolia in the second half of the 19th century. Persians even supported free trade!

Quote: “The object of the Persian merchants in being able to transport opium from Persia to China via Bombay is simply the freedom of trade in opium as in other articles... In consideration of the above circumstances, if His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor General in Council will be pleased to pass an order for the transshipment of Persian opium to China via Bombay, it will undoubtedly be advantageous to the British Government, and the Persian Merchants will also enjoy the advantage of freedom in their trade.”

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 02/12/2024

And here's a little preview of why we want to use Afroeurasia

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 18/11/2024

Or we can focus on how Europeans developed infrastructure to economically exploit Africa by extracting resources.

Map showing railway lines in Africa and the resources Europeans extracted from Africa by 1935.

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 18/11/2024

When teaching European colonization of Africa, the maps we use can tell different stories. Too often, the story is about which European states conquered which parts of Africa. But what if we focus on how often and where Africans revolted against Europeans? The map below shows LOTS of uprisings. 🗺️🗃️

Map showing major uprisings by Africans against Europeans from 1880 to 1935.

Map showing which Europeans colonized which parts of Africa in 1910.

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 16/11/2024

For the next month, I’ll focus on teaching global migration in world history. Here’s a good map to get you thinking

Map of late 19th/early 20th century global migration. Source: A History of World Societies

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 14/11/2024

One easy way to teach the impact of the Haitian Revolution on the Atlantic world is w/ this map showing just some of uprisings by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean from 1791 (start of the HR) to 1848. 🗺️🗃️ #haitianrevolution

Map of uprisings by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean from 1791 to 1848. Source: The Map Archive.

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 30/10/2024

And you can use this fun illustration by Mákina de Cuzcuz!

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 30/10/2024

When teaching decolonization, I have students read excerpts from Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth. It helps them understand why many colonized people turned to violence to win their freedom. 🗺️🗃️

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 29/10/2024

When teaching imperialism, I always prefer to have the people being colonized describe what is happening rather than the colonizers. One of my favorite sources for teaching the British colonization of India is Amrita Lal Roy, a Bengali. 🗺️🗃️

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 27/10/2024

One of my favorite resources to use when teaching the transatlantic slave system is Belinda Sutton's 1783 petition to the Massachusetts General Court. After her former enslaver fled, she asked for a pension. She also described her experience as an enslaved woman. 🗺️🗃️ (🧵1/2)

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 26/09/2024

Excited to be leading an important workshop with @mrshistorylee.bsky.social & Eric Beckman at NCSS in Boston We need to highlight more Black, Indigenous, and female voices in the Age of Revolutions 🗃️ 🗺️

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 24/09/2024

Colonized peoples sometimes revolted (as on previous map) and more often they resisted subtlely using cartoons that criticized Europeans

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 24/09/2024

5. Highlight the persistence of resistance There were lots of uprisings!

Map showing anticolonial uprisings from 1880 to 1920

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 24/09/2024

Europeans frequently staged photos to make colonized people seem primitive. Many European cartoons about imperialism are racist.

Illustration showing European photographers staging a photograph in Vietnam.

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 24/09/2024

3. Be Careful Using Images Here’s a postcard from French Senegal (c.1905)

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 24/09/2024

Focus on students understanding the causes of imperialism A good cartoon can show students that nationalism and greed caused imperialism

Cartoon showing Britain, Germany, and Russia picking colonies for their “grab bags”

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 24/09/2024

2. Fewer conquest, more causes Students don’t need to color in maps of colonies.

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 24/09/2024

1. Begin with New Imperialism (c.1860 - c.1940). Late nineteenth century European empires differed from older empires, such as the Roman, Chinese, or Mongols. New Imperialism was “more extensive” and “more intensive.”

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 24/09/2024

5 Tips For Teaching Imperialism A Thread 🗺️ 🗃️

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 18/09/2024

Hi folks. I’m currently traveling in the Balkans planning a study tour for history educators for next summer in July. It would focus on the Balkans as a crossroads of world history and visit Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia. I’m wondering who would be interested. 🗺️🗃️

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 23/01/2024

A lot of us teach about Ibn Battuta & Marco Polo, but what about Benjamin of Tudela? He was a 12th century Jewish traveler who about Jewish communities in Afroeurasia. Learn more about how to use him in the classroom www.liberatingnarratives.com/a-comm…

Map of Benjamin of Tudela’s travels in the 12th century.

