A cemetery in the Italian city of Florence may seem an unlikely place to look for clues as to the lives of Europeans in Asian factories. The so-called English Cemetery is a small burial ground established in 1827 by the Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church. The graves were situated just outside
Events
5-7 June 2025, Shanghai, China: "Ports, Factories, and Special Economic Zones: Infrastructures of Circulation and Exchange in the Indian Ocean, 1200-Present" This conference, jointly organized by the Center for Global Asia, NYU Shanghai, and the CAPASIA Project, European University Institute, examines the role of infrastructure in Asia’s
Today Sadras is a sleepy coastal village in Tamil Nadu, 40 miles south of Chennai. Tourists heading 10 miles north to visit the ancient temples of Mamallapuram might easily miss it. Just over a mile away is Kalpakkam, the site of the Madras Atomic Power Station. Between modern and ancient
During the 1780s the ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sultan, commissioned his lieutenants to open up a string of “factories,” or trading posts. These factories were earmarked for construction at several points inside and outside of India (Official Documents, Relative to the Negotiations Carried on by Tippoo Sultaun, 43). In establishing