A Global Historical Perspective of West... · Sketch by William Alexander, British Library WD961/1540. Iron steamship Nemesis destroying Chinese war junks in Anson's Bay, 7 January

Divergences and Convergences

in East and West: A Global Historical Perspective

Nanyang Technological University

October 2016

By Tonio Andrade

HG Wells circa 1918

Sketch of Sir George Macartney

in his Robes, WD959/97Portrait of the Qianlong Emperor

in Court Dress

HMS The Lion at Anchor Near Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province,

summer of 1793.

Macartney Mission to China of 1793Kesi (緙絲 cut silk) Tapestry, c. 1793, UK National Maritime Museum Item No: TXT0107

Qianlong Receiving Macartney EmbassySketch by William Alexander, British Library WD961/1540

Iron steamship Nemesis destroying Chinese war junks

in Anson's Bay, 7 January 1841

By Edward Duncan, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK

“Le pont de Pa-Li-Kiao, le soir de la bataille de Palikiao (Baliqiao),” September 1860 By Émile-Antoine Bayard

“Prise de Bac-Ninh, 12 mars 1884, vu par des images d’Épinal françaises”Sino-French War (1881-1885)

American Fighting in Beijing, August 1900, Boxer Rebellion”Artist: H. Charles McBarron, Jr.

Figure of a Dutch Merchant

(Probably Andreas Everardus

van Braam Houckgeest,

1739–1801), by Chitquac. 1770, Rijks Museum, Amsterdam

Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes, Voyage à Péking, Manille et l'Ile de France:

faits dans l'intervalle des années

1784 à 1801, ATLAS Vol (Paris: Treuttel & Wurtz, 1808).




What is

global

history?

Global historians focus on three things:

1. Events and processes that affect the entire

globe

2. comparisons between different regions of the

world

3. connections between the peoples of the world

(transnational)

Connecting the World: Global Silver Flows, 1500-1800From the work of Arturo Giraldez and Denis Flynn (via André Gunder Frank)

Kenneth Pomeranz, 1957–

Victor Lieberman, 1945–

Strange Parallels?

Wen 文 vs Wu 武

“Even if the idea of the gun as well as the

gunpowder reached Europe from China, the

fact remains that the Europeans very swiftly

outstripped the Chinese and every other

people in gun design, and continued to

enjoy a clear superiority in this art until

World War II.”

— William McNeill, Pursuit of Power

18th-Century Europe

Late 18th-Century China

The Northern Song

960-1126

The Southern Song

960-1279

Central and East Asia, 1246–1259

European vs. Chinese Warfare by Year, 1340-1911

Database Project based on Zhong guo jun shi shi bian xie zu 中国军事史编写组, Zhong guo li dai zhan

zheng nian biao, vol 2 (xia) 中国历代战争年表（下卷） (Beijing: Liberation Army Press 解放军文艺出版社, 2003); and Trevor N. Dupuy, The Encyclopedia of Military History: From 3500 B.C. to the Present

(New York: Harper & Row 1993).









Frequency of Terms Pertaining to Warfare in Ming and Qing Veritable Records

The Terms:

刀枪兵剑钺斧弓弩矛盾鞭戈箭戟砲炮火炮铳火攻神机神机铳火箭佛朗机火枪火器攻守反叛败扰战役复卫夺争兵变兵伐军侵扰围击犯抗歼袭讨镇压征杀援起事掠敌寇

乱弹船舰滟驳

Data-mining Project Based on Ming and Qing Veritable Records

Frequency of Terms Pertaining to Warfare in Ming and Qing Veritable Records

The Terms:

刀枪兵剑钺斧弓弩矛盾鞭戈箭戟砲炮火炮铳火攻神机神机铳火箭佛朗机火枪火器攻守反叛败扰战役复卫夺争兵变兵伐军侵扰围击犯抗歼袭讨镇压征杀援起事掠敌寇

乱弹船舰滟驳

Data-mining Project Based on Ming and Qing Veritable Records

The Gunpowder Age in China and Europe





Portrait of Isaac Newton (1642-1727)Copy of oil painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller(1689)

Benjamin Robins's

Ballistics Pendulum, 1742

From Brett D. Steele, "Muskets and Pendulums:

Benjamin Robins, Leonhard Euler, and the Ballistics

Revolution," Technology and Culture 35(2) [1994]:

348-382.

Joseph Needham, 1900–1995

Jack Goldstone, 1953–

“A government based on virtue can truly win

the hearts of men; one based on force can

only gain their outward submission. The li

are suasive and hence the instrument of a

virtuous government; laws are compulsive

and hence the instrument of a tyrannical

government.” Derk Bodde and Clarence Morris, Law in Imperial China

(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967), 20–21.

Reenactment of Qianlong Emperor Making Sacrifices to Heaven (2013)

Yongzheng Performing

Rites at the Altar of the

God of Agriculture

Anonymous, 1723-35

Palace Museum, Beijing

Qianlong Emperor Receiving Tribute Guests

Near Summer Palace at Chengde

Qianlong Receiving Macartney EmbassySketch by Willian Alexander, British Library WD961/1540







Beijing Palace Museum

Anonymous, Yongzheng Emperor as

Meditating Tibetan Monk


Anonymous, Yongzheng Emperor

as Turkish Prince



Yongzheng as Mongol Noble


Yongzheng as a Persian Prince



Yongzheng as Daoist Sage



Yongzheng as French Noble

By one of Court Jesuit Painters

Before Yongzheng Took Throne


Yongzheng

as French Noble


Documents

A Global Historical Perspective of West... · Sketch by William Alexander, British Library WD961/1540. Iron steamship Nemesis destroying Chinese war junks in Anson's Bay, 7 January