Empires of the Weak (eBook)

The Real Story of European Expansion and the Creation of the New World Order

J. C. Sharman (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2019
216 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-18495-1 (ISBN)

Infos

J. C. Sharman is the Sir Patrick Sheehy Professor of International Relations in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of King's College. His books include The Despot's Guide to Wealth Management and International Order in Diversity. He lives in London.

---

How the rise of the West was a temporary exception to the predominant world orderWhat accounts for the rise of the state, the creation of the first global system, and the dominance of the West? The conventional answer asserts that superior technology, tactics, and institutions forged by Darwinian military competition gave Europeans a decisive advantage in war over other civilizations from 1500 onward. In contrast, Empires of the Weak argues that Europeans actually had no general military superiority in the early modern era. J. C. Sharman shows instead that European expansion from the late fifteenth to the late eighteenth centuries is better explained by deference to strong Asian and African polities, disease in the Americas, and maritime supremacy earned by default because local land-oriented polities were largely indifferent to war and trade at sea.Europeans were overawed by the mighty Eastern empires of the day, which pioneered key military innovations and were the greatest early modern conquerors. Against the view that the Europeans won for all time, Sharman contends that the imperialism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was a relatively transient and anomalous development in world politics that concluded with Western losses in various insurgencies. If the twenty-first century is to be dominated by non-Western powers like China, this represents a return to the norm for the modern era.Bringing a revisionist perspective to the idea that Europe ruled the world due to military dominance, Empires of the Weak demonstrates that the rise of the West was an exception in the prevailing world order.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 5.2.2019
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Makroökonomie
• Schlagworte: Army • artillery • Asymmetric warfare • aurangzeb • Backwardness • British armed forces • Bulletproofing • Calculation • Cavalry • Central Asia • Central Europe • Civilization • Clifford J. Rogers • Combatant • Conscription • Counter-Insurgency • Decolonization • defection • Dutch East India Company • Early Modern Europe • early modern period • East Asia • Effectiveness • empire-building • Eurocentrism • Europe • European theatre of World War II • Expeditionary warfare • feudalism • firearm • Fiscal-military state • Font Bureau • Force structure • Fortification • Great Power • Gunpowder • hegemony • House of Habsburg • iberians • imperialism • Indian Ocean • infantry • Insurgency • International Relations • Islamism • J. (newspaper) • matthew carter • mercenary • military history • Military organization • Military Revolution • Military Technology • Modernity • Mughal Empire • musket • narrative • naval warfare • new imperialism • North Africa • Ottoman Empire • Periodization • P. J. Conkwright • Politics • Qing Dynasty • Regiment • Ruler • russians • Safavid Dynasty • Scotch Roman • Siege • Social Darwinism • Social Science • South Asia • Southeast Asia • sovereign state • standing army • State-Building • Subsidy • Superiority (short story) • Suzerainty • Tax • Technology • The Papers of Thomas Jefferson • The Rise of the West • The Sovereign State • Thirty Years' War • Uncertainty • United States territorial acquisitions • Vassal • Volley fire • war • warfare • Wealth • Weapon • Western Culture • Western Europe • Westernization • Western World • World War • World War II
• ISBN-10: 0-691-18495-X / 069118495X
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-18495-1 / 9780691184951