WORLD HISTORY

Lectures+readings combined

The study of history=

the study of change over time in the human past

historicism

An approach that invites the historian to engage in history writing by trying to step into the shoes of contemporaries.
Emphasises the importance of history

Two categories of sources of historicism

Primary and Secondary

Primary

material that is DIRECTLY related to the historical events which are the subject of study.

Secondary

sources that are MODERATED and NOT DIRECTLY produces at the time or linked to the events ( e.g books that are written about the historical events that are subject of study)

Meta-hisotry

historians look for the patterns and regularities over the course of time
opposite of historicism

Problem with meta history

Risk of theological reasoning because we know the endpoint of the history.Everything is interpreted as functioning towards that goal. The other alternative and valid interpretations are overlooked.

Three new ways of ordering history

Studying topics that are smaller than nation states (micro history)
Studying areas that include more than one nation and engage in thematic history (women's history)
Studying the Earth in its totality

What is World History?

World History sees as its main contribution the history writing of interconnectedness, or
entanglement, of the history of the world.

THREE important forms of connections:

- exchange of people
- exchange of goods
- exchange of ideas

Migration positive and negatives

● Negatives: conflict, spread of pathogens
● Positive: broadened the gene pool, resilient population, people could learn from one another,
allowed to exchange goods.

World History has a-----------approach

interdisciplinarity

World Historians compare and contrast between different places and time frames, this way they
find the similarities and differences, patterns and trends

Comparative Research Design.

3 KEY Concepts / Historicism

● Need for historians to work in a manner that is professional, transparent.like a lens
● To see the world through someone else’s eyes
● History can only be understood in its OWN Historical environment

3 KEY Concepts / Meta history

● Is there a logic to History? Is the question you ask in meta history
● Look for patterns and similarities
● Theories, ideas to explain the material world (Einstein’s theory) ; Would this also be possible for
history? Doing this, may lead to better understanding
● Teleology is connected with meta history because of the REASONING. Evidence is interpreted in such a way that it deletes the outcome

Historiography example

It is about the writing of history and the interpretations of the past
● For example: The Cold War. There were a lot of wrong interpretations about why the Cold War developed,history of animals, disabilities…
● Trends like: states, wars and men – political history

Skills of the historian

● Research
● Judgement
● Persuasive argument (how do you write about what you find)
● Close reading
● Concise writing
● Question-framing
● Presentation

● Oswald Spengler:

rise and decline of civilizations

Problem about the rise and decline of the civilisations

Problem: He did not use the scientific standard that we would see essential. Where are the
sources? Are they reliable? Etc.

Arnold Toynbee:

civilizations = starting point, also rising and falling, CHALLENGES in Civilizations

Problem Arnold Toynbee

Problem: Also about sourcing, transparency, academic standar

The Disappearance of World History?

● The rise of nationalism + science
● People wrote more about history of nation then about civilization = problem

The Comeback of World History?

● Was it even fully gone?
● More information available

The project of World History?

● The motor of World History is based on INTERACTIONS
Core Concerns of World History
● Global Citizenship
● Connectivity and the interconnected world
● Circulation of people, ideas, things and institutions
● Processess transcending borders and boundaries

Picture of Cockatoo:

only lives in Australia, but the picture it was drawn in is in a different
country. Through this source, we can know that there were CONNECTIONS between different
parts of world

The sources of the World Historian

● Pre-existing research
● Comparative research designs
● Interpretation and discovery of patterns
● How does this create a story

Modernity

A set of ideas focused on rationality, science, secularism, democracy and
cosmopolitanism. It reflects both a time frame in which these ideas came about and gained
traction, at the end of the eighteenth century, as well as an outlook on the world as either
pre-modern and modern.

- Enlightenment

The Enlightenment is an intellectual and scientific movement in the
seventeenth and eighteenth century in which scientists and philosophers aimed to establish
dominance over natural phenomena. By using reason and rational deduction, increased
insights could be gained into the working of the natural world and humans living within it.
The malleability of nature also resulted in policies aimed at ‘enhancing’ and ‘purifying’ the
human race.

Civilization =

A complex society bound together by common rule, sharing a common territory,
identity, means of communication and religion.

Comparative Research Design

An approach to conducting research through comparison.
This comparison can focus on different groups of people, time frames, locations, themes but
also definitions, concepts and theories.

- Global Citizenship

The field of World History operates in the belief that the study of the
process of ever-increasing connections can help in the formation and education of future
generations of responsible and informed global citizens. This is the cosmopolitan ideal of the
field

- Historicism

The study of history in its unique context, time and place. It is the task of the
historian to try to get as close as possible to the lived historical experience.

L 2 start
Meaningful Communication

The deliberate act of transferring information through a verbal (speech or writing) or non-verbal (such as drawing, movement, objects) medium.
collaborative acts of communication, such as singing and dancing, were fundamental for the evolution of human civilizations

Oral History

The study of history through orally transmitted sources. Historians distinguish between sources which are part of an oral tradition and the field of Oral Literature, such as epic poetry or folklore,interviews. at the same time, they offer historians evidence of otherwise undocumented events or perspectives.

