Inter-connected Colonial Thinking?: The Duchy of Courland’s Seventeenth Century Expansion and Its Influences

• In Event: Ruthenia - Courland: Transregional Exchanges in the Early Modern Eastern Europe

Abstract

The seventeenth century dukes of Courland, most notably Duke Jakob, showed great and possibly misguided ambition in seeking to improve their wealth through early modern colonial expansion in western Africa and the Caribbean. This brief episode in history is remarkable considering that these aims originated from a vassal state in the eastern Baltic which wielded very little domestic power let alone the potential to act globally. The duchy was arguably already a colonial polity due to the dominance of the Baltic German elite over the most enserfed Latvian peasantry. This history therefore includes a range of intriguing alternative perspectives on the pursuit of Atlantic colonialism.
Nevertheless, the ducal effort also took the lead its lead from forms of early modern colonial activity developed from other European powers. Couronian colonial plans imitated those formed in England, Denmark and the United Provinces as well as the familiar domestic situation. Such plans were often constructed to engage with useful figures abroad which were needed to keep Couronian ambitions afloat. The paper will briefly investigate the ways in which the duchy took influences from across Europe to operate in the Atlantic.

Author

• John Freeman, U of Warsaw (Poland)