Global History

Over the past decades, Global History has developed into one of the most dynamic and influential fields within the discipline of history. This development reflects a growing interest in processes of globalization that profoundly shape our coexistence and everyday lives and that cannot be adequately explained within the framework of methodological nationalism. Rather than assuming a linear narrative of ever-increasing interconnectedness, Global History also takes into account countervailing and disruptive processes.

In contrast to traditional, additive approaches associated with universal or world history, Global History focuses on the multiple entanglements linking different world regions. Such processes can be observed across all historical periods. Particular attention is given to the entanglements emerging from the early colonial expansion of Western Europe into the Americas from the fifteenth century onward, the early decolonization of the Americas, Russian expansion into Siberia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus, the imperial competition for Africa and Asia in the nineteenth century, decolonization since the First World War, the systemic rivalry of the Cold War in the Global South, and South–South relations.

In line with postcolonial studies, research addresses power relations, the conditions of knowledge production, and the effects of ethnic and racialized forms of exclusion. Questions of mutual cultural appropriation and exchange also occupy a central place.

At the Institute of History, Global History constitutes a major research focus. Several professorships explicitly emphasize global historical perspectives in their designation, including International History, the History of Europe and European Colonialism, and Iberian and Latin American History. A global historical focus is also planned for the forthcoming appointment in Early Modern History.

Current research projects address, among other topics, negotiations of power during the colonial period in Peru and Mexico; the Napoleonic era from a global perspective; global labor relations; German colonialism; the consequences of racist exclusion for African Americans; and the introduction of computers in Latin America. Global historical themes are likewise explored at the Cologne Centre for Advanced Studies in International History and Law.