Episode 24: French Explorers in Southeast Asia and Colonialism with Olivier Schouteden

Join us as we talk with PhD Candidate Olivier Schouteden as we talk about French imperialism's explorers in late 19th century Indochina. How did these private adventurers interact with local people, the French imperial state, and how much control did the central state have over these people? What is an "explorer"? What does it say about the weaknesses of French imperialism, and how the French state eventually tried to reel them in? Olivier walks us through his dissertation and how the image of the explorer animated the spatial French imperial project, state-backed and private scientific societies, no matter the cost and resistance of people of present day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. We even see one explorer, Charles-Marie David de Mayréna, set up his own rogue country in the middle of madness: Kingdom of Sedang (the basis of the novel Heart of Darkness, set in Central Africa, which became Apocalypse Now, returning to Indochina.) Olivier talks about his research adventures in the archives in France, Cambodia, and Vietnam, looking at letters and papers of french explorers, his experience with teaching, and what's next. Books mentioned in the episode: "Out of Our Minds: Reason and Madness in the Exploration of Central Africa" by Johannes Fabian https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/859138.Out_of_Our_Minds "The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration and American Culture" by Michael F. Robinson https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2091360.The_Coldest_Crucible "Heroes of Empire: Five Charismatic Men and the Conquest of Africa" by Edward Berenson https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8717661-heroes-of-empire "The Road to Botany Bay: An Exploration of Landscape and History" by Paul Carter https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2854657-the-road-to-botany-bay "The Paper Road: Archive and Experience in the Botanical Exploration of West China and Tibet" by Erik Mueggler https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11694721-the-paper-road "The Trouble with Empire: Challenges to Modern British Imperialism" by Antoinette Burton https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26262770-the-trouble-with-empire "Colonial Cambodia's 'Bad Frenchmen'" by Gregor Mueller https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16780270-colonial-cambodia-s-bad-frenchmen "Of Rats, Rice, and Race: The Great Hanoi Rat Massacre, an Episode in French Colonial History" Michael G. Vann (future book) https://muse.jhu.edu/article/42110 The Breaking History podcast is a production of the Northeastern University History Graduate Student Association. Producers and Sound Editors: Matt Bowser and Dan Squizzero Theme Music: Kieran Legg