ASIA 101
History of Asia
Since 1500
January 6, 2015
class requirements
•
Two five-page term papers, based on the lectures and
the assigned readings.
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There will also be a mid-term, with one essay plus
multiple-choice questions, and a final exam, with two
essays, plus multiple-choice questions.
•
In addition, you will be expected to participate in the
discussion groups (tutorial sections) and respond
with the iclicker to questions I show on the screen
during class.
Assigned Readings
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Ebrey and Walthall, East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political
History (from chapter 15)
•
Thomas Trautmann, India: A Brief History of a Civilization (from
chapter 9)
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Craig Lockard, Southeast Asia in World History (from chapter 4)
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plus a required reference work for use in writing your term
papers:
Storey and Jones, Writing History: A Guide for Canadian Students
class website
•
In addition to the UBC Connect class webstie, I will maintain a site
at
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http://ubcasia101.weebly.com
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I will post on that site some additional material for you to read, a
glossary of key terms, and advice on how to write the term papers
and study for the exams.
•
Before each lecture, I will post an outline of the lecture for you to
download as an aid to taking notes. I will also put on there the
questions you should keep in mind while doing the readings and
listening to the lectures: you should listen for, and look for,
answers to those questions.
What we will learn
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The focus of this class is four-fold. We will study
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the rise of nationalism (and the role imperialism played in that)
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democratization (a process not yet complete)
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the rise of modern industrial economies
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the changing role of religion, especially the role it plays in
national and ethnic identities.
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We will also look at the role of language and writing in defining
modern national and ethnic identities, and at changes in gender
roles over the last five centuries.
What is history?
•
History is not simply a bunch of names and dates.
•
If you only learn the names and dates taught in this class, you
will not earn a very good grade.
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Instead, to earn an A, you have to show us that you
understand what those names and dates tell you about why
Asian civilizations have developed the way they have over the
last five centuries.
•
In other words, you have to answer not just “what” questions
but also “why” questions. You have to be able to explain why
what happened, happened. Here is an example:
Why a course on Asia only?
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Most human beings live in Asia, and that has been the case for millennia. Here are figures for just
the last 500 years.
•
Year
Asia
Europe
•
1500
245
67 (14%)
1600
338
1700
433
former USSR
17
89 (15%)
30
1800
631
1850
790
209 (17%)
79
102
1900
903
295 (18%)
127
138
1950
2000
1,376
3,736
393 (16%)
511 (8%)
35
182
296
18
3
3
332 (13%)
832
830 (12%)
680
771
2
59
224
578
3
24
165 (10%)
World
461 millions
12
104
102
Oceana
3
13
107
500
49
42
113
1750
146 (15%)
America
87
22
95 (14%)
111 (14%)
Africa
2
6
954
1,241
1,634
13
31
2,520
6,236
Asia as half the world
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In 1500 Asia had 53% of the world’s population, 245 out of 461 million
1600 Asia had 58.5% of the world’s population, 338 m out of 578 million
1700 Asia had 63% of the world’s population, 433 out of 680 million
1750 Asia had 64% of the world’s population, 500 out of 771 million
1800 Asia had 66% of the world’s population, 631 out of 954 million
1850 Asia had 63.6% of the world’s population, 790 out of 1.241 billion
1900 Asia had 55% of the world’s population, 903 m. out of 1, 634 billion
1950 Asia had 54.6% of the world’s population, 1,376 b. out of 2.520
billion.
2000 Asia had 60% of the world’s population, 3,736 b. out of 6.234 billion
Global population growth
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Why has the population grown so rapidly over the last century?
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Better medical knowledge and practices
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Better nutrition
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higher incomes
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As a result,
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More children survive past the age of 5
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more adults live to be past the age of 50
“Asia” as a cultural unit
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very little in common, except for Buddhism (with the exception of the Philippines)
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Has responded quickly to the challenge of the modern world
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cultural regions within Asia:
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East Asia: China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Vietnam (Why is it in
East Asia rather than Southeast Asia?)
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South Asia: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal
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Maritime Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Timor Leste, Borneo
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mainland Southeast Asia: Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia
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Where do Singapore, Tibet, and Mongolia fit into this scheme?
The Pre-Modern World
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Governments tended to be predatory (created to enrich the rulers, not to
make the lives of the ruled better). Responsive governments representing
the will of the people expressed through elections were not even on the
horizon.
•
People didn’t expect the economy, and their share of it, to grow every year.
Instead, they hoped that bad weather, or bandits or war, wouldn’t make their
lives worse.
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People were not nationalistic. Elites might be loyal to their ruling house but
the average person didn’t think of themselves as part of a national
community, though they may see themselves as members of a cultural,
religious, or ethnic community. They might even see themselves as under
the rule of a particularly dynasty, but they didn’t see themselves as citizens
of a nation-state. To call them citizens is to commit an anachronism, a major
sin in this class!
