Week 1 - Introduction
Lecture 1 - Introduction
This lecture is about making a short introduction into what history is. There are two main approaches to
history in IR: the closet of facts, and shopping list approaches. The closet of facts approach is closely linked
with neorealism, while the shopping list approach is linked with poststructuralism. Usually, constructivists,
and the English school lie in between these two approaches. There are also several types of histories that are
crucial to discuss: History, Metahistory, Anti-history, Big History, and Global History. History is simply
the nonfiction account of the past. Metahistory focuses on the great divers of development and emphasizes
patterns and regularities. Long Duree by Fernand Blaurel is a crucial example of meta-history in which
Braudel identifies trends and distinguishes the contingent from the permanent. Anti-history, on the other hand
argues that history is always like fiction, and makes questions the existence of historical events like the
Holocaust. This idea is linked with “relativism” which says that there’s no truth and all narratives are equal.
Big history connects everything to the big picture starting from the Big Bang. What this course focuses on:
Global History discusses the global human collectivity as a connected whole. Global History identifies five
implications of multiplicity: 1. Coexistence 2. Difference 3. Interaction 4. Combination 5. Dialectical
change. Dialectical change is when one society produces something, and the other uses it in a completely
different way.
Lecture 2 - Rise and Fall of European Empires
This lecture will discuss the main implications of imperialism. Imperial expansion is a process of destruction,
creation, and has consequences to this day. To start off, we should define what an empire is. An empire has 6
core characteristics 1. Centralized and decentralized rule 2. Established and maintained by violence 3.
Dominant core exploits the periphery 4. There are cultural differences, and a feeling of superiority of the
core 5. In the European context, associated with racial hierarchies 6. Mass movement of people and forced
migration.
To get a better understanding of this course 4 core concepts need to be clarified: imperialism, colonialism,
colonization, and neocolonialism.
- Imperialism is about actions and attitudes. Imperialism is the broad theme of these attitudes
dominating political units. This domination can be obvious, or not obvious.
- Colonialism is about law. It's the systems and laws that uphold this system, that allow a power to
claim exclusive sovereignty over a territory. In other words, you can not have colonialism without
imperialism, but you can have imperialism without colonialism.
- Colonization is about large-scale migration. When a power has domination over another territory,
people from the core move there, by maintaining strong links with the core, they gain privileges in the
new territory and are “superior”. In general, we refer to this privileged position and movement of
people as “Colonization”.
- Neocolonialism is attitudes and actions that remind people of the past of imperialism. For example,
Europeans dominating African countries currencies is an example.
When discussing Global History, Europe is always seen in the center. There are two main ways of discussing
Europe in that manner. 1. Empirical Eurocentrism that only focuses on the West (choosing this area, and
making that clear) 2. Methodological Eurocentrism that paints Europe as a self-made driver of modernity.
Even when focusing on global trends, making it seem as if Europe drove the world towards progress.
, Inside Methodological Eurocentrism, there are also a few concepts that are important: 1. Methodological
internalism 2. Historical priority 3. Universal stagism 4. Linear developmentalism.
- Methodological internalism says that the origins and sources of modernity are internal to Europe.
The ideas that drove the world towards modernity were always found by Europeans.
- Historical priority says that Europe is the prime mover of history. A trend starts in Europe, and then
in the rest of the world. Developments in Europe change the face of history.
- Universal stagism says that all countries need to go through the paths that the Europeans have already
been through. There are certain stages to be considered “developed” and these stages need to be met
by Non-Europeans.
- Linear developmentalism says that there’s a linear pattern of development, and countries are along
those lines
Week 2 - Empires During & Before Discovery
Lecture 3 - Europeans Far Behind
There are five common misconceptions regarding how the world was before the Age of Discovery. It’s
assumed that there wasn’t any economic development, the regions were not connected, and the polities were
governed by irrational despots. Therefore, it’s argued that global interdependence only happened after the
Europeans. However, these assertions are wrong because the pre-1500 world was characterized by economic
progress with a largely global Afro Asian economy.
The Oriental Globalization between 500 and 1800 illustrates this point. The Oriental Globalization started
with the revival of the camel, and involved T’ang China, Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, and the Fatimid
empire. This was a period of the creation of a global economy that linked all major world civilizations. In this
period, the world’s first global supply chain: the Silk Road was starting to gain prominence. The Silk Road
was the main route of trade between 500 and 1300, until the Indian Ocean became prominent in the
1300-1400 period.
In the pre-1500 world, the Islamic world also played a huge role in this interconnectedness by serving as a
bridge between major civilizations between 650 and 1800. Islamic empires were able to do this because, Islam
provided a sense of unity in a previously fragmented area, and it had a strong penchanent for trade, and helped
set contracts to protect merchants.
The main player in the Oriental Globalization was of course China. During the 1100s China became
enormously wealthy due to the Industrial Revolution. The industrial revolution in China is characterized by:
huge revolution in steel and iron, tax system based on cash, massively advanced agricultural techniques, and
the first military revolution (850-1300). Until 1100, China was largely internally powerful, but it wasn’t until
1400 that China became externally powerful, even more than its Islamic Counterparts. Regarding the military
revolutoin, the Chinese Muslim emperor Zheng He was crucial- he went on treasure fleets to advocate the
tribute system, and showed China’s prestige. However, in 1433 China renounced imperialist expansion by
destroying its treasure fleet in 1433. This was due to various identity, and material reasons.
Lastly, it should be noted that European’s only started getting involved in this global supply chain in the late
1400s.
