Ronald Kroeze - Corruption, Empire and Colonialism in the Modern Era: A Global Perspective

This series proposes a new geography of Global History research using Asian and Western sources, welcoming quality research and engaging outstanding scholarship from China, Europe and the Americas. Promoting academic excellence and critical intellectual analysis, it offers a rich source of global history research in sub-continental areas of Europe, Asia (notably China, Japan and the Philippines) and the Americas and aims to help understand the divergences and convergences between East and West.

Advisory Board

Patrick OBrien (London School of Economics)

Anne McCants (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Joe McDermott (University of Cambridge)

Pat Manning (Pittsburgh University)

Mihoko Oka (University of Tokyo)

Richard Von Glahn (University of California, Los Angeles)

Bartolom Yun-Casalilla (Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla)

Shigeru Akita (Osaka University)

Franois Gipouloux (CNRS/FMSH)

Carlos Marichal (Colegio de Mexico)

Leonard Blusse (Leiden University)

Antonio Ibarra Romero (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, UNAM)

Giorgio Riello (University of Warwick)

Nakajima Gakusho (Kyushu University)

Liu Beicheng (Tsinghua University)

Li Qingxin (Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences)

Dennis O. Flynn (University of the Pacific)

J. B. Owens (Idaho State University)

More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15711

Chapters 1, 5 and 7 are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). For further details see license information in the chapters

Cover credit: Arxiu Histric de la Ciutat de Barcelona

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Retrospectively, the idea behind this volume developed over the years as we discussed the history of corruption, often in the rooms and corridors of conference venues that were organised as part of the different research projects we participated in. It became apparent to us that the topic of corruption in the context of colonial empires deserved more of our attention. To more systematically explore the topic and discuss it, also with scholars from outside our own networks, we organised the conference The Corrupt Colony? Empire, Colonialism and Corruption 1800present, which was held at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam on January 22, 2019. At that conference, draft papers were discussed and explored that would form an important step towards the realisation of this volume. In the months thereafter, all contributors reworked their texts and a draft manuscript was sent to the publisher in the autumn of 2019. A second round of revisions followed based on the comments of anonymous external reviewers, as well as the editors of the Palgrave Studies in Comparative Global History.

After a final round of textual fine-tuning, the volume was ready for publication. We would not have come this far without the support of those that helped, inspired and advised us along the way, leading to the eventual publication of this volume. Therefore, we like to express our gratitude to different institutes and persons. Financial support from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Avignon University, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and Clue+, the Research Institute for History and Heritage of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, enabled us to organise the conference and to publish several contributions as open access. Moreover, we are grateful to all of the contributors, discussants and listeners who attended the conference in Amsterdam, to the members of the international network Politics and Corruption: History and Sociology, to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful remarks and for the advice of our colleagues at the various institutes we were affiliated with over the past few years. We would also like to thank Bel Parnell-Berry for editing the final texts, Palgrave and Connie Li for smoothening the process of publication, as well as Manuel Perez-Garcia and Luis de Sousa, the editors of the Palgrave Studies in Comparative Global History, whose enthusiasm for this volume from an early stage was a very important stimulant to continue our efforts.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Barcelona, Spain

Avignon, France

August 2020