3. Weekly Schedule

Assignment Dates, Policies, Resources


GLOBAL ASIA. CORE-UA 546.

Lectures: MW, 2:00pm-3:15pm , Tisch Hall UC50

 

NOTES

Many links require access via NYUHome

You must make an Ebook Central account if you don’t already have one

IF OREAH Links do not work, search the title of the reading at this link: https://oxfordrecom.proxy.library.nyu.edu/asianhistory/browse/

You should do the reading for each week by Monday, and plan to write one-page papers on Tuesdays, in order to take advantage of material presented in class on Monday.  One-page assignments must be presented in hard copy to instructors in discussion sections, on Wednesday.


PART ONE (Weeks 1-6)

Creating Asia’s Circulatory System in the Long First Millennium, 300BCE-1300CE (Ashoka to Genghis Khan)

Visual Aids: StoryMap,  PREZI

Part One Slides

Week 1. Introductions

Reading: Course Description (with text links), Assignments, Policies, Resources

MANDATORY Wed. Sept 4. Morning. Discussion Sections.  See Albert for time and place. Discuss the Course Description in preparation for 1 page Paper #1, due on Sept. 11 

Wed Sept 42:00 PM – 3:15 PM. TISC_UC50

Introducing the Website, Course, Staff, Policies, Assignments, and Resources. Basic environmental geography and the importance of winds, rains, and monsoons for the “global” in Global Asia.     

Week 2. Mobile lifeways in Central Asia: Ecology, environment, wealth, and power 

Reading: (1) John Brooke and Henry Misa, “The Ecological History of Inner Asia.” (OREAH PDF ).  (2) David Christian, Silk Road or Steppe Roads? (PDF). (3) Peter Golden, “Early Nomads: Warfare is their Business,” Chapter Two in Central Asia in World History.  (4) Armin Selbitschka, “The Early Silk Road(s),” (OREAH).

Reference: Rafis Abazov, Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of Central Asia, Chaps 1-2. Introduction and Chapters 1-3.   Nomads As Agents of Cultural Change : The Mongols and Their Eurasian Predecessors, edited by Reuvan Amitai, Michael Biran, and Anand A. Yang, (Chaps 1-4, pre-Mongol; Chaps 6-12, Mongols). Nomads in the Sedentary World, edited by Anatoly M. Khazanov and Andre Wink, especially Chap 1, by Khazanov.

Mon Sept 9. 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM. TISC_UC50

Mobile “nomadic” ways of life connect various Steppe regions with, Farmland, Mountains, and Coast all around. Pastoral nomadism as a changing process. changing over time: 300BCE-600CE, circa 600-900, circa 900-1200, circa 1200-1700, circa 1700-2000.  In class reference: Nomadic Peoples of Central Asia

Wed Sept 11. Discussion Sections. 1 page paper #1 due today: Why is Central Asia the original heartland of globalization?

Wed Sept 11. Spatial Patterns and Chronologies of nomadic connectivity with Persia, India, and China, east-west-and south via Indo-Persia. Kushan/Yuezhi, Turks, Arabs, and Mongols. The centrality of Sogdiana, Transoxiana/Mawarannahr (“land beyond the Oxus/Amu Darya river“), Khorasan, Khwarezm, Bactria, Tokharistan, Tashkent, Samarkand.

New Reading: Lukas Nickel, “The First Emperor and Sculpture in China” (presenting evidence for Indo-Greek influence on ancient imperial China, with thanks to Yijun Wang)   

Week 3. Monsoon travels, Coastal Asia, Empires, and Buddhism: Early centuries CE. 

