Constructing the Danish Colonial State in Global Contexts

ended

This project provides the first global intellectual history of Denmark as a colonial state. Utilising an innovative methodology combining global intellectual history and the history of knowledge, the project will show how a series of reforms in Denmark and the Danish colonies 1784-1807 aimed at (re)constructing Denmark as a coherent colonial state, an empire in global contexts. It will show how the discourses of natural law and statistics were a key intellectual resource in this endeavour, drawing on networks circulating and producing colonial knowledge. Thus, the project will make an innovative contribution to global intellectual history, the history of Scandinavian colonialism, and the history of knowledge, as well as a path-breaking re-inscription of Denmark into its early modern global history. It will be carried out at a university that is the most thriving research environment on Scandinavian colonial and global history, and history of knowledge. Finally, it is specifically designed to provide the scholarly output and training needed to advance my career onto the next, crucial step.