Language Policies in the Duchy of Schleswig under Denmark and Prussia

Abstract

In attempting to define the concept of colonialism, Sebastian Conrad warns us that we need to be mindful not to consider just any form of oppression or dominance as a type of colonialism. Scholarly work, which sees colonial aspects or tendencies in almost any form of asymmetrical relations, removes any kind of specificity from the term colonialism and thus it loses its distinctiveness from other forms of power exertion.1 Key to Conrad’s understanding of what constitutes colonialism are at least the following three aspects: (1) coloniser and colony exist in different socio-political structures (Ordnungen), (2) coloniser and colony have different histories and (3) colonisers consider themselves to be at a more advanced intellectual and technological stage. This third element entails a feeling of moral and cultural superiority over the colonised, which serves as a platform to justify the exploitation of the colony: ‘[T]he colonizers are convinced of their own superiority and of their ordained mandate to rule’.2 This aspect of moral and cultural superiority applied to other population groups will be investigated in this chapter.