Epistemology

The approach to knowledge and how to arrive at it, taking into account its foundations, methods, and validity.
How you arrive at the question

Culture

The ideas and practices that award meaning to activities in human societies.

The orality-literary shift was gradual and did not mean a sudden and complete rejection of the more primary forms of communication, instead for most of the history of -------- literacy aided and strengthened oral traditions and vice versa.

ancient Egypt

The keepers of history and knowledge were -or - or -.

Griots, Jali or Deli

- often functioned as mediators in conflict situations as their knowledge of local histories was seen to ensure wisdom and mutual understanding -sought to preserve the living memories of their people.

Griots
west African

Communication:

• Song, dance and art
• Speech and common meaning Also
• Control over fire
• Complex tools and technology
Domestication of plants and animals

Emergence of Agriculture

Agriculture; opportunities and risks

Opportunity

Settlement, organisation, solidarity • Population growth
• Artefacts, astronomy - development

Risks

• Disease
• Warfare with non-settled groups
Earliest civilizations

Earliest civilizations

Mesopotamia, fertile crescent •
Egypt, Nile
• North-west India, Indus
• China

Two big metropolitan corridors

1. Nile-Indus corridor
2. East Asia, China

Key developments 2

• Cooperation and competition
• Internal – external dynamics • Comparative advantage
• Organisation
• Expansionist

A Civilization

‘A complex society bound together by common rule, sharing a common
territory, identity, means of communication and religion’.

Skeleton example

Lucy

Characteristics of Civilizations

• Rule / government / bureaucracy
• Territory
• İdentity
• Communication / language / literacy / writing
• Religion or moral rules or codes (‘portable congregational religions’ - Judaism, Buddhism, Zoroastrism, Confucianism)

Drivers of historical change

Encounters and interaction between civilizations
• Borrowing and appropriating practices from other groups
• Rejecting outside practices, changes and social control

Communication and Civilization

• Dispersion of information key in development of human societies
• Transmitted through contact, trade, conflict
• Increase in quantity, scope and velocity over the course of time

Information

Pamphlets & Newspapers

The information revolution

1. Printing press
2. 1920s: telephone, radio, automobile 3. 1940s – 1950s: television
4. > 1960s, 1990s: networked computers

Mobilisation but also -

manipulation and control

Morse code
Telegraph
Wireless / Radio
Telephone
Satellite communications
The digital age
Connectivity
these had effects on-

-Politics
-Economics
-Culture&Society
-Religion
-Science

L3-China it is known as

‘One Belt One Road’

Halford Mackinder -developed his idea that the geographical pivot of history revolves around control over the-----

Heartland

The Great Game

Concept used to describe the rivalry between the British and Russian Empires in the nineteenth century over control of the central Asian landmass.

the importance of the land routes declined again after the break-up of the --------- in the mid- fifteenth century CE.

Timurid Empire

World System Theory-Immanuel Wallerstein

The world is divided into three sets of states depending on the role
they play in economic production: Core-countries, semi-periphery and periphery countries. Core countries rely on capital intensive production and a skilled labor force, whereas periphery countries have production processes focused on labor intensive production with low-skilled workers.

was challenged by frank

Imperiogenesis theory

An explanation for the development of mega-empires through the confrontation between nomadic and sedentary populations, triggering a mutual reinforcing cycle of organization and confrontation.

Capitalism

An economic system in which the means of production are privately owned (instead of by the state) and used to generate and maximize profit

The new Marshall Plan?

Aim: to boost development and trade
Focus: infrastructure

The Silk Roads 120 bce – 1450 ce

The concept of Silk Roads to substantiate trans- civilisational exchange
• Exchange between agrarian societies • The Han Empire
• The Roman Empire • The Parthian Empire • The Kushian Empire

Christian ‘Silk Roads & Steppe Roads

Main thesis:
Christian attempts to highlight the trans-ecological role of the Silk Roads
1. ‘Trans-ecological’ exchange = the exchange between pastoralists and agricultural empires.
2. Pastoralist societies as the carriers of these exchanges

Evidence

• Some goods were produced exclusively to export to the steppes and not to other civilizations.
• Pastoralist societies can explain the spread of the Indo- European languages
• Exchange of diseases

The origin of the Silk Roads is not --or -----driven – instead these civilizations (sometimes forcibly) entered and intensified already existing trade routes.
It was the steppe pastoralist society that safeguarded the long distance trade.

Chinese or European

Nomads (gocebeler) vs Agrarians (ziraatcilar)

• Different demand • Type of product
Discover the world at Leiden University
Christian’s thesis:
The trans-ecological role of Silk Roads
• Exchange of goods and ideas between pastoralists and agriculturalists
• = ‘trans-civilisational exchange’ • = ‘trans-ecological exchange’

with Silk Road there was

spread of disease
ecological exchange
Jared Diamond: Guns,Germs and Steel

Environmental differences are important. Explanatory factors are;

geography, immunity to germs, food production, domesticated animals and steel.

