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A Colony In A Nation Download Pdf: How Fear and Order Undermine Civil Rights in the Colony and the N



As politicians of France's Third Republic vied to build a democratic consensus and distance themselves from France's recent autocratic past, they projected a fantasy of assimilation onto Martinique--one of France's oldest colonies where the predominately non-white population had received full citizenship and universal manhood suffrage with the ratification of the Constitution of 1875. However, at the close of the nineteenth century, a series of disasters struck the French island of Martinique that threatened the republican fantasy of seamless assimilation: (1) the 1890 fire that destroyed the island's capital of Fort-de-France; (2) the 1891 Atlantic hurricane that devastated the island's economy and prompted a reevaluation of the place of the colony within the French nation; (3) the first general strike in 1900 wherein civil unrest in the colonies caused a political disaster in the metropole; and (4) the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée that killed over 30,000 people nearly instantaneously and cemented a postcolonial relationship characterized by dependence. Throughout the Third Republic, the Martiniquais sugar economy was in rapid decline, and as capital was injected into the island in the form of disaster relief, the "old colony" that had once been a valuable asset was fast becoming a financial drain on the French economy. In their interactions with French economic and political imperatives, environmental disasters brought to the fore existing racial and social tensions and held to the fire France's ideological convictions of assimilation and citizenship.


The present work intervenes in the current historiography of France by bringing France's old colonies into the story of late-nineteenth-century nation-building and by underscoring the role played by the environment in race-making, identity formation, and class-based politics. Scholars of the French West Indies have extensively examined the importance of assimilation in Antillean politics and culture, clearly elucidating the significance of the short-lived emancipation of 1794; the transient citizenship gained in 1848 and suspended in 1851; and finally the full citizenship restored in 1871 and codified in the Third Republic's Constitution of 1875. This work does not seek to retrace their steps, but to explore how disastrous events in the French West Indies shaped the colonial relationship and interacted with broader developments in the metropole itself. During the age of new empire, the "old colony" of Martinique redefined what it meant to be a French citizen by precipitating a discussion over economic rights and social welfare.




A Colony In A Nation Download Pdf




As politicians of France's Third Republic vied to build a democratic consensus and distance themselves from France's recent autocratic past, they projected a fantasy of assimilation onto Martinique--one of France's oldest colonies where the predominately non-white population had received full citizenship and universal manhood suffrage with the ratification of the Constitution of 1875. However, at the close of the nineteenth century, a series of disasters struck the French island of Martinique that threatened the republican fantasy of seamless assimilation: (1) the 1890 fire that destroyed the island's capital of Fort-de-France; (2) the 1891 Atlantic hurricane that devastated the island's economy and prompted a reevaluation of the place of the colony within the French nation; (3) the first general strike in 1900 wherein civil unrest in the colonies caused a political disaster in the metropole; and (4) the 1902 eruption of Mount Pel\u00E9e that killed over 30,000 people nearly instantaneously and cemented a postcolonial relationship characterized by dependence. Throughout the Third Republic, the Martiniquais sugar economy was in rapid decline, and as capital was injected into the island in the form of disaster relief, the \"old colony\" that had once been a valuable asset was fast becoming a financial drain on the French economy. In their interactions with French economic and political imperatives, environmental disasters brought to the fore existing racial and social tensions and held to the fire France's ideological convictions of assimilation and citizenship.


The present work intervenes in the current historiography of France by bringing France's old colonies into the story of late-nineteenth-century nation-building and by underscoring the role played by the environment in race-making, identity formation, and class-based politics. Scholars of the French West Indies have extensively examined the importance of assimilation in Antillean politics and culture, clearly elucidating the significance of the short-lived emancipation of 1794; the transient citizenship gained in 1848 and suspended in 1851; and finally the full citizenship restored in 1871 and codified in the Third Republic's Constitution of 1875. This work does not seek to retrace their steps, but to explore how disastrous events in the French West Indies shaped the colonial relationship and interacted with broader developments in the metropole itself. During the age of new empire, the \"old colony\" of Martinique redefined what it meant to be a French citizen by precipitating a discussion over economic rights and social welfare.