Required reading: Raoul McLaughlin, Rome and the Distant East : Trade Routes to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China, Chapters 2-4, pp. 23-109.   Richard Davis, Global India circa 100CE, pp. 6-44. Max Deeg, “Chinese Buddhist Travelers” (OREAH PDF). Tansen Sen, “Buddhism and the Maritime Crossings.” (16pp) 

Recommended reading:  Atholl, Anderson, “The Peopling of Madagascar” (OREAH). Himanshu Prabha Ray, “Maritime Archaeology of the Indian Ocean” (OREAH)Roxani Margariti, “Medieval Jewish Sources for Asian Trade” (circa 600-1200), (OREAH PDF).  Jean Deloche, “Roman Trade Routes in South India.” Jason Emmanuel Neelis, Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks : Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South AsiaChapters 1, 2, 6.  John Guy, “Introducing Early Southeast Asia,” pp. 3-13 in Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture in Early Southeast Asia, edited by John Guy.  

Mon Sept 16 Alexander and the age of the Periplus: The western routes, Indo-Persia, and Yavanas in South India.

Wed Sept 18. Discussion Sections. 1-page weekly paper #2.  How do monsoons form a spatial context for cultural history? Consider the relevance of both monsoon winds and monsoon rains for defining contexts of mobility and territoriality — remember this Core Course is in the “Cultures and Context” category.

Wed Sept 18. Circuits of Buddhism: overland and overseas. In Class Reference: MetMuseum Heilbrun essay on Buddhist Art . Faxian travel map.

Week 4. Migration and trade transform territory, 600-900.  Huns, Turks, Arabs, Byzantium and Caliphates. 

Reading:  Jane Burbank and Fredrick Cooper, Empires in World History, Chapter 3, “After Rome: Empire, Christianity, and Islam,” pp. 61-91.  Michael R. Drompp, “The Kök Türk Empires,” OREAH.  Timothy May, “Nomadic Warfare Before Firearms,” OREAH. On the Battle of Talas

Reference: Svat Soucek, History of Inner AsiaChapter Two,  on Kok Turks. Michael R. Drompp, “The Uyghur Empire (744-840),” OREAH.   Oleksandr Symonenko, “Warfare and Arms of the Early Iron Age Steppe Nomads,” OREAH .

Sept 23.  Roman Trade. Norman Underwood visiting lecture. I will miss this.

Sept 25.  Discussion Sections. 1-page weekly paper #3. Discuss the interaction between Empire and Trade. Be specific about geography. Consider routes of supply (mobility) and sites of demand (territoriality).  

Sept 25. The Caliphates. From the origins of Islam to the Abbasid Revolution: from the Hijaz to Khorasan

Week 5. Empires connect through the monsoon tropics, 900-1200: Abbasids, Rashtrakutas, Srivijaya, Belitung,  Cholas, Tang and Song

Reading: James Anderson, “China’s Southwestern Silk Road in World History.” Philip Curtin, Cross Cultural Trade and World History, Introduction. John Miksit, Chinese Ceramic Production and Trade” (OREAH) and Tamara Bently, “Trade in the East and South China Seas.” (OREAH). Kenneth Hall, Early Economic History of Southeast Asia, pp. 196-215.

Reference. Chakravarti, Sindbad and India. Goiten, Genizah Letters. Cambridge University Digital Library, Cairo Genizah. Fatimid Art and Cairo. Ronald Edwards, “Redefining Industrial Revolution.”

Sept 30. The Emerging Centrality of South India and Southeast Asia

Oct 2. Discussion Sections. 5-page paper #1 Due next week. Here is the assignment. Describe the major features of Asia’s Circulatory System BEFORE the Mongol imperial expansion; consider its creators (people), geography (spaces), and chronology (in centuries).

Oct 2. The Circulatory System, circa 1200. 5-page paper #1 Q&A and ways to approach the assignment. 

Week 6. Mongols enhance circulation: 13th-century mobility, war, and culture.  

Reading: Jos Gommans, “The Warband the Making of Eurasian Empires.” Michal Biran, “The Mongol Empire and inter-civilizational exchange.” Michal Biran, “The Mongol Transformation: From the Steppe to Eurasian Empire.”