Peter Turchin

mega-empires’: territorial states that controlled, at their peak, an area equal or greater than one million square kilometres

Peter Turchin’s argument
- Nomads versus Settled Population

- External threat - internal cohesion
- The necessity of ‘scaling up’ the level of political
organisation
Evidence for ‘one of the strongest macro-historical regularities over the long term’.

Imperiogenesis theory
ic ve dis catismalar

• An explanation for the development of mega-empires through the confrontation between nomadic and sedentary populations, triggering a mutual reinforcing cycle of organization and confrontation.

The argument for mega-empires

1. Environmental gradient, limited distance 2. Military superiority of the nomads
3. Space, deep hinterland for expansion
A theory of ‘co-evolution of agrarian mega- empires and nomadic imperial confederations’

Military innovation

• The chariot (1800 BCE)
• Iron weaponry (1200 BCE)
• The mounted archer (700 BCE)

Turchin’s Argument

Antagonistic interactions between pastoralist (Coban) and
agrarian (Tarim)empires
• The steppe frontier is a location for imperiogenesis.
• Around 500 BCE scaling up of maximum empire size.
• Chinese Empires are perfect example of Turchin’s
theory, Americas fit least into Turchin’s model (because of lack of domesticated animals).

Pastoralists vs. Agriculturalists

1. Mega-empires are large territorial states that controlled at least one million square kilometers. There have been over sixty between 3000 BCE and 1800 CE mainly in eastern Asia.
2. The antagonistic interactions on a steppe frontier between the nomadic pastoralists and the settled agrarian communities that lead to the rise of the mega empires. The steppe frontier is a location for imperiogenesis as there is a feedback loop leading increasing political organisation on either side of the steppe frontier.

What do the Silk Roads Theory and Imperiogenesis Theory have in common

they both focus on environmental gradients.

L4
Revolution

A quick overthrow of the existing political order
A fundamental change in the way individuals do things

Teleology-

Reasoning based on the perceived outcome. Evidence is interpreted in such a way that it confirms the supposed outcome of events. in this chapter it is tied to liberal history

----is the end goal that needs to be realized in history

● liberalism

meta-history says

no, there is a bigger history than this. You can look through a LENS of liberalism., but it is not everything”

Scholasticism vs Humanism

● Humanism rejects supernaturalism
● Scholasticism includes faith in supernaturalism, church had a major role in thi

Scholasticism:

method of learning focused on tradition and dogma

Humanism

Intellectual movement, focused on the human in its natural environment

Anachronism

An error of chronological logic or misplacement of chronology
● To place something or someone in wrong historical context (example: thinking Socrates will get the idea of rocket power)

Genealogy of the State=

Where does the state come from?

Politics

“The ability to decide who gets what, where and how”
● So you can link it to more than just a state. Also civilizations, societies, groups
● It asks the question “Who can decide?”

Local societies-

Agricultural settlements, not that much interaction, through some interaction as witnessed through for example bow and arrow spread, or language development.

Metropolitan Centers

Larger civilizations, oriented towards a central location – metropole

Afro-Eurosia-

Large scale set of connections spanning Eurasia and North Africa (Afro-Eurosia)
They all have different way of organizing

1000-1500 CE

Greater productivity
Invention and diffusion of new techniques
Mobilising humans
Intensified interaction
Increased specialization

Developments in Europe

● What strikes us most in the FRAGMENTATION, lot of diversity and political units, also lot of war between those units
● Europe had access over the whole world through EXPEDITIONS
Wars of religion, conflict was actually a productive factor. Conflict helped with innovation, reconsideration etc. (So conflict doesn’t always have to be bad)

Developments In China

● High level of CENTRALIZATION, under Ming-dynasty, was after fall of Mongol Empire
● Self-sufficient political structures and rigid structure of the society
class of civil servers, huge system with layers of authority.
è Also did expeditions
● No institutional support for science. In contrast with what we see in Europe

Despotism-

Repressive rule based on the exercise of dictatorial power, usually by one individual sometimes also by a group.

Oligarchy

Rule by a small group, often sharing a distinct identity of ethnicity, social-class, military standing or religion.

Theocracy-

system of rule based on ultimate power resting with God. God’s representatives on Earth rule on his behalf.

Democracy-

-System of government by the people for the people.

Feudalism-‘

Type of rule based on a hierarchy of patrons who are tied to clients, who in their turn can act as patrons to others. In this hierarchical system goods, labor and favors flow up and down this system, to substantiate claims to authority, legitimacy and rule’.

Feudalism pt2

● An other way of organizing a state, very important in Europe
● Type of rule based on a hierarchy of patrons who are tied to clients, who in their turn can act as patrons to others. In this hierarchical system goods, labor and favors flow up and down this system, to substantiate claims to authority, legitimacy and rule
● You can visualize it as a pyramid