Since the discovery that Helicobacter pylori causes a range of pathologies in the stomachs of infected humans, it has become apparent that Helicobacters are found in a diverse range of animal species where they are frequently associated with disease. In 2003 and 2004, there were two outbreaks of increased mortality associated with gastric bleeding and weight-loss in a captive colony of the Australian marsupial, the Stripe-faced Dunnart (Sminthopsis macroura). The presence of gastric pathology led to an investigation of potential Helicobacter pathogenesis in these animals. Histological examination revealed the presence of gastritis, and PCR analysis confirmed the presence of Helicobacter infection in the stomachs of these marsupials. Surprisingly, sequencing of 16S rRNA from these bacteria identified the species as H. pylori and PCR confirmed the strain to be positive for the important pathogenesis factor, cagA. We therefore describe, for the first time, an apparent reverse zoonotic infection of Stripe-faced Dunnarts with H. pylori. Already prone to pathological effects of stress (as experienced during breeding season), concomitant H. pylori infection appears to be a possible essential but not sufficient co-factor in prototypic gastric bleeding and weight loss in these marsupials. The Stripe-faced Dunnart could represent a new model for investigating Helicobacter-driven gastric pathology. Infections from their human handlers, specifically of H. pylori, may be a potential risk to captive colonies of marsupials.


In this report we describe two outbreaks of deaths in a captive colony of an Australian marsupial, the Stripe-faced Dunnart (Sminthopsis macroura), that were associated with bleeding in the stomach possibly due to infection by the human pathogen, H. pylori.


The Stripe-faced dunnarts were housed at the Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne. The colony was held within cages maintained within a purpose built temperature regulated building, in a physical environment in conditions typical for those for housing mice, except that natural lighting was maintained. Animal housing in specially designed cages, the diet formulated for carnivorous insectivorous marsupials and reproductive monitoring followed the outline given previously [16]. No other animal species were housed in this building. The dunnarts were provided water ad libitum. No dunnarts were killed specifically for this study; stomachs were only collected from animals euthanized either due to illness or for other experimentation approved by the University of Melbourne Science, Optometry & Vision Sciences and Land & Environment animal ethics-committee. Animals were weighed at weekly intervals during routine animal husbandry.


A colony of Stripe-faced Dunnarts has been in existence for 26 years, initially at La Trobe University (Melbourne, Australia), and then at the Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne. The colony normally has between 60-100 animals in which the sex ratio is 1/1. Death from illness is rare in these animals and in a normal year, total deaths occur at a rate of about 10% or less of the number of animals in the colony. Most deaths occur as a result of injuries obtained during mating (the breeding season runs from July to December) or old age.


In 2006, the presence of Helicobacter in fecal samples collected from male (n = 20) and female (n = 20) Dunnarts were assessed by genus specific PCR. Using this approach, the feces of equivalent numbers of male (7/20) and female (7/20) Stripe-faced Dunnarts were shown to be colonized with Helicobacter species, providing evidence of the presence of Helicobacters in the GI tract of at least some animals in this colony. Attempts to cultivate Helicobacter from these samples were unsuccessful.


To identify whether a known or novel Helicobacter species was infecting the Stripe-faced Dunnart colony, the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) Helicobacter gene from these gastric samples was partially sequenced. This indicated that the 16S rRNA gene sequence of Helicobacter infecting the stomachs of Stripe-faced Dunnarts corresponded to H. pylori strains originally isolated from different regions of the human gastrointestinal tract including the stomach and intestine. The identity percentages obtained with the sequences were 100% (Table 1).


When samples were collected from 18 female Dunnarts in July of 2008 surprisingly, all of these animals were Helicobacter negative indicating the colony had lost the infection. There is no obvious explanation for the loss of H. pylori infection in these animals, as there was no change in husbandry, nor were the Dunnarts treated with any antibiotics during this period. 2ff7e9595c


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