Where does colonialism come from?

Abstract
This paper reflects on the medieval and classical antecedents of modern colonialism. In its first section, it focuses on Pisa’s medieval experience in order to contribute to a genealogy of colonial imaginings and practice. Unable to expand inland and surrounded by hostile polities, Pisa amassed a number of colonial possessions during the eleventh and twelfth century, primarily in Sardinia, but also in the Balearic Islands, North Africa, and in the Levant. Sidestepping the findings of an important debate about whether colonial phenomena in radically different eras can be seen as ‘continuous’ with their predecessors (both sides of this debate present convincing arguments that are consistent with their respective definitions – i.e. ‘the Ancients Greeks or Romans set up colonies’, ‘modern colonialism is entirely unprecedented’), this paper’s second section refers to settler colonialism as a specific mode of domination and outlines how it was practiced in classical antiquity. Each section is followed by an epilogue touching on the intellectual afterlives of the ‘empires’ outlined by each section.