Global Asia in the Modern World

HIST-UH 2119. 1/17/2021 – 5/3/2021. MW 4:05- 5:20pm. GST. Online
Credit hours: 4. No Prerequisites.
Satisfies the pre-1800 History requirement. Global Thematic
Counts for History Program oceans systems: Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific World        

David Ludden
Professor of History
                                                     Office Hours: By appointment
                                                   email: del5@nyu.edu

This course is about the globalization of human connectivity as an ongoing transformative process. A complete title might be “Asia as a Process of Globalization: Mobility, Territoriality, and the Scales of Spatial History.” We focus on Asia in its very broadest sense, including all the lands around the Indian Ocean and in MENA, connected intimately with Europe and Africa, from ancient times, embracing most of the human population, and forming a dynamic nexus for global connectivity whose increasing influence forms what the Financial Times calls our “Asian Century.” In this course, see how the wide range of Asian societies, cultures, and political economies have shaped and been shaped by expanding human mobility and by territorial dynamics of power and authority. We explore Asia as a creative human space, traveling the world. We study Asian histories of global capitalism, migration, nationalism, development, inequity, and politics that are producing ongoing global transformations in our own time.

HERE IS THE SYLLABUS for Spring 2021 at NYUAD

FORMAT

            In Spring 2021, this NYUAD course is fully online via Zoom and can thus include NYU students anywhere. I will be in New York. The Monday class will be a recorded lecture with a slide presentation. All course material is on the course webpage. The Wednesday class will convene in my meeting room, where I am also available for office hours on Fridays 6:00-9:00pm GST, by appointment. Attendance is required. All student writing should be composed in GoogleDocs and put in GoogleDrive Folders shared with me, where I can provide responses and comments.

Course Outline

Part I. Weeks 1-5. 1380-1820.

The great Asian post-Mongol landed empires increased commercial mobility, investment, and capital accumulation. Asian wealth and power led Europeans to invest in seaborne mobility, which brought the Spanish to America and Portuguese to Asia, followed by the Dutch, English, and French. Asian political economies sustained military commercialism in global seaborne networks anchored in port-cities on all the continents, accelerating economic development in coastal regions.

Part II. Weeks 6-10. 1820-1920.

Seaborne imperial territory expanded around colonial port cities. Mechanized mobility and industrial militarism enabled Europeans to dominate the territorial organization of global capitalism. Industrial transportation channeled wealth and power into cities and towns to enrich rising elites in proportion to imperial status. Imperial power at many levels mobilized Asian land, labor, and capital for economic growth based on inequities baked into nationalism. Increasing conflict among empires, nations, and imperial ranks destabilized the territorial organization of global capitalism, launching decades of world wars, depression, and genocide.  

Part III. Weeks 11-14. 1920s-2020s.

Nationalist movements produced a new twentieth century territorial order for the renewed expansion of global capitalism, while sustaining nineteenth century imperial inequities. Nation states became managers of competitive capital accumulation. Accelerating globalization produced more wealth, migration, refugees, inequality, and environmental degradation, along with “the rise of Asia” and increasing instability that prevents the solution of global problems of public health and climate change. Internet mobility in the twenty-first century “Asian Century” articulates a new round of ongoing territorial transformation.

STUDENT ASSESSMENTS

  • Three five-page papers, each 20% of the final grad, for a total of 60%.
  • Five one-page response papers, each is worth 5% of the final grade, for a total of 25%
  • Class participation is worth 15% of the final grade. Including 5% for class presentations.

ASSESSMENT GUIDELINES

  • All papers are double spaced, 12-point font, with one inch margins, with student name and assignment number in chronological order, as listed in the syllabus, in the header.
  • All papers are submitted via individual student GoogleDrive Folder shared with the instructor
  • 3 Five-page papers: due on Friday in weeks 6, 10, and 14. Paper topics are indicated on the syllabus. Papers will be judged on all aspects of quality: organized prose in a coherent sequence of paragraphs should focus clearly on the assignment and display a strong understanding of ideas and information from relevant course material.
    • Students have the option of submitting a draft of their last 5-page paper for instructor feedback and revision.
  • 5 One-page papers: due by noon on Wednesday in weeks 2, 3, 4, 5, and 9, based on weekly readings and the Monday online lecture, to prepare for class discussion and student presentations on Wednesdays. They should present an understanding of the course material. Asking questions and indicating doubts or confusion are appropriate in these response papers: they generate questions for discussion in class.
  • Classroom participation. This grade is based on levels of personal participation in the course as a whole. Minimally, students should always show they are paying attention and never get distracted by computers, phones, doodling, daydreams, jinn, or chit chat. They should ask all questions in class, rather than privately. They should engage conversations. They should respond intelligently when the instructor asks, “What do you think about this?” Students will be also lead discussions of course material with short presentations. An evaluation of presentations counts for one-third of participation grade.