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Lecture notes - Global History - 2023 - Grade 9
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Notes on the lectures from the course (2023) Global History. Includes all lectures
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Notes – Global History 2023Lecture 01: 07/02/2023
Why study global history in an international politics degree?
History has been employed throughout International Relations. However, despite the surface-level closeness of
the relationship between IR and history (E.H. Carr), much IR scholarship is predicated on a view of history
between two equally unsatisfactory stools. Historical research is free from theoretical speculations, as the
description of the history and tracing of how one-thing-followed-another in the unfolding of events is
unrepeatable.
Why should we study the past?
Hegel: The owl of Minerva spread its wings only with the falling of dusk.
Phenomena can only be studied after it has come to pass. In politics, recent events are incredibly hard to learn
because of inaccessible material.
Approaches to history in IR: A spectrum
Closet of facts Middle-way approaches Shopping list
Constructivism, English
Neorealism Poststructuralism
School, historical sociology
The past as a collection of facts The past is a list of minor
Use history in some detail
on which to test theories about events/accidents that have had a
(not just closet of facts)
the present. huge impact.
Events occur not by intention but
History as a monochrome flatland often through historical accident
(always the same): international (Butterfly effect—Trotsky’s illness
Try to establish patterns
anarchy has always been a norm from a duck shooting changing the
(not just a random list)
(comparing Cold War great power course of history towards Stalinism),
politics with Athens and Sparta). so it’s pointless to make theories on
big historical patterns.
Emphasise the continuities in
Focuses on both continuities
history (conveniently: the
and discontinuities (what Emphasise the discontinuities in
conditions being the same across we’ve inherited from the past history (inconveniently: the
time for testing theories — and what has become conditions always differ across time
recurring historical patterns like fundamentally different from for testing theories).
the Thucydides Trap). the past).
History
- The general study of the past
- A nonfictional account of the past
- A craft (not a science, an art)
Aspires to
- Discover order and structure in the chaos and messiness of the past.
- Construct order and structure by creating a narrative of an argument based on verifiable evidence.
A historian develops a specific argument which they believe is accurate based on existing evidence.
- Why and how did events happen? What caused an event? Which individuals play important roles? What
is the meaning of the events studied in terms of the past and the present? Why do they matter?
,Notes – Global History 2023
Metahistory
- Emphasises patterns and regularities, great drivers of development, and the larger meaning of history.
- About big ideas (liberalism, Marxism, …).
- Popular in 19th century, it had a bad reputation in the 20th century, now making a comeback.
Key term associated with Metahistory
- The longue durée (long duration)
Take a long view of history to identify long-term trends/patterns and distinguish the contingent (event)
from the permanent (all the time).
Anti-history
- The idea is that when we speak of history, fiction and non-fiction are identical.
- Relevant concepts in the age of “fake news” and “post-truth” (Putin picked some events to justify his
invasion).
- Anti-history and relativism are fiction and speculation, not history.
Closely related concept: relativism
- There is no truth out there, and all narratives are equal.
- Extreme relativists turn to what they find the most useful fiction for their purposes.
Big history
- Also called “universal history” and sometimes “world history”.
- Concerned with the history of the world since the big bang.
- Integrates natural sciences (cosmology, geology, biology, …).
Global History
- Sometimes called “World history”.
- Concerned with the story of connections within the global human community.
- Looking beyond a single country/ region and into the development of a connected whole.
- To integrate different parts of the connected whole, scholars needed a shared timeline/ calendar.
First attempt: Biruni’s “The Chronology of Ancient Nations” in the 11th century, based on astronomy.
Final attempt: Homogenisation of time happened much later in the late 19th century.
- Discipline of Global History was established very recently.
Global history and IR
- Global history is the story of connections within the global human community.
- The human world comprises a multiplicity of co-existing societies (international).
Five implications of multiplicity
1. Co-existence
2. Difference
3. Interaction
4. Combination: no society developed homogenous; diversity was normal and necessary for development.
5. Dialectical change: things from one place are being used differently in another place.
,Notes – Global History 2023
Lecture 02: 09/02/2023
The rise and fall of European empires within a global context
Imperial expansion
- Process of destruction and creation (cities, languages, people, borders)
- Major consequences to this day (borders, remaining economic inequalities)
The chronological scope of European empires
- European imperialism began in 1492.
- Decolonisation mostly in the 1950s – 1970s with various exceptions.
Empire
- An empire is a large, composite, multi-ethnic, or multinational political unit, usually created by conquest
and divided between a dominant centre and subordinate, sometimes far distant, peripheries.
- Direct (centralised) and indirect (decentralised) rule
Direct: government of one country rules directly over the colonised countries.
Indirect: government of one country uses smaller puppet governments to rule over the countries.
- Established and maintained by violence.
- Dominant core that is economically exploiting the periphery.
- Cultural difference between people in the core and periphery, belief in superiority in the core.
- European empires were associated with pseudo-scientific racial hierarchies.
- Mass movement of people through voluntary migrations and forced migration (slave trade).
The “White man’s burden”: the idea that European countries had a duty to control countries and organisations in
parts of the world with less money, education, or technology than Europe.
Imperialism
- The actions and attitudes (military actions) which create or uphold empires, or less obvious kinds of
control/ domination (trade which leads to dependence).
Colonialism
- A system of legal rule by one group over another, where the first claims the right to exercise exclusive
sovereignty over the second and to shape its destiny.
This can be done internally (South African whites creating laws) or from far away (Britain).
One can have imperialism without having colonialism; however, there is no colonialism without imperialism, as
colonialism is a part of imperialism.
, Notes – Global History 2023
Settler colonisation
- Large-scale population movements, where the migrants maintain strong links with their or their
ancestor’s former country and when by doing so, they gain significant privileges over other inhabitants of
the new territory. Colonisation takes place under the protection of colonial political structures (mandate
from the central government).
Postcolonial world
- The parts of the globe that used to be under colonial rule.
Neo-imperialism/ Neo-colonialism
- Postcolonial situations where an outside power – usually, but not always, the former colonial ruler – still
exercises a substantial, though half-hidden influence in ways that resemble the older patterns of more
open domination.
Example: CFA Franc: Financial Community of Africa (French colonies in Africa), France still had influence.
Eurocentrism
- A point of view that places Europe at the centre of everything, particularly modernity and progress, and
that sees the rest of the world as historically backward.
Empirical Eurocentrism = only looking at Europe/ the West
Methodological Eurocentrism
- Methodological internalism
Origins and sources of modernity -> internal to Europe; Non-Europe -> passive, exploited periphery.
- Historical priority
Europe is conceived as the permanent core and prime mover of history.
- Universal stagism
European experience of modernity -> universal stage of development through which all societies must
pass; public good to be given to other societies via diffusion.
- Lineal developmentalism
Endogenous processes of social change -> universal stages of linear development.
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