Global History

Global history
GH

Exam
Fully multiple-choice exam
Content; slides, reading, everything will be in the test

Lectures
are recorded but posted two weeks before the test
goal; history for today, we learn history to use for contemporary world
politics, critical thinking towards historical references

Lecture 1 – introduction

ISIS
Sykes picot – agreement between France and the United Kingdom to split
the middle east between themselves
Isis – are trying to reclaim themselves, show themselves as the good
guys, try to get rid of the Sykes-picot, try to rid colonial powers

Important to see that even though it is wrong that certain groups can
have a lot of influence

Popular historical argument;
1) Why the real history of the peace of Westphalia in 17th century Europe
offers a model for bringing stability to the middle east
2) A Westphalian peace for the middle east: why an old framework could
work

Possible issues are;
No credited diplomates back then, we have democracies -> questions
legitimacy of someone claiming a certain way of ruling/thinking,
international laws that create restraints, economic interdependence, the
concept of the nation state (nationalism)

The owl of Minerva spread its wings only with the falling of dusk
We can only really have knowledge as it is coming to an end

We need archives/information to do something with a subject

It is very difficult to understand what is happening at the moment because
you do not have access to all the right sources

Form of epistemology – what can we know and how can we know it

Do we need history
For the social scientist, history is a laboratory by which to test both their
claims about how variables are associated with each other and their
propositions

,History as a closet of facts

Good theory comes from good history


Approaches to history in IR – a spectrum
(Especially neorealism)
Past – just lots of facts to test theories about the present
History as monochrome flatland – always the same
-> emphasis on continuities

Closet of facts <-------------------middle way approaches------------------>
shopping list

(Constructivism, the English school, historical sociology, conceptual
history)
Use history in some detail (not just closet of facts)
Try to establish patterns (not just random list)

(Especially poststructuralism)
Past – list of minor events/accidents that have huge impact
No discernible patterns in history – always different
-> Emphasis on discontinuities


What are the essential conceptual tools for studying history
History – the general study of the past, a nonfictional account of the past,
a craft not a science, not an art.
 History aspires to; discover order and structure in the chaos and
messiness of the past, construct order and structure by creating a
narrative of an argument, based on verifiable evidence.

Narratives about what matters are very divers

A historian develops a specific argument, which they believe is accurate
on the basis of the existing evidence
 Why and how did events happen
 What caused an event
 Which individuals play important roles
 What is the meaning of the events studied, in terms of the past and of
the present? Why do they matter?

Meta-history –emphasizes patterns and regularities, great drivers of
development, what is the larger meaning of history -> are about big
ideas,
 Popular in C19, bad reputation in C20, now making a comeback

, Key term associated with meta-history the longue durée – take long
view of history to identify long-term trends/patterns and distinguish the
contingent from the permanent

Anti-history – the idea that when we speak of history, fiction and non-
fiction are identical
 Particularly relevant concept in age of ‘fake new’ and ‘post-truth’
 Closely related concept; relativism – there is no truth out there and all
narratives are equal -> extreme relativists turn to what they find the
most useful fictions for their own purposes
 Anti-history is fiction and speculation not history proper



Terms explained
Big history – also called universal/world history, concerned with the history
of the world since the big bang, integrates natural sciences

Global history – not the same as big history, also called world history,
global history is the story of the connections within the global human
community
 Look beyond single country/region and into development of a
connected whole
 The human world comprises a multiplicity of co-existing societies
 Five implications of multiplicity – co-existence, difference, interaction,
combination, dialectical change

Global calendar – to integrate different parts of the connected whole, need
shared timeline/calendar

Lecture 2 – empires

Imperial expansion is a process of;
Destruction - erase cities/languages/people
Creation - new cities emerge, new geographies appear, new languages
root

Major consequences of imperial expansion to this day; borders, remaining
economic inequality, language, expansion of religion, erasure of
education/culture, patterns of migration, number of European countries
still own territories that spend the entire globe

The British empire was the largest empire that ever existed

Europe colonies almost covered the whole globe

The chronological scope of European empires
1492 – European imperialism begins
1800 – Europeans controlled 35% of the world's landmass

, 1914 – Europeans controlled 84% of the world's landmass
1950 till 1970s – Decolonisation

European imperialism changed the world

What does it mean when we do not take the state as the basic unit
Our basic unit and focus are on the state

But modern international relations (1400 till now)-> mostly a world of
empires

Relationships between empires instead of between states

Anarchy – a problem when focussing on empires because there is a
centralised government ruling over these little states within an empire
 Relationships between societies within empires so we need to look at
international hierarchy because empires create hierarchies



What is an empire
An empire is – a large, composite, multi-ethnic/multinational political unit,
usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant centre and
subordinate, sometimes far distant, peripheries

One Empire has multiple societies

We must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials
and at the same time exploit the cheap slave labour that is available from
the narratives of the colonies - Cicil Rodes

Empire has six core characteristics
1) Operate with direct (centralised) and indirect (decentralised) rule
2) Established and maintained by violence
3) Dominant core economically exploiting the periphery
4) Cultural difference between people at the core and periphery; belief in
the superiority of culture by people at the core
5) European empires (specifically) associated with pseudo-scientific racial
hierarchies
 Come from scientific developments of the 19th century
 Idea of supremacy
6) The mass movement of people, through both voluntary migration &
forced migration

Clarifications of definitions

Empire – a large, composite, multi-ethnic/multinational political unit,
usually created by conquest and divided between a dominant centre and
subordinate, sometimes far distant, peripheries