The Great Transformation
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The past is a foreign country: there was little autonomy for
individuals, females had even less autonomy than males, there was
little geographic, occupational, or social mobility. Plus life was short.
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In the modern world,
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subjects have become citizens, and in some cases have gained
freedom (something they did not have before), and governments
become less predatory. This means people, and groups, now have
rights.
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inanimate power has replaced animate power
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Immersion in the market has replaced self-sufficiency.
Defining the modern world
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people have moved from villages to towns and cities, gaining more
personal autonomy in the process
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people now choose their occupations, and their spouses
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education is available for everyone
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women now can receive a public education, and also can work
outside the home and beyond their village.
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nuclear families are becoming the norm
•
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bio-medicine is widely available, replacing the gods.
people have adopted an ethnic and/or national identity.
In the Modern world
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Governments are generally less predatory and more participatory.
And citizens now are nationalistic, since they see their government
as their government, not simply as one imposed on them.
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Hereditary occupations have been replaced by more social mobility.
And women have more autonomy, and more choices.
•
Agriculture is no longer the mainstay of the economy. It has been
replaced by capital-intensive industry and commerce.
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Popular culture is more vibrant, with more literature in the
vernacular and more varieties of popular culture (thanks to TV, film,
and now the internet) with larger audiences. Religious diversity and
religious freedom is another marker of modernity.
Globalization and
localization
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Race has become an important category for asserting distinctiveness.
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Religion has also become a marker of a separate and distinct cultural
identity.
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“Orientalism” has created images of separate and distinct Asian
cultures (often seen as older and more spiritual than the immature and
materialistic West).
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Other markers of cultural distinctiveness remain:
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language (both spoken and written), food, clothing, housing styles,
music, dance, drama, art, script, plus modes of interpersonal
interaction, and political culture.
Modernizing Tradition
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Modernization often leads, first, to a repudiation of many
traditional practices, customs, and arts and then a return
to those traditions in modernized forms. (Martial arts are
one example. Traditional music and drama also appear in
modernized forms and formats.)
•
In the modern world, national cultures often replace local
cultures.
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We can often find the legacy of tradition in patterns of
interpersonal interaction and in patterns of political
behavior.
The “why” question
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Why these changes occurred is the subject of this class.
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We will investigate why governments became more
responsive and less predatory, why people began to
identify themselves with both racial identities and with their
nation, and why we see much more social and geographic
mobility, and more occupational diversity, than we used to
see.
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And we will investigate the role traditional culture has
played in those changes, whether it helped or hinder the
transition to the modern world, and whether traditional
culture was transformed in the process.
East Asian governments in
1500
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China: a centralized bureaucracy with a very strong monarch, and a
bureaucracy selected with a Confucian civil service examination. (Ming China)
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Korea: a Chinese-style centralized government, but with a weaker monarch and
a civil service staffed by a Confucian scholar class defined both by heredity and
by performance on civil service exams. (Chosŏn Korea)
•
Japan: A fragmented country under the rule of warriors. No civil service
examination and no effective central government. (Warring States Japan)
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Vietnam: A Chinese-style centralized government with a king, and with a
bureaucracy selected with a Confucian civil service exam. Not as much social
mobility as China.
•
The Kingdom of the Ryūkyūs looked Confucian in structure but did not use the
civil service exam.
Southeast and South Asia
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Southeast Asia has kingdoms, but without the centralized control over the entire
kingdom or the non-aristocratic bureaucracy we see in China
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Important political entities are Madjapahit (Java), Melaka (Malay peninsula) , and
Ayutthaya (Siam)
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South Asia lacked the sort of unified strong government we see in China but the
many kingdoms there were stronger than the kingdoms of Southeast Asia. In
the North, there were sultanates. In the south there were Hindu kingdoms. In
Ceylon (Sri Lanka), there were two Buddhist kingdoms plus a Hindu kingdom.
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I label the various governments of pre-modern Asia “predatory governments”
because they are run for the sake of the ruler rather than for the sake of the
ruled (though that is mitigated in some cases by Confucian philosophy). The
people are subjects, not citizens. Those governments are governments of the
rulers, not of the ruled.
Major trading linkages
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South Asian merchants traded with the Malay peninsula and
Sumatra (and sometimes with Java)
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Overseas Chinese ran trading networks linking southern China
with Southeast Asia.
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The Kingdom of the Ryūkyūs linked Korea and Japan, and
sometimes China, with Southeast Asia
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Within maritime Southeast Asia, there was trade between the
Spice Islands (Maluku) and points west---the Malay peninsula,
Sumatra, and Java.
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After 1500, the Portuguese muscled in on this trade.