World History Bulletin Fall 2016 Vol XXXII No. 2 World History Association Denis Gainty Editor [email protected] Editor’s Note From the Executive Director 1 Letter from the President 2 Special Section: The World and The Sea Introduction: The Sea in World History 4 Michael Laver (Rochester Institute of Technology) From World War to World Law: Elisabeth Mann Borgese and the Law of the Sea 5 Richard Samuel Deese (Boston University) The Spanish Empire and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans: Imperial Highways in a Polycentric Monarchy 9 Eva Maria Mehl (University of North Carolina Wilmington) Restoring Seas 14 Malcolm Campbell (University of Auckland) Ship Symbolism in the ‘Arabic Cosmopolis’: Reading Kunjayin Musliyar’s “Kappapattu” in 18th Century Malabar 17 Shaheen Kelachan Thodika (Jawaharlal Nehru University) The Panopticon Comes Full Circle? 25 Sarah Schneewind (University of California San Diego) Book Review 29 Abeer Saha (University of Virginia) practical ideas for the classroom; she intro- duces her course on French colonialism in Domesticating the “Queen of Haiti, Algeria, and Vietnam, and explains how Beans”: How Old Regime France aseemingly esoteric topic like the French empirecan appear profoundly relevant to stu- Learned to Love Coffee* dents in Southern California. Michael G. Vann’sessay turns our attention to the twenti- Julia Landweber eth century and to Indochina. He argues that Montclair State University both French historians and world historians would benefit from agreater attention to Many goods which students today think of Vietnamese history,and that this history is an as quintessentially European or “Western” ideal means for teaching students about cru- began commercial life in Africa and Asia. cial world history processes, from the opium This essay addresses coffee as aprime trade to the First World War. example of such acommodity,with the goal The final two essays, from two of the most of demonstrating how the history of its eminent historians working in French colonial studies, show how insights drawn from French adoption by one European country,France, cases can help complicate our understanding played asignificant role in world history of the dynamics of world history.Tyler Stovall during the period between 1650 and 1800. links African-American history with the history Coffee today is second-most valuable com- of French de-colonization by focusing on afor- modity in the world, ranking only behind gotten novel, William Gardner Smith’s The oil.1 With Latin America producing over half Stone Face (1963). In arich exploration of this the global coffee supply,most consumers are text, Stovall nuances our understanding of unaware that for centuries coffee was found national identity,diaspora, and racial injus- only in the highlands of Ethiopia and the tice. Most importantly,Stovall’sanalysis mountains of Yemen, or that France was an places the history of Algeria’sstruggle for instrumental founder of the global coffee independence and the American Civil Rights economy.Other than possibly knowing that movements in the same global context. Julia the French invented the café, few students Clancy-Smith recounts the fascinating life of know anything of how an Arab and Ottoman one of her mentors, the French anthropologist drink became aquintessential part of French Germaine Tillion. By analyzing Tillion’sbiog- culture, and abasic commodity of modern raphy as well as her writings, Clancy-Smith life. Integrating coffee into the world history offers new insights on migration, gender,colo- classroom offers an appealing way to teach nialism, and the state; she also reveals the ben- efits to world historians of occasionally mov- students why case studies drawn from ing away from amacroangle to focus on indi- French history have value in the larger nar- vidual lives. ratives about world history. It has been apleasuretoedit this volume Coffee became “French” in two senses and we hope that the Bulletin’s readers, what- between 1650 and 1800: initially as adrink, ever their specialty,will enjoy this rich collec- it gained adomestic element by pairing with tion of essays. We hope that these contributions locally-produced milk; later as acommodity, will not only encourage greater usage of exam- it achieved aquasi-French identity after cof- ples drawn from the French case, but also spur fee plantations were formed in French over- further reflection on the relationship between seas colonies, and French merchants wrested the national and the global. Through integrat- control of the global coffee trade. Coffee ing the fields of French and World History in simultaneously (if contradictorily) benefit- our teaching and our research, we can make ted from its exotic Arabian and Turkish asso- myriad French connections. ciations in acultural era marked in France by successive waves of turquerie,orfascination with Turkish imagery.Athird important Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall component to coffee’sadoption into French California State University –San Marcos food-ways and culture is the café [as men- tioned above]. Coffee gave its