Imperial Entanglements: Transoceanic Basque Networks in British and Spanish Colonialism and their Legacy

在利物浦博物馆的环球城(Global City)展厅里，在一条中国巨龙、上海天际线的灯光环绕和感谢巴克莱财富(Barclays Wealth)赞助的显著标志下，有一个展柜，名为利物浦的拉里纳加斯-巴斯克商人(The Larrinagas-Basque Traders in Liverpool)。与画廊的中国主题保持一致的是，展箱里装满了20世纪早期的中国文物--一件衣服、一双鞋、一把扇子、一个盒子--附带的文字解释说，由于与中国的交易可以赚得盆满钵满，拉里纳加家族来到利物浦是为了赚钱。参观画廊的人可能会简单地提到形容词巴斯克，但没有进一步的解释，因为这家人的故事被吸收到了更广泛的英中历史叙事中。在画廊的另一边，情况也差不多。一幅1898年绘制的家族安塞尔玛·德·拉里纳加轮船的油画放在一幅大画板上，上面没有任何评论，这幅画对比了西班牙在南美洲的殖民主义，西班牙的殖民主义给土著人民及其文化带来了灾难，英国的存在给该地区带来了经济进步。目前还不清楚这幅画是代表西班牙的毁灭还是英国的投资。利物浦博物馆中拉里纳加家族的模棱两可的存在--被标记为巴斯克，但被吸收到三个最重要的帝国历史之间的相互作用--概括了巴斯克帝国间主题的模棱两可，这是这个项目的重点。拉里纳加家族和他们更富有(也更肮脏)的同时代祖卢埃塔家族一样，同时也是骄傲的巴斯克人、资产阶级的英国居民、爱国的西班牙侨民，以及连接利物浦、伦敦、毕尔巴鄂、哈瓦那和马尼拉的商业和海事网络的无情剥削者。在整个19世纪，两个家族在连接英国、巴斯克国家以及西班牙在古巴和菲律宾的主要殖民地的三角形空间内，建立了密集的跨洋经济和文化联系网络。这两个家族都参与了帝国的合法业务，以及与之对应的肮脏交易--非洲奴隶的贸易，后来又参与了中国苦力的贸易。这两个家庭都留下了重要的文化、物质和--在雇员、同伙和奴隶的后代身上--他们自愿或不愿意地伴随着他们的越洋移民--人类遗产。该项目重建了这两个巴斯克商业家族的历史、网络和遗产。机构、地方、区域和非正式档案馆的详细档案工作将产生两本学术专著、至少六篇期刊文章和一系列工作文件。这些将使我们能够理解拉里纳加人、祖勒埃塔人及其同伙如何跨越帝国、殖民、海洋和语言的边界，运营跨洋网络，这些网络在挑战帝国主权的同时也为帝国做了工作。我们在所有五个案例研究城市的公共参与活动将在地方、社区、个人和家庭层面捕捉这些网络的共鸣，收集、记录和解释居住在这些网络中的人的故事，他们生活、工作和被记住的地方，以及我们今天仍然可以找到的痕迹。该项目的网络平台，包括工作底稿、地理标记数据库和社区数字档案，将使研究人员和利益攸关方能够通过文字、地图、图像和播客等一系列媒体，深入和广泛地了解祖卢埃塔人和拉里纳加人的活动和遗产。

In the Museum of Liverpool's 'Global City' gallery, beneath a large Chinese dragon, an illuminated surround of the Shanghai skyline, and a prominent sign thanking Barclays Wealth for their sponsorship, there is a display case entitled 'The Larrinagas - Basque Traders in Liverpool.' In line with the Chinese theme of the gallery, the case is full of early 20th-century Chinese artefacts - a dress, shoes, a fan, a box - and the accompanying text explains that 'with great fortunes to be made from trading with China,' the Larrinaga family 'came to Liverpool to make money'. A visitor to the gallery might briefly remark the adjective 'Basque', but there is no further explanation, as the family's story is absorbed into the wider narrative of Anglo-Chinese history. Across the gallery, it is a similar story. An 1898 painting of the family's Anselma de Larrinaga steamship sits unremarked atop a large panel that contrasts Spanish colonialism in South America, which 'brought disaster for indigenous people and their cultures' with the economic progress brought to the region by the British presence. It is unclear whether the painting is there to represent Spanish destruction or British investment.The ambiguous presence of the Larrinaga family in the Museum of Liverpool - marked as 'Basque' but absorbed into the interplay between three overarching imperial histories - encapsulates the ambiguity of the Basque interimperial subject that is the focus of this project. The Larrinaga family, like their wealthier (and dirtier) contemporaries the Zuluetas, were simultaneously proud Basques, bourgeois British residents, patriotic Spanish expats and ruthless exploiters of the commercial and maritime networks connecting Liverpool, London, Bilbao, Havana and Manila. Throughout the 19th century, both families built dense networks of transoceanic economic and cultural connections in the triangular space linking the UK, the Basque Country, and Spain's principal remaining colonies in Cuba and the Philippines. Both families were involved in the legitimate business of empire and in its dirty counterpart, the trade in African slaves and, later, Chinese coolies. And both families left a significant cultural, material and - in the descendants of the employees, associates and slaves who, willingly or otherwise, accompanied their transoceanic migrations - human legacy. This project reconstructs the histories, networks and legacies of these two Basque commercial families. Detailed archival work in institutional, local, regional and informal archives will give rise to two scholarly monographs, at least six journal articles and a portfolio of working papers. These will allow us to understand how the Larrinagas, Zuluetas and their associates crossed imperial, colonial, maritime and linguistic boundaries to operate transoceanic networks that did the work of empire even as they defied imperial sovereignty. Our public engagement activity across all five case study cities will capture the resonances of these networks at the local, community, individual and family level, gathering, recording, and interpreting the stories of the people who inhabited these networks, the places they lived, worked and are remembered, and the traces we can still find of them today. The project web platform, including working papers, a geotagged database and community digital archive, will allow researchers and stakeholders to gain deep and broad insights into the Zuluetas' and Larrinaga's activity and legacy through a range of media, including text, maps, images and podcasts.