Mitchel Stuffers
Assistant Editor at CIGH Exeter & PhD Candidate in History, University of Exeter

From Franco-themed cafes to memories of the Indigo rebellion, here are this week’s top picks in imperial and global history.

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Spain has banned Francoist symbols. So why are there still kitsch cafes glorifying the dictator

Abbas Asaria
Guardian

Una Grande Libre reads the sign above the entrance to a bar-restaurant in Madrid’s Usera neighbourhood. This was Francisco Franco’s motto for Spain – one, great, free – and it is accompanied by a large portrait of the dictator superimposed on to the window. The exteriors of El Cangrejo in Ciudad Real and Casa Pepe in Despeñaperros are a little bit more subtle, but not much: decorated ostentatiously in the red and yellow of the Spanish flag. The accompanying historical symbols on display, such as the yoke and arrows of the Falange and the Eagle of San Juan, remove any doubt: the year is 2026 and you have encountered one of Spain’s network of bars and restaurants that proudly glorify Franco and his dictatorship.

These unsettling and unusual places tell a vivid story about the unique way that Spain deals with its past – or fails to. They seem all the more confusing in the context of Pedro Sánchez’s recent historical memory legislation, and beg the question: how do these places still exist? [Continue reading]

Tunisia sliding into authoritarianism, experts say

Kersten Knipp (Deutsche Welle)
News24

Human rights in Tunisia are a growing cause for concern. On Tuesday, courts upheld the sentencing of two prominent Tunisian journalists. Prior to the hearing, Amnesty International sounded the alarm, accusing Tunisian authorities of intensifying their pressure on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and using legal means to disband such groups. NGOs that advocate for human rights, migrant protection, election monitoring and against corruption are most affected. “Dozens of NGOs run the risk of being dissolved, while others are being prosecuted,” Safia Rayan of Amnesty International told DW. Rayan added: “The crackdown on civil society and independent media outlets is intensifying and threatening their existence.”

Last week, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called on Tunisia to end its repression of opposition members and civil society groups. Speaking in Geneva, Türk said human rights activists were being criminalised. The fate of 84-year-old Rached Ghannouchi, the chair of the moderate Islamic Ennahda party, has also sparked concern. He ranks among the country’s most prominent prisoners, and has been handed jail sentences now adding up to around 50 years behind bars, according to Reuters news agency. Tunisian President Kais Saied, elected to office in 2019, has been consolidating power since 2021. [Continue reading]

Every 50 Years, America Falls Apart. Then Celebrates Anyway: What 1826, 1876, 1926, and 1976 Tell Us About 2026

Lindsay M. Chervinsky
Imperfect Union

Last week, I moderated a conversation with Robert Parkinson, Michael Auslin, and Jim Rasenberger about their new books on the Declaration of Independence and July 4 at the George Washington Presidential Library. My final question asked them what they wanted to see this year for the 250^th semiquincentennial anniversary. But I set it up by listing all the previous commemorations: 1826, 1876, 1926, 1976….

Those are generally not considered particularly good years or even particularly good decades for the United States. As I was preparing for the event, I got thinking about this run of dates. What is it about the nation that make our commemorations fall at these tense or difficult times? What have past generations done with those celebrations and what does that say about us? We didn’t really have time to dig into it on the panel, but it has stuck with me.

Let’s start by going through those decades as a quick refresher. [Continue reading]

What is the Thucydides Trap and why did Xi Jinping mention it in his meeting with Donald Trump?

Kate Lamb
Guardian

China’s leader raised the ancient Greek historian Thucydides when he met the US president in Beijing. A messy war in the Middle East. Tensions in Taiwan. When the leaders of the world’s two superpowers met in Beijing this week, these were the flashpoints everyone expected they would talk about. Instead, Chinese leader Xi Jinping threw another, ancient war, into the mix. In his opening remarks on Thursday, Xi made reference to the Peloponnesian War in ancient Greece, a decades long conflict that erupted between Athens and Sparta in 431BC.

In a shot across the bow of hegemonic rivalry, Xi asked: “Can China and the United States transcend the so-called ‘Thucydides Trap’ and forge a new paradigm for major-power relations?” What is the Thucydides Trap? [Continue reading]

Memories of Indigo Rebellion and the question of national identity

Syed Jamil Ahmed
Daily Star

In 1897, synthetic indigo was introduced to the market by BASF and Hoechst, two German chemical giants. Before this juncture, the primary colourant for textiles worldwide was indigo, a blue vegetable dye extracted from the leaves of the indigo plant (Indigofera tinctoria)—supplied from the colonial world of British India, Dutch Java, and Spanish Central America, in order of importance. The cultivation of indigo was known in ancient South Asia long before colonial times. What the Europeans introduced during the colonial period was a larger-scale organisation of indigo planting and more centralised dye production, financed by the agency houses which linked planters with world markets. By the mid-19th century, indigo was the most important manufacturing sector of rural Bengal and its largest private industry, producing the finest indigo in the world. In 1859, a large-scale rebellion against indigo cultivation erupted in Bengal, mobilising nearly five million indigo cultivators. By 1862, when the rebellion had died out, it had destroyed a thriving industry and forced the planters to abandon the factories which dotted the central districts of Bengal. Many planters relocated their factories to Bihar. In 1889, a second uprising broke out, this time localised mostly in the Jashore region.

Three crucial points regarding the Indigo Rebellion need to be noted. [Continue reading]