Tourism and empire: An invitation to colonial travel

Abstract

One of the most compelling topics in the history of contemporary art is the empire/tourism binomial. The two are closely interconnected, as colonisation was a driving force behind the creation of a new kind of mobility. In an initial phase, voyages of discovery were concerned solely with conquest, missionisation and trade, but from the 19th century onwards travel to the colonies became a political, social, cultural and artistic imperative. In fact, after the end of the 19th century, European imperial policy encouraged travel to overseas possessions not only as a means of (re)defining territory in a geographical sense but primarily as a reflection of emerging European nationalism, turning travel into a privileged means for legitimating the overseas provinces and for spreading propaganda about them. As a result, colonial tourism developed on various levels and fronts, promoting an overseas holiday experience that became a civilisational datum and a gauge of contemporary culture.