Social History

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Convict labour and penal transportations in the history of 19th and 20th centuries empires

In public memory, the history of convict labour, penal transportations and colonization is mostly associated with a number of historical stereotypes: The origins of modern Australia as a convict colony, or the notorious history of the Soviet Gulags; the forced labour camps in Nazi Germany, and the harsh, but also somewhat romanticized image of French penal colonies as pictured in the novel and film Papillon.…

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Mutiny on the High Seas!

The Age of Revolution Between the 1760s and late 1840s, revolutionary ferment broke out across much of the Atlantic world: erupting in multiple places, spreading inward and outward, moving multi-directionally across Europe, the Americas, and the Caribbean, waves of insurrectionary violence toppled thrones and shattered empires.…

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