DELAMARCHE. Lithographed cardboard globe marked “Globe adopted by the University Council, Maison DELAMARCHE, Paris, 25 Rue Serpente,” with a brass meridian and graduated horizon circle, and a bronze base (attached). Circa 1880. Height: 35 cm This globe reflects the political organization of the world around 1880, at a time when borders and empires were very different from those of today. Notably depicted are the recently unified German Empire, the vast Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the still-powerful Ottoman Empire. In Africa, the interior of the continent is represented through its kingdoms and peoples, before European colonization profoundly redrew the map. The globe dates from a few years after the opening of the Suez Canal (1869) and predates the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, which marked a major milestone in the colonial partition of Africa.