Reference: Pederson et al, “Pluvials, Droughts, The Mongol Empire, and Modern Mongolia.” Michael Brose, “Medieval Uyghurs from the 8th to 14th Century,” OREAH.  

Oct 7. The World of the Mongol Empire. (A summary of Part One)

Oct 9. Discussion Sessions, Paper #1 Due today (Assignment see Oct 2).  Discuss today the novelty of the Mongols.

Oct 9. The Mongol Empire and Successors. Chinggisids, Timurids, Tatars, The Black Sea, Venice, The Black Death, and contradictory impact on Europe.


PART TWO (Weeks 7-9)

The Great Asian Empires:

Military Commercialism, 1200-1800 (Kublai Khan to Napoleon)

Part Two Slides

Week 7. Military power promotes commercial expansion, 1200-1400.

Reading: Mongols in World History (Columbia University Website). Peter Jackson, The Mongols and the Islamic World: From Conquest to Conversion. Johan Elverskog, “Buddhist and Muslim Interaction in Asian History,” (OREAH PDF). Michael Hope, “Bukhara under the Mongols,” (OREAH).  Thomas Allsen, “Mongol Princes and their Merchant Partners.” Peter Bozian, “The Role of Ortoy Merchants in the Mongolian Court: From the Rise of the Mongol Empire to the Fall of the Yuan Dynasty.”

Reference: Mongol Timeline. China Under Mongol Rule, edited by John D. Langlois. Morris Rossabi, Eurasian Influences in Yuan China. ChinaKnowledge. The Secret History of the Mongols

Viewing:  “The Mongol Empire and Kublai Khan,” History Channel, 47:18. 

Oct 14. FALL BREAK. CLASS MEETS ON TUES October 15.

Oct 15. Mongol Regions of Imperial Connectivity: 1200-1400s. Ilkhans, Golden Horde, Chagatayids, and European Connections. 

Imperial territory as mobility infrastructure: transport and protection costs; locational advantage; investment landscapes; long-distance trade; geographical knowledge; intellectual, artistic, and commercial mobility. See assignments for 1-page due Oct. 30 and 5-page paper #2 below due Nov 6. 

Oct 18. Discussion Sections. No Response paper due. Discuss reading and Mongol military expansion of commercialism in the four regions.

Oct 16.  Mongol Regions of Imperial Connectivity: 1200-1400s. Kublai Khan, Yuan Dynasty, Persia, Timur, and the Timurids.  The foundations of Asia’s Great Imperial Territories: Russian, Ottoman, Mughal, Ming/Qing.

Week 8. Monumental Empires, 1300-1650:  Ming, Qing, Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal.  

Reading: Beatrice Manz, “Tamerlane and the Timurids” (OREAH). Michael Fisher, “The Mughal Empire.” (OREAH) Stephen F. Dale, “The Rise of Muslim Empires,” in The Muslim Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals, 48-76. Andre Wink, “Post-Nomadic Empires: From Mongols to Mughals,” in Peter Fibiger Bang and C.A.Bayly, editors, Tributary Empires in Global  Historypp.121-31. Matthew Romaniello, “Transregional Trade in Early Modern Eurasia,” OREAHJohan Elverskog, “The Tumu Incident and Chinggisid Legacy.” Tansen Sen, “The impact of the Zheng He Expeditions.” Peter Perdue, “The Expansion of the Qing Dynasty and the Zunghar Mongol State,” (OREAH)

Reference: Jerry Brotton, The Renaissance Bazaar: From the Silk Road to Michelangelo;  Rosamund Mack, Bazar to Piazza: Islamic Trade and Italian Art, 1300-1600. Berkeley ORIAS Website on Ibn Batuta. Tamara Bently, “Trade in the East and South China Seas.” (OREAH).  Giancarlo Casale, “The Islamic Empires of the Early Modern World,” in The Cambridge World History, Volume VI: The Construction of a Global World, 1400-1800 CE, 323-344. Richard von Glahn, “Myth and Reality of Seventeenth Century Monetary Crisis.” YouTube: Taisu Zhang on the Economics of Confucianism

Oct. 21. Ming and Qing. Yijun Wang, Visiting Lecture. Slides at this link.

