Suchergebnisse

Neither here nor there : trade, piracy, and the "space between" in early modern East Asia / Michael Laver -- Envoys and escorts : representation and performance among Koxinga's Japanese pirate ancestors / Peter D. Shapinsky -- Friend or foe? : intercultural diplomacy between Momoyama Japan and the Spanish Philippines in the 1590s / Birgit Tremml-Werner -- Maps, calendars, and diagrams : space and time in seventeenth-century maritime East Asia / Robert Batchelor -- Yiguan's origins : clues from Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin sources / John E. Wills Jr. -- Between bureaucrats and bandits : the rise of Zheng Zhilong and his organization, the Zheng Ministry (Zheng Bu) / Cheng-heng Lu -- The Zheng regime and the Tokugawa bakufu : asking for Japanese intervention / Patrizia Carioti -- Determining the law of the sea : the long history of the Breukelen Case, 1657-1662 / Adam Clulow -- Dreams in the Chinese periphery : Victorio Riccio and Zheng Chenggong's regime / Anna Busquets -- Shame and scandal in the family : Dutch eavesdropping on the Zheng lineage / Leonard Bluss -- Bridging the bipolar : Zheng Jing's decade on Taiwan, 1663-1673 / Xing Hang -- The burning shore : Fujian and the coastal depopulation, 1661-1683 / Dahpon David Ho -- Admiral Shi Lang's secret proposal to return Taiwan to the VOC / Weichung Cheng -- Trade, piracy, and resistance in the Gulf of Tonkin in the seventeenth century / Robert J. Antony -- Koxinga and his maritime regime in the popular historical writings of post-Cold War Taiwan / Peter Kang -- Japan in the Chinese tribute system / Mark Ravina

The Chinese invented gunpowder and began exploring its military uses as early as the 900s, four centuries before the technology passed to the West. But by the early 1800s, China had fallen so far behind the West in gunpowder warfare that it was easily defeated by Britain in the Opium War of 1839-42. What happened? In The Gunpowder Age, Tonio Andrade offers a compelling new answer, opening a fresh perspective on a key question of world history: why did the countries of western Europe surge to global importance starting in the 1500s while China slipped behind? Historians have long argued that gunpowder weapons helped Europeans establish global hegemony. Yet the inhabitants of what is today China not only invented guns and bombs but also, as Andrade shows, continued to innovate in gunpowder technology through the early 1700s much longer than previously thought. Why, then, did China become so vulnerable? Andrade argues that one significant reason is that it was out of practice fighting wars, having enjoyed nearly a century of relative peace, since 1760. Indeed, he demonstrates that China like Europe was a powerful military innovator, particularly during times of great warfare, such as the violent century starting after the Opium War, when the Chinese once again quickly modernized their forces. Today, China is simply returning to its old position as one of the world's great military powers. By showing that China's military dynamism was deeper, longer lasting, and more quickly recovered than previously understood, The Gunpowder Age challenges long-standing explanations of the so-called Great Divergence between the West and Asia

1. "Por Dios, Por Patria:" the sacral limits of empire as seen in Catalan political sermons, 1630-1641 / Andrew Mitchell -- 2. Enlightened absolutism and new frontiers for political authority : building towards a state religion in eighteenth-century Spain / Andrea J. Smidt -- 3. The limits of faith in a maritime empire : Mennonites, trade and politics in the Dutch Golden Age / Mary S. Sprunger -- 4. Information, gossip and rumor : the limits of intelligence at the early modern court, 1558-1585 / Denice Fett -- 5. Philip II, information overload, and the early modern moment / Paul M. Dover -- 6. Italy and the limits of the Spanish empire / Michael J. Levin -- 7. The limits of dynastic power : Poland-Lithuania, Sweden and the problem of composite monarchy in the age of the Vasas, 1562-1668 / Robert I. Frost -- 8. The artillery fortress was an engine of European expansion : evidence from East Asia / Tonio Andrade -- 9. The limits of empire : the case of Britain / Jeremy Black -- 10. The facade of order : claiming imperial space in early modern Russia / Matthew P. Romaniello -- 11. Renaissance diplomacy and the limits of empire : Eustace Chapuys, Habsburg imperialisms, and dissimulation as method / Richard Lundell -- 12. Distance and misinformation in the conquest of America / Bethany Aram -- 13. Brawling behaviors in the Dutch colonial empire : changing norms of fairness? / Pamela McVay -- 14. Isabel Clara Eugenia : daughter of the Spanish empire / Cristina Borreguero Beltran -- 15. Messianic imperialism or traditional dynasticism? The grand strategy of Philip II and the Spanish failure in the wars of the 1590s / Edward Shannon Tenace.

This article argues that advances in drilling techniques and the use of muskets—essential ingredients of the famous Military Revolution paradigm—were central to Korean military reforms following the Imjin War of 1592–1598. Drawing on recent work in East Asian military history that argues that guns also wrought deep changes in non-European ways of war, we use the Korean military of the Chosŏn dynasty, a fascinating nexus of Chinese, Japanese, and Dutch influences, as a case study to compare East Asian tactics with European ones. Using military manuals from the seventeenth century, we show that European drilling regimes—centered around musketry units—had striking analogues in Korea (as they also did in China and Japan). The very fact of these similarities in such far-removed societies should point us toward caution in making pronouncements about a "Western way of war," making clear that there is a need for a truly global military history.

"This book presents exciting new research on early modern East Asia, exploring maritime connections, technological dissemination, military conflict, and the often-unforeseen consequences of missionary efforts. It demonstrates the benefits of a global history approach, outlining the complex interactions between Western traders and Asian states and entrepreneurs. Its authors also reflect on some of the big questions in global history: the enduring vitality and dynamism of East Asian societies as they grappled with the challenge of the West, the role of pirates and piracy in world history, the differing diplomatic structures that caused so many challenges to relations between East Asians and Europeans, and the rapid increase in the scale and scope of maritime trade. In the process they highlight the often surprising interconnections between war, commerce, and cultural exchange in this complicated and understudied period"

"This innovative volume provides an introduction to twelve seminal events in the international relations of East Asia prior to 1900: twelve events that everyone interested in the history of world politics should know. The East Asian historical experience provides a wealth of new and different cases, patterns, and findings that will expand horizons from the Western, Eurocentric experience. Written by an international team of historians and political scientists, these essays draw attention to the China-centered East Asian order - with its long history of dominance - and what this order might tell us about the current epoch"--