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 23/01/2024

I visited the church in Kochi where Vasco da Gama was first buried in 1524. Da Gama was the first European to sail directly from Europe to India. He also was a violent psychopath who introduced armed trading to the Indian Ocean. 🗺️🗃️

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 18/12/2023

By the 17th century, Mughal rulers loved their jewelry. Here’s Shah Jahan admiring an emerald. That emerald most likely came from the Americas, and European brought it to India.

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 18/12/2023

In the bottom left corner (far away from Shah Jahan and behind a railing) are Europeans bringing gifts of jewelry. You can compare the plain clothing of the European to the more ornate clothing of the Mughals. The Mughals in the top row also wear pearls.

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 18/12/2023

Mughal paintings can tell us a lot about the concerns of the Mughal rulers and the relative weakness of Europeans in India in the 17th century. In this painting, Shah Jahan holds court. He’s at the center & lots of Mughal elites around him. 🗃️

Painting showing Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan holding court

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 16/12/2023

The first poster I hung in every classroom I taught. Students rarely understand how large Africa is. You can buy copies at www.bu.edu/africa/outre... 🗂️

Map called "How Big is Africa?" It shows how Europe, the United States, and China all fit within Africa.

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 15/12/2023

But other sources suggest the continued importance of indigenous merchants and traders. In this painting we can see a Portuguese merchant (black hat, lower right) going to a Gujarati money changer.

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 15/12/2023

Maps can give the impression that the Portuguese arrival in the Indian Ocean completely transformed how exchange worked, but that wasn’t the case. 🗃️

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 11/12/2023

How can we use maps to tell a more nuanced story of European colonialism in Africa? Typically, we get maps showing which European states colonized which parts of Africa. But we can also show how Europeans economically exploited Africa by extracting resources. We also can show how Africans resisted.

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 08/12/2023

A 1921 French Communist Party flyer attacking imperialism

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 08/12/2023

From an anti-imperialist magazine in Mexico City in 1925

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 08/12/2023

I wrote about how we can teach International Anticolonialism in the 20s and & 30s this week. There's lots of great visuals included in this post. #decolonizehistory

A cartoon from 1930s showing solidarity between workers and colonial soldiers as they on the imperialist in a top hat

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 29/11/2023

Gandhi on European imperialism and non-cooperation in 1920 Learn more at www.liberatingnarratives.com/expose…

Text Shot: England through her leaders is insolently crushing Indian religious and national sentiment under her heels. England, under the false plea of self-determination, is trying to exploit the oil fields of Mesopotamia which she is almost to leave, because she has probably no choice. France through her leaders is lending her name to training Cannibals as soldiers, and is shamelessly betraying her trust as a mandatory power by trying to kill the spirit of the Syrians. President Wilson has thrown on the scrap heap his precious fourteen points. It is this combination of evil forces, which India is really fighting through non-violent Non-co-operation

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 16/11/2023

Even before decolonization, Africans and Asians regularly resisted European imperialism. This map highlights SOME of the the uprisings.

Map of some anticolonialism uprisings in Africa and Asia around 1900

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 09/11/2023

There are lots of great resources to help teach students about women and the peace movement during the war. Emma Goldman was another woman who challenged the war, but focused more on how the war benefitted military corporations and elites.

An excerpt from Emma Goldman criticizing businesses and elites that profit from the war.

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 09/11/2023

Too often the story about women in the First World War is about how they supported the war effort, but lots of women actively resisted and challenged the war. These two images capture these contrasting narratives #worldhistory

American propaganda poster from the First World War suggesting all women supported the war.

Women protestors displaying a peace banner during the First World War.

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 03/10/2023

To celebrate one year of Liberating Narratives as a newsletter, I’m now offering bimonthly free workshops for all teachers! The first one is next week. zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Poster for workshop on teaching the transatlantic slave system

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 19/09/2023

Or what about how Cuba’s sugar plantation adapted steam-powered mills in the nineteenth century?

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Liberating Narratives @liberatingnarratives.com · 19/09/2023

How do you teach the Industrial Revolution? Do you focus only on Britain & Europe or do you integrate the rest of the world? For example, how did Chinese mass production & plantations in the Americas contribute to Britain’s industrialization? #worldhistory #decolonizehistory

Water wheel attached to sugar mill in the Americas

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