Shifting Sovereignties in a Discontinuous Frontier: The Case of Saint Croix and the Danish West Indies

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This paper explores colonial fortifications and landscapes as manifestations of shifting sovereignties in discontinuous frontiers. While a “typical” frontier exists outside the bounds of political control (i.e., external frontier), frontiers may also be encapsulated within an expanding system (i.e., internal frontier). As peripheral to the core (homeland), colonies are encapsulated within the system and set apart by some natural barrier (usually water). Colonies are thus discontinuous frontiers, so-called third spaces, or middle ground, simultaneously core and periphery. The former Danish West Indies (DWI) is one such discontinuous frontier where the tensions between colonial and sovereign interests and control had the power to physically transform the landscape. This paper thus archaeologically examines the construction and maintenance of colonial fortifications across two distinct periods (1672–1807 and 1815–1917) within the DWI and in Saint Croix specifically, thereby elucidating how historical geopolitics and shifting sovereignties affect fortification in discontinuous frontiers.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow