Colonial powers competed to establish archaeology services within a decade of each other

Evidence

In 1899, the Archaeological Department of Burma – then part of British India – was founded, and soon began the restoration of Pagan. The previous year, the École Française d’Extrême-Orient was established in Saigon, followed almost at once by a Directorate of Museums and Historical Monuments of Indochina. Immediately after the French seizure of Siemreap and Battambang from Siam in 1907, an Angkor Conservancy was established to Curzonize Southeast Asia’s most awe-inspiring ancient monuments. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 706

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Islamophobia toolkit’s theme of colonial knowledge-production institutions scaffolding later nationalist claims to territory and heritage.