Abstract
Increasing debates on decolonization in society and international scholarship underscore the importance – if not urgency – of fully unravelling the colonial and imperial history of Belgium. Museums founded in the 18th and 19th century often have colonial and imperial ties, relied on a complex network of diverse actors for their collection acquisition and were putative proponents of colonial and imperial power in the home country. This project addresses missed opportunities in the field of colonial and imperial history in Belgium through a study of collections and ideologies (1885-1950) at the Belgian Royal Museums of Art and History (RMAH). This will provide unique new insight into Belgium's colonial and imperial past since the RMAH key collections with colonial and imperial ties and the associated archival sources are hitherto largely unexplored. The innovative nature of the project also lies in the inventive application of complementary methodologies from different research domains including prosopography for relational network building and the linguistic Appraisal Theory for detecting attitudes. As such an unparalleled multifaceted new knowledge base on Belgium's colonial and imperial past is generated that will contribute to debates in diverse academic domains, including decolonization debates. Moreover, it allows for the generation of novel toolkits that will inform, inspire and guide Belgian collection institutions in decolonization issues.
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