name to this and institution, afavorite destination philosophers who did Southeast World History Association to make coffee preferableDEPARTMENT to wine OF HISTORY sewha.org / An Affiliate of the World History Association middling and intellectualCollege classes. of Arts and Sciences P.O. Box 4117 to space constraints, theAtlanta, present GA 30302-4117 on the firstPhone: two issues 404/413-6385 the history of coffee’Fax:sa doption 404/413-6384 gsu.edu/history Editor’s Note: We are pleased to present in the Fall issue of the World History Bulletin a special section on the sea, broadly conceived, in world history. This section, guest-edited by Michael Laver, includes essays that explore human encounters and exchanges both within and through the context of oceans, seas, and other bodies of water. These contributions, fittingly, cover a broad spectrum of time and place, challenging our sense of how the waters of the earth have connected and constrained human behavior even as they suggest and support new directions in world historiography. I am grateful to Michael and all contributors for their interesting work, and to Sarah Schneewind for her thought-provoking essay on Bentham’s Panopticon and Imperial China. As always, the Bulletin seeks to publish “short-form” essays on all aspects of historical scholarship including pedagogy, research, and theory. Topics may include any period or geographic focus in history, and pedagogical materials such as syllabi or assignments are welcome, as are reviews of books or other scholarly works. Historians and disciplinarily allied scholars interested in guest-editing a selection of essays on a particular theme are strongly encouraged to contact me at [email protected]. With warm best wishes, Denis Gainty World History Bulletin ISSN: 0886-117X © 2016 World History Association Managing Editor: Denis Gainty (Georgia State University) Student Assistant: Lashonda Slaughter-Wilson Editorial Board: Michelle Brattain (Georgia State University) Jared Poley (Georgia State University) Sarah Hamilton (Auburn University) Sungshin Kim (University of North Georgia) Jonathan Grant (Florida State University) The World History Bulletin is edited by the Southeast World History Association, which is housed in the History Department of Georgia State University. From the Executive Director Being a Massachusetts native, I eagerly await The following three awards require applications that this particular theme in the World History Bulletin are due by March 15, 2017: World Scholar Fund, (WHB), the sea and the world. In New England, the William H. McNeill Teacher Scholarship and the sea is particularly meaningful. Just a month ago, Conference Registration Fee Waivers (multiple I boarded the ferry and visited Martha’s Vineyard, waivers distributed). Specific information about these which has a rich history connected with the water. awards can be found on the WHA website, under the Long before US presidents vacationed at this spot and drop-down menu entitled “awards.” Since we aim Hollywood types flocked here to enjoy the water, the to support the greatest number of scholars possible, Vineyard had a long history, which is associated with applicants who are awardees must not have received the sea, most notably its connection to the whaling WHA awards in prior years. industry. Moving into our third year at home in the This fall, there is so much happening in the History Department of Northeastern University, World History Association office. We are currently we are fortunate to have another talented graduate starting the full nominations process for 2017, which student join our team for 2016-2017. Bridget Keown will nearly be complete when this WHB is published. graduated cum laude with a degree in History and The Call for Papers (CFPs) announcement has gone Russian Literature and Language from Smith College. out for our 2017 annual conference here in Boston She received her Master’s Degree in Imperial and with a deadline date of November 30, 2016. We Commonwealth History from King’s College, look forward to reviewing these CFPs, whether they London. She is currently a fourth-year doctoral are closely linked to our conference themes, “The candidate at Northeastern. Her dissertation, which is Atlantic World” and “Food in World History” or in provisionally titled “’She is lost to time and place’: another genre, which offers a diversity of sessions Women, War Trauma, and the History of the First for participants. To continue with our efforts toward World War,” studies reports of war trauma from complete financial stability, for the second year we women at the battlefront and the home front in order are conducting the WHA Giving Tuesday campaign. to tell a more inclusive story about total war, as well In 2016, Giving Tuesday falls on November 29. It’s as to challenged the gendered assumptions about war the perfect time of year to consider a donation. This trauma. comes with the added benefit that a percentage of all Bridget also brings many years’ experience gifts we receive goes to a charity that assists those in research, public service, and administrative work.