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The Gunpowder Age
A first look at gunpowder's revolutionary impact on China's role in global history The Chinese invented gunpowder and began exploring its military uses as early as the 900s, four centuries before the technology passed to the West. But by the early 1800s, China had fallen so far behind the West in gunpowder warfare that it was easily defeated by Britain in the Opium War of 1839–42. What happened? In The Gunpowder Age, Tonio Andrade offers a compelling new answer, opening a fresh perspective on a key question of world history: why did the countries of western Europe surge to global importance starting in the 1500s while China slipped behind? Historians have long argued that gunpowder weapons...
The Last Embassy
"In the typical narrative of modern Sino-European relations, George Macartney's disastrous 1793 mission to China plays a central role. His failure to open China to trade and diplomatic relations with Britain sets the stage for a long and bitter clash of cultures that led to the Opium Wars of the nineteenth century and perhaps even to the mistrust that still pervades relations today. In this book, Tonio Andrade draws on a wealth of neglected archival material to tell a very different story: that of the last European delegation that was ever received in the traditional Chinese court, the Dutch mission of 1794-95"--
Lost Colony
How a Chinese pirate defeated European colonialists and won Taiwan during the seventeenth century During the seventeenth century, Holland created the world's most dynamic colonial empire, outcompeting the British and capturing Spanish and Portuguese colonies. Yet, in the Sino-Dutch War—Europe's first war with China—the Dutch met their match in a colorful Chinese warlord named Koxinga. Part samurai, part pirate, he led his generals to victory over the Dutch and captured one of their largest and richest colonies—Taiwan. How did he do it? Examining the strengths and weaknesses of European and Chinese military techniques during the period, Lost Colony provides a balanced new perspective on...
How Taiwan Became Chinese
Tonio Andrade shows how European trade, protection, and occupation played a central role in Taiwan's colonization and incorporation by the Chinese empire.
Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai
Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai traces the roots of modern global East Asia by focusing on the fascinating history of its seaways. The East Asian maritime realm, from the Straits of Malacca to the Sea of Japan, has been a core region of international trade for millennia, but during the long seventeenth century (1550 to 1700), the velocity and scale of commerce increased dramatically. Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese smugglers and pirates forged autonomous networks and maritime polities; they competed and cooperated with one another and with powerful political and economic units, such as the Manchu Qing, Tokugawa Japan, the Portuguese and Spanish crowns, and the Dutch East India Company. Mar...
Early Modern East Asia
This book presents a great deal of new primary research on a wide range of aspects of early modern East Asia. Focusing primarily on maritime connections, the book explores the importance of international trade networks, the implications of technological dissemination, and the often unforeseen consequences of missionary efforts. It demonstrates the benefi ts of a global history approach, outlining the complex interactions between Western traders and Asian states and entrepreneurs. Overall, the book presents much interesting new material on this complicated and understudied period. .
East Asia in the World
This accessible collection examines twelve historic events in the international relations of East Asia.
Asian Expansions
Asia as we know it today is the product of a wide range of polity expansions over time. Recognising the territorial expansions of Asian polities large and small through the last several millennia helps rectify the fallacy, long-held and deeply entrenched, that Asian polities have been interested only in the control of populations, not in expanding their command of territory. In countering this misapprehension, this book suggests that Asian polities have indeed been concerned with territorial control and expansion over time, whether for political or strategic advantage, trade purposes, defence needs, agricultural expansion or increased income through taxation. The book explores the historical...
The Rise of the Gun
It is perhaps the most significant technological change in the history of warfare. The Middle Ages would see a new type of weapon emerge - the gun. This special issue looks at the invention of firearms, beginning in China, its spread throughout Eurasia and its influence on battles, armies and fortifications. Featuring articles by Tonio Andrade, Ruth Brown, Kelly DeVries, Kay Smith and more. One key aspect of this book is to show how experimental the use of guns and gunpowder is. In medieval China, Europe and Asia, there is a lot of new things happening in how warfare is being conducted. For example, how are cannons being used on the battlefield, and when are they successful (or unsuccessful) in changing the outcomes of battles? How do fortifications change, and how much of that is because of the threat posed by artillery? I want to give a sense to the reader that this is really a dynamic period, with new technology leading us to different and unexpected places, much like the computer revolution we are now in is changing our own society in unforeseen ways.
Lord of Formosa
The year is 1624. In southwestern Taiwan the Dutch establish a trading settlement; in Nagasaki a boy is born who will become immortalized as Ming dynasty loyalist Koxinga. Lord of Formosa tells the intertwined stories of Koxinga and the Dutch colony from their beginnings to their fateful climax in 1662. The year before, as Ming China collapsed in the face of the Manchu conquest, Koxinga retreated across the Taiwan Strait intent on expelling the Dutch. Thus began a nine-month battle for Fort Zeelandia, the single most compelling episode in the history of Taiwan. The first major military clash between China and Europe, it is a tale of determination, courage, and betrayal - a battle of wills be...
