The Archaeology of Colonial Fortifications, livre ebook

A global exploration of the many ways forts served as instruments of conquest and spaces of cultural exchange

European colonial fortifications were built to advance imperial ambitions and appropriate Native lands, yet their roles varied in different contexts based on factors such as environmental conditions, competition with rivals, and relations with Indigenous groups. This volume examines and compares forts constructed by Spanish, French, British, Portuguese, Dutch, and Russian empires across four continents from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries.

Drawing on archaeological and documentary evidence, contributors explore how forts shaped colonial processes and the local landscape, emerging as a nexus of intersecting identities and a catalyst for social and political anxieties. They show that forts were meeting places for diverse ethnic and cultural groups as Europeans relied on local knowledge to navigate unfamiliar settings. Chapters also trace how forts have been represented and memorialized, from historical depictions to modern commemorations. These comparative studies of the lived experiences of colonizers and Indigenous peoples at fort sites demonstrate the many topics, themes, and issues informed by this heritage.

List of Figures

List of Tables

Foreword

Introduction: The Archaeology of Colonial Fortifications
Michael S. Nassaney and Sergio Escribano-Ruiz

Part 1. The Landscapes of Colonial Fortifications

Chapter 1. European Colonial Forts in Maritime Southeast Asia
María Cruz Berrocal and Adrián García Rojo

Chapter 2. “On the Same River Where the Dutch Have Built a Wretched Redoubt”: Space, Place, and the Creation of the Southern Border of New France through the Lake Champlain–Richelieu River Valley
Andrew R. Beaupré

Chapter 3. British Empire on the North American Frontier: Fort Miamis in the Ohio Territory, 1794–1796
Robert C. Chidester

Chapter 4. Fort Ouiatenon: Eighteenth-Century Cultural Entanglement on the Wabash River
Michael Strezewski

Chapter 5. Indigeneity of Fur Trade Forts in the North American Pacific Northwest
Douglas C. Wilson

Part 2. Colonial Fortifications, Identities, and Anxieties

Chapter 6. “Especially in This Present Danger and Fear”: Entanglement and Anxiety at St. Mary’s Fort, Maryland
Travis G. Parno

Chapter 7. “This Distant and Isolated Post”: Fort Tombecbé in the Eighteenth-Century Gulf South
Ashley A. Dumas and Michael S. Nassaney

Chapter 8. Labor and Ethnicity in Russian America: The View from Castle Hill
H. Kory Cooper and J. David McMahan

Chapter 9. The Women of Fort St. Joseph, a French Colonial Settlement on the North American Frontier
Michael S. Nassaney, José António Brandão, and Erika K. Hartley

Part 3. Imagining and Commemorating Colonial Fortifications

Chapter 10. Remembrance and Cultural Affiliation at Fort de Chartres in the North American Midcontinent
Jeffrey Spanbauer

Chapter 11. Imagined Landscapes of Global Colonialism: Visual Depictions of Portuguese Forts on Painted Ceramics
Tânia Casimiro

Chapter 12. Contesting Historical Memory at Fort Kaskaskia
Mark J. Wagner

Chapter 13. The Curation of Decay at Elmina Castle
Evan M. Binkley

Part 4. Archaeological Contributions to Colonial Fortifications

Chapter 14. Colonial Forts and Partible Sovereignty
Charles R. Cobb

Chapter 15. Anxious Spaces, Troubling Sites: Critical Engagement with Colonial Fortifications in the Contemporary World
Audrey Horning

Chapter 16. Colonial Forts as Seen from Europe: From Nodes of Dominance to Vectors of Oblivion
Sergio Escribano-Ruiz

Chapter 17. Colonial Fortifications, Yesterday and Today
Michael S. Nassaney

List of Contributors

Index