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The colony of the colonized: the Duchy of Courland's Tobago colony and contemporary Latvian national identity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Harry C. Merritt
Harry C. Merritt*
Affiliation:
Center for German and European Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper examines the legacy of the Duchy of Courland's overseas colony of Tobago as it relates to present-day Latvian national identity using the ethno-symbolist approach of Anthony D. Smith and comparative cases. As Latvia is a small nation that has been an independent nation-state for only two short periods, national legitimacy and pride pose particular problems for Latvians. To this end, Latvian historians have worked to reinterpret the Baltic German-dominated Duchy of Courland as a positive period of Latvian national history and have sought to emphasize ethnic Latvian involvement in the Duchy's colonial endeavors, especially on the island of Tobago. Their efforts have then filtered into the general Latvian consciousness through books, film, plays, and place names. Since Latvia's independence from the USSR, the former colony of Tobago has gained renewed importance for Latvians who are experiencing a widely perceived notion of postcolonialism. This paper concludes that the appropriated colony of Tobago will continue to rise in importance as a component of Latvian national identity.

Keywords

LatviaTobagoDuchy of Courlandhistoriographycolonialism
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , July 2010 , pp. 491 - 508
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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