Transimperial Opportunities?

Small State Colonisation of Congo (1876-1940)

Abstract

This introduction to the special issue Transimperial Opportunities? Small State Colonisation of Congo (1876-1940) reinterprets Congo’s colonial history through a transimperial lens, situating it within wider debates on pan-European empire and small state imperialisms. Moving beyond Belgian-centred national frameworks and ‘Great Power’ biases, it reveals how tensions between nationalisation and internationalisation shaped transimperial practices and relations and vice versa. The issue examines how actors and institutions from states with diminishing or limited imperial leverage – such as the Netherlands, Finland, and Luxembourg – engaged in, shaped, and contested the colonisation of Congo. Demonstrating how transimperial opportunities both motivated and complicated joint colonial projects, it analyses how so-called small state actors navigated, benefited from, and negotiated imperial hierarchies. By foregrounding transimperial collaboration and competition, the issue positions colonial Congo as a key site for understanding tensions in the co-production of (pan-European) colonial policies, identities, and structures across borders.