Steampunk Association: The Project for a Polish Utopian Settlement in California in the Mid-19th Century
Steampunk Association: The Project for a Polish Utopian Settlement in California in the Mid-19th Century
Author(s): Piotr KuligowskiContributor(s): László Vörös (Editor), Matej Ivančík (Editor)
Subject(s): History, Cultural history, History of ideas, Modern Age, 19th Century
Published by: Historický ústav SAV
Keywords: East-Central Europe; Polish history; political emigration; the 19th century; utopianism
Summary/Abstract: https://doi.org/10.31577/forhist.2023.17.2.2This article provides a case study of a project for a Polish utopian settlement (Osada), which was to be established in California, USA. Author Kazimierz Tomkiewicz’s, a Polish political exile from the early 1830s, developed a blueprint in Paris in 1850 and sent it to Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, seeking his support for its realisation. Osada was to be an agro-industrial settlement, enabling Poles participation in thegrowing global technological and economic progress of the time. In the proposed model, the settlement was envisioned as an association, maintaining a democratic decision-making process and an equal distribution of goods among settlers. This paper argues that Tomkiewicz—perhaps inspired by Saint-Simonianist thinking—in fact coined a scheme for a steampunk association, believing that labour and creativity might not only improve the situation of Polish emigres, but also transform the Polish soul.
Journal: Forum Historiae. Časopis a portál pre históriu a príbuzné spoločenské vedy
- Issue Year: 17/2023
- Issue No: 2
- Page Range: 10-27
- Page Count: 17
- Language: English
