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Using the Computer in Expansion History
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2010
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Time is catching up with today's student of the history of European overseas expansion in the sense that he has to add yet another facet to his already diverse array of skills. In order to fully explore and exploit the potentials of his field, he needs at least a working command of how to apply computer technology in research, thereby reaching beyond the art of word processing. Without turning into a full-fledged programmer, he will have to master some basic tools of processing and also to gain an insight into the options available. Perhaps even more importantly, he will have to know when and when not to apply the computer. This article aims at providing some guidelines for facilitating the computerization of European expansion history.
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- Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1990
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1 This article presents the results of a workshop on ‘Computer applications in expansion history’, held at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies at Copenhagen on May 18–19, 1990. The workshop was sponsored by the European Science Foundation Network on the History of European Expansion, Strasbourg. Participants included Professor K.N. Chaudhuri (London), Mme. Professor C. Coquery-Vidrovitch (Paris VII), dr. Lewis R. Fischer (Newfoundland/Bergen), dr. J. Thomas Lindblad (Leiden), dr. Rainer Metz. (Cologne), ms. dr. Irene Norlund (Copenhagen), Professor N. Steensgaard (Copenhagen) and Professor Thommy Svensson (Copenhagen/Gothenburg). I gratefully acknowledge all contributions made by the participants in the workshop whilst assuming full responsibility for remaining errors. Special thanks are due to drs. L. Jeroen Touwen (Leiden) for his invaluable assistance during the workshop. This article also appears in Historical Social Research/Historische Sozinlforschung 15 (1991) forthcomingGoogle Scholar.
2 Lindblad, J. Th., ‘Computer Applications in Expansion History: A Survey’, Second Bulletin of the ESF-Network on the History of European Expansion [Supplement to Itinerario 12 (1988) no. 2];Google ScholarLindblad, J. Th., ‘Computer Applications in Expansion History’, International journal of MaritimeHistory 2 (1990) 207–214Google Scholar.
3 One example is the study of the overseas expansion of European mentality which is only now put on the agenda of current research and which could produce some very interesting insights.
4 The success of this approach is likely to be conditioned by increasing use of compact discs for more efficient storage.
5 Many handbooks on computer science tend to blur the distinction between a data set and a data base. In this context a careful distinction between the two concepts was felt to be urgent, even at the cost of stretching lines of demarcation artificially far.
6 This survey is best considered not a replacement of but a complement to the standard textbooks on use of the computer in history which are at present appearing in ever greater numbers.
7 Niet, N.H. et al., Statistical Packagefor the Social Sciences (New York 1975) 164.Google Scholar
8 The most well-known package is probably Manfred Thaller's KLEIO, at present denoted by the corresponding Greek letters;Thaller, M., Query net I/O (St. Katharinen 1989). Other packages include the French PROSOP and CLEO.Google Scholar
9 Thaller's KLEIO has so far primarily been applied in medieval and demographic history whereas the French CLEO and PROSOP packages have been used primarily in biographical and prosopographical analysis. Mastery of KLEIO presupposes participation in a separate (summer) course. Acceptance among historians has probably been retarded by the original use of commands in Latin.
10 TUSTEP; Tübinger System von Textverarbeitungs-Programmen (Tubingen 1987). TUSTEP was developed by dr. W. Ott and associates at the University of Tubingen, first for implementation on mainframes, from 1988 also in a PC-version. The PC-version does not possess all facilities of the mainframe version. Potential users are advised to follow a course of some weeks in order to learn how to master this packageGoogle Scholar.
11 For details, see: Lindblad, J. Th., ‘Computer Applications in Expansion History: Foreign Trade of the Outer Provinces of the Netherlands Indies, 1900–1940’, Itinerario 12, 2 (1988) 71–86.Google Scholar
12 An interesting new option is DataPerfect which aims at combining the virtues of WordPerfect and dBase.
13 This project is being undertaken by Professor K.N. Chaudhuri at the London School of Oriental and African Studies.
14 Breure, L., ‘Historische databasesystemen’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 103 (1990) 217–232, in particular 224.Google Scholar
15 A case in point is the conversion of a relational data base made in dBase III (or IV) into a hierarchical system such as SIR (= Scientific Information Retrieval).
16 This does not preclude that retaining all variations might be interesting from the viewpoint of linguistic analysis. As so often, it boils down to a question of effort versus output.
17 Cf. Doulton, D. and Kitts, A., ‘The Storing and Processing of Historical Data’ in:Denley, P., Fogelvik, S. and Ch. , Harvey ed., History and Computing ll (Manchester 1989) 81–87.Google Scholar
18 Johansen, H. C., Shipping and trade between the Baltic and Western Europe 1784–1795 (Odense 1983) 115–119.Google Scholar
19 If need be the aggregation procedure can be instructed to read only the numeric part of the code.
20 Doom, P. K., Lindblad, J. Th. and Touwen, L. J., ‘The Marion Johnson Data on African Trade’ in: Johnson, M., Lindblad, J. Th. and Rossed, R. J.., Anglo-African Trade in the Eighteenth Century; English Statistics on African Trade, 1699–1808 (Leiden 1990) 13–35.Google Scholar
21 Cp. Lindblad, ‘Computer Applications: Foreign Trade’.
22 In Britain data bases constructed under public grants have to be deposited, after use by the original researcher, with the Data Archive of the Economic and Social Research Council at the University of Essex, Colchester.
23 Horik, R. van and Touwen, L. J., ‘The History of European Expansion Data Bank’ in: Doom, P. K. ed., Netherlands Historical Data Archive II. Chronos Historical Data Archive System: Handbook of a Prototype (Leiden 1990) 47–125.Google Scholar
24 Cp. Lindblad, , ‘Computer Applications in Expansion History’ (1988), 7–20.Google Scholar
25 Doom, P. K., ‘A Manual to CHRONOS’ in: , Doom ed., Netherlands Historical Data Archive II, 11–45.Google Scholar
26 Topor, H. d'Almeida, Histoire économique du Dahomey (1890–1920) (University of Paris IV 1987);Google ScholarCoquery-Vidrovitch, C., ‘Enquête statistique sur le commerce extérieur des terri-toires francophones d'Afrique sous la colonisation, de la fin du XIXe siècle à l'indepen-dence’ in: Liesegang, G., Pasch, H. and Jones, A. ed., Figuring African Trade (Berlin 1986) 33–42Google Scholar; Marseille, J., Empire colonial et capitalismefrancais; Histoire d'un divorce (Paris 1984)Google Scholar.
27 Thaller, M., ‘A Draft Proposal for a Standard for the Coding of Machine-readable Sources’, Historical Social Research/Hislorische Sozialforschung 10 (1986) 3–46.Google Scholar
28 Marker, H. -J., Reincke, H. andSchurer, K., ‘Information Requirements and Data Description in Historical Social Research; A Proposal’, Historical Social Research/Historische Sozial-forschung 11 (1987) 191–200.Google Scholar
29 Horik, M. P. M. van, ‘Development of a New Standard; The Historical Dataset Description Scheme’ in: Doom, P. K. et al., Netherlands Historical Data Archive I. Eindverslag van een pilot project (Leiden 1990) 39–58.Google Scholar