Oct 23. 1-page weekly paper #4. Discuss the main points in Yijun Wang’s lecture on Monday. 

Oct 23.       Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal. Ayse Baltacioglu-Brammer, Visiting lecture. Here are her slides in PDF format.

Week 9.  Imperial expansion across continents, connected by sea: 1500-1850

Reading:   Dennis O.Flynn and Arturo Giráldez, “Born with a ‘Silver Spoon’: The Origin  of World Trade in 1571,” Journal of World History, 6, 2, 1995, 201-221. Arturo GiráldezThe Age of Trade : The Manila Galleons and the Dawn of the Global Economy.  M. van Rossum, “The Dutch East India Company and Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean and Indonesian Archipelago Worlds, 1602-1795” (OREAH). Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, “Empires in their Global Context, c.1500-c.1800.” Chapter 6 in The Atlantic in Global History, 1500-2000, edited by Jorge Canizares-Esguerra, Erik R Seeman. Tirthankar Roy, “Origins of British India.” (OREAH).  A.C.S. Peacock, “The Ottoman Empire and the Indian Ocean,” (OREAH). Peter Perdue, “The Rise and Fall of the Canton Trade System -1: China in the  World (1790s-1860s)”

Reference: Michael Khodarkovsky, Russia’s Steppe Frontier : The Making of a Colonial Empire, 1500-1800.  Michael Charney, “Warfare in Pre-Modern Southeast Asia.” (OREAH). K.Mukund, “Indian Textile Industry in the 17th and 18th Century.” The East India Companies and European Imperialism. Reading: Rudranghsu Mukherjee, “What Made The East India Company so Successful?”

Oct 28.   Port Cities, Coastal Regions, and Global Networks …  Imperial Engines of Global Connectivity. PAPER #2 builds on 1-page weekly #5 assignment below. 

Oct 30.   Discussion Sections. 1-page weekly paper #5. How did the Asian empires promote global commercial expansion: keep in mind the importance of transportation costs, urbanism, military supplies, taxation, European connections, and elite consumption.  

Oct 30.  VOC in Asia. Susanah Romney, visiting lecture. Slides available at this link. 

 


PART THREE (Weeks 10-15)

Capitalist Militarism and Imperial Modernity:  Empire, Nation, and Globalization, 1800-2020 (Cornwallis to Xi Jinping)  

SLIDES FOR PARTS THREE

Week 10. Spatial Foundations for Imperial Modernity.

Nov 4. Midterm grades due today. Paper #2. Summary of Part Two themes. From the Mongols (1200s) to British India (1700s): Imperial Space, from Central Asia to the Sea. + Q&A.

Nov 6. Discussion Sections. Paper#2. 5-PAGE PAPER DUE TODAY. This paper is based on readings and presentations for PART TWO. Discuss the interaction of imperial militarism and long-distance commercialism connecting Europe and Asia between 1200 and 1800. Be specific about people, places, and activities which are important in this interaction. See Oct 30 assignment for reference. 

Nov 6. Modern Imperial Territory 1: Competing Empires carve up mobile space around the Silk Road, Steppe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and Indo-Persia. The Global Asia context of “The Great Game.” 

Russia: Alfred Rieber, “Russia in Asia” (OREAH). Andreas Wilde, “The Emirate of Bukhara” (OREAH). Adrian Brisku, “Ottoman Russian Relations” (OREAH). Michael Kemper, “Russian Orientalism.” (OREAH).

Indo-Persia: Herman Kreutzmann, “The Historical Geography of the Pamirs.” (OREAH). David Ludden, “The Process of Empire: Frontiers and Borderlands,” in Peter Fibiger Bang and C.A.Bayly, editors, Tributary Empires in Global  Historypp. 132-148. David Ludden, “The Centrality of Indo-Persia”.

