Asian hill stations: Defining and mapping a transcolonial phenomena

Article

Journal of Historical Geography, vol. 93, September 2026, p. 180-192

Emmanuelle Peyvel with Eric Jennings, Alexandra de Heering, Judicaelle Dietrich and Isabelle Sacareau just published an article entitled « Asian hill stations : Defining and mapping a transcolonial phenomena » in the last issue of Journal of Historical Geography.

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From the nineteenth century onwards in the British, French, and Dutch empires in Asia, colonial societies developed a new type of place in the mountains : the hill station. As simple as it may seem, this topic – in other words, what constitutes a hill station - proves slippery. Situated at the crossroads of colonial history, urban studies and tourism studies, our article aims to define it and thus fill a gap in the existing literature, which consists mainly of inventories and a profusion of monographs, that perpetuate the confusion. From a historical and geographical perspective, we critically examine the birth of hill stations during the colonial era in order to deconstruct criteria related to altitude and health. Delving beyond lexical and topographical approaches, we propose a definition based on three recurring functions (military, health, and agricultural) closely tied with several forms of tourism. Shifting away from diffusionist theories, we call into question the unicity of an European model, in order to shed light on the circulation and variations in the hill station model along transimperial scales.