Habsburg Encounters With Native America : Familiar Strangers

The central European lands of the Habsburg monarchy have long shared an intertwined past with the Indigenous inhabitants of the Americas. This volume focuses on the process of encountering these peoples as a continual action across several centuries that has produced numerous and varied instances of cultural dialogues, perspectives, and understandings. Moreover, this central European element is something that has not been considered in its own right before now and has been overshadowed by the focus on a wider Germanic fascination for Indigenous cultures. Breaking away from this wider narrative allows us not only to recover a more distinct historical connection but also uncovers the particular dynamics of direct and indirect contact between Indigenous worlds and that of the Habsburg monarchy.

Jonathan Singerton is Assistant Professor of Global Political History at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in The Netherlands. His research focuses on the worldwide connections of the Habsburg lands in the early modern and modern eras. His first book, The American Revolution and the Habsburg Monarchy, appeared in 2022 and he currently serves as the chief editor of a forthcoming Oxford Handbook focused on global Habsburg history.

Markéta Krízová is Professor of Ibero-American Studies at Charles University, Prague. Her research involves the history of overseas expansion, migrations and cultural transfers. Among her publications can be mentioned M. Krízová and J. Malecková (eds.), Central Europe and the Non-European World in the Long 19th Century, 2022.Michael Burri teaches in German Studies at Haverford College, is editor of the Journal of Austrian-American History, and the former President of the Austrian Studies Association (2021-2023). He has published on Austrian and Swiss film, and his articles have appeared in German Studies Review, Austrian History Yearbook, Journal of Austrian Studies, and New German Critique. His review essays and opinion pieces have appeared in leading Czech and American dailies, including Lidové noviny, Dnes, and The Washington Post. He is currently completing a book project on cultural diplomacy and the state in Austria.