Caucasus: Simon Payaslian,”Modern Armenia.” (OREAH) Stephen H Rapp, “Georgia Before the Mongols. (OREAH)

China: Peter Perdue, “The Expansion of the Qing Dynasty and the Zunghar Mongol State,” (OREAH). Victor Lieberman, “The Qing Dynasty and Its Neighbors: Early Modern China  in World History,” Social Science History, 32, 2, 2008, 281-304. Rian Thum, “The Uyghurs in Modern China.” (OREAH).Victor Lieberman, “The Qing Dynasty and Its Neighbors: Early Modern China  in World History,” Social Science History, 32, 2, 2008, 281-304. Scott Levi, “Asia in the Gunpowder Revolution,” (OREAH). Nianshen Song,  “Power and Trade between Qing China and Chosŏn Korea.” (OREAH) 

Reference: Bloomsbury Books on British Imperial Wars.  The Bodleian Map Room Blog.

Week 11. Globalization , Imperial Space, and Territorial Inequity 

The Framework for 5-page Paper #3. Use history over the last 200 years in one part of Global Asia as context for understanding some pressing contemporary concerns: you can think of this as “History in the Headlines,” but you can make up your own headline issues to consider.

Nov 11. Modern Imperial Territory 2a: Economic Growth, Spatial Inequality and the Chronology of European Imperialism, 1800-2000 

Viewing: Hans Rosling, “200 Years that Changed the World.” YouTube: The Rise and Fall of the British Empire.  

Nov 13. Discussion Sections.  Describe the composition of Asian imperial space before 1914.  Consider the entire expanse of Mongol expansion.

Nov 13. Modern Imperial Territory 2b, or, The Imperial Space of Globalization: Commodities, Capital, and Labor and Port City Environments

            REFERENCE. Wiley Online Library: Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration. MAPS

Adam McKeown, “Periodizing Globalization.” Adam McKeown, “Chinese Emigration in Global Context, 1850-1940,” Journal of Global History, 5. 2010. Adam McKeown, “A World Many Many: Integration and Segregation in Global Migration, 1840-1940,” in Connecting Seas and Connected Ocean Rims, pp.42-64.

Ulbe Bosma and Anthony Webster, “Commodities, Ports and Asian Maritime Trade since 1750: The Foundation of the Modern Asian ‘Economic Miracle,'” in Commodities, Ports and Asian Maritime Trade Since 1750, edited by Ulbe Bosma and Anthony Webster, Chapter 1, pp. 1-16. Cesar Ducruet, “Asian Cities in the Global Maritime Network Since the Late Nineteenth Century,” Chapter 8 in Asian cities, Colonial To Global, edited by Peter Bracken,  pp.173-187. 

Richard B. Allen, “Asian Indentured Labor in the 19th and Early 20th Century Colonial Plantation World” OREAH.  Jayati Bhattacharya, “Connectivity across the Bay of Bengal in the 19th and 20th Century.” (OREAH) Mariko Ijima, “Japanese Diasporas and Coffee Production.” (OREAH)  

Jeffrey Wassertstrom, Global Shanghai 1850-2010: A history in fragments, pp. 1-62. Par Cassel, “Treaty Ports and Foreign Community in Modern China. “(OREAH) Lakshmi Subramanian, “Parsi Traders in Western India, 1600-1900.” (OREAH) Chhaya Goswami, “Kachchis in East Africa.” (OREAH) Magnus Marsden and Ben Hopkins, “Afghan Trade Networks.” (OREAH)

Week 12: Imperial Territories and Nationalities

Nov 18. Imperial Infrastructure, Mobility, and Cultural Space

Plantation economies, slavery, indenture, merchant networks, migration, and the global production of interconnected spaces of increasing cultural diversity.  Migration Map. in Wiley Online Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration

Nov. 20. Empires and Nations: Inclusion, Exclusion, and Power Struggles. 

Readings:

On Technologies of Mobility: Alan Baumler, “Aviation and Asian Modernity 1900-1950.” (OREAH)   

Japan: A funny (warning: can be offensive) but useful video: History of Japan. Philip Seaton, “Japanese Empire in Hokkaido.” (OREAH) Emer O’Dwyer, “Japanese Empire in Manchuria.” (OREAH). Sven Saaler, “Japanese Empire and PanAsianism.” (OREAH).

China: Perdue and Sebring, “The Boxer Uprising, I, II, II” and other readings in “Visualizing Cultures” online collection.  Xiaohong Xu, “The Origins and Growth of the Chinese Communist Movement.” (OREAH) 

Central Asia: Peter Finke, “Ethnicity of Turkic Central Asia.” (OREAH) Rafis Abazov, “Modern Kyrgyzstan.” (OREAH)

West Asia: Ilan Pappe, “Modern Palestine” (OREAH). Nikki Keddie, The Revolt of Islam.

Indonesia: Henk Schulte Nordholt, “Cultural Citizenship and Modernity in the Netherlands Indies. (OREAH).

South Asia: Sanjay Joshi, “India’s Middle Class” (OREAH). Anirudh Deshpande, “The Indian Army, 1850-1950.” (OREAH). Ayesha Jalal, “The Creation of Pakistan.” (OREAH) David Ludden, India and South Asia: A Short History, pp. 120-194. David Ludden, An Agrarian History of South Asia, Chapter Four, pp. 167-230. David Ludden, Imperial Modernity.

Week 13.  The Final Wars of Competitive Imperial Territorial Expansion: 1914-1945    

Nov 25.The Turning Point: World War One. Mutual Self-Destruction in the Globalization of Territorial Empires and The Birth of Territorial Nations.

Final Paper Prompt: Select news items about Asia today and tell us how what you’ve learnt about the history of Global Asia puts the news in new light. How does history help explain the present? Be sure to consider themes we have discussed in this course and history not just recently but over some span of the last 200 years. Consider one region in West, East, South, Southeast, or North Asia, focusing on details of trends with broader significance. We will discuss exemplary topics in lecture and discussion sections, but you are free to identify your own. One obvious theme would be the influence of empires and struggles over control of imperial territory in in and among nation states. 

Required reading: articles on the region of your final paper in THE INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD WAR ONE. We expect to see the use of this reading in your final paper.

LAST 1-Page response paper DUE IN LECTURE TODAY. This is preparation for final 5-page paper. Describe the importance of WWI in one region of Global Asia.

Nov 27 No Sections, No CLASS. Thanksgiving Break. Enjoy!

Week 14. Creating the World of Nations 

Dec 2. Partition, Revolution, Cold War, Citizens, and Refugees

Reading: Ludden, The Violence of National Territory.

VIDEO:  Al Jazeera VIDEO on ROHINGYA Persecution.

Dec 4. Neo-Liberal Globalization, the Rise of Asia, and Imperial Inequity

Reading; Andre Gunder Franke, ReORIENT : Global Economy in the Asian Age, Chap.7. Ludden, “Empire Meets Globalization: Explaining Historical Patterns of Inequity in South Asia.” Jomo Sundaram and Anis Chaudhuri, “Inequality and its Many Discontents.”

VIDEOS: Documentary Histories of the Emirates 2013 (52:00), 2017 (1:05), 2019 (TV miniseries — must get for NYU). THE STORY OF CHINA. (54:00 Amazon Prime).  THE STORY OF INDIA (54:00 Amazon Prime). Google “The Story of Vietnam” and all you get is US Vietnam War Stories. THE STORY OF EGYPT (a series of 54 minute episodes) is all about Ancient Egypt.

Week 15. How does Global Asia affect your interpretation of Headline News.

Dec 9. Final Thoughts on Final Papers. Q&A

Dec 11. Final Paper Due in Recitation