(Dis)connected Empires : Imperial Portugal, Sri Lankan diplomacy, and the making of a Habsburg conquest in Asia / Zoltán Biedermann.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Biedermann, Zoltán, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History, Modern--16th century.

History, Modern.

Imperialism--History--16th century.

Imperialism.

History.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 255 : illustrations (black and white), map ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2018.

Summary:

Dis)connected Empires takes the reader on a global journey to explore the triangle formed during the sixteenth century between the Portuguese empire, the empire of Kotte in Sri Lanka, and the Catholic Monarchy of the Spanish Habsburgs. It explores nine decades of connections, cross-cultural diplomacy, and dialogue, to answer one troubling question: why, in the end, did one side decide to conquer the other?0To find the answer, Biedermann explores the imperial ideas that shaped the politics of Renaissance Iberia and sixteenth-century Sri Lanka. (Dis)connected Empires argues that, whilst some of these ideas and the political idioms built around them were perceived as commensurate by the various parties involved, differences also emerged early on. This prepared the ground for a new kind of conquest politics, which changed the inter-imperial game at the end of the sixteenth century. The transition from suzerainty-driven to sovereignty-fixated empire-building changed the face of Lankan and Iberian politics forever, and is of relevance to global historians at large. Through its scrutiny of diplomacy, political letter-writing, translation practices, warfare, cartography, and art, '(Dis)connected Empires' paints a troubling panorama of connections breeding divergence and leading to communicational collapse. It examines a key chapter in the pre-history of British imperialism in Asia, highlighting how diplomacy and mutual understandings can, under certain conditions, produce conquest.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. (Dis)connecting Empires: Towards a Critical History of Early Modern Imperial Connections

2. Lords of the Land, Lords of the Sea: Establishing an Imperial Dialogue Against the Odds

3. Matrioshka Principle and Its Discontents: Connecting Imperial Ideas Across the Continents

4. Conversion Diplomacy: Lankan Imperial Projects and the Politics of Catholic Universalism

5. Moving into the Native Ground: Turmoil and Diplomatic Diversification in the Middle of the Century

6. Translatio Imperii in the Tropics: Colombo, the Spectre of Cortes in Asia, and the Unification of Iberian Empires

7. From Allies to Invaders: Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of Global Iberian Imperialism

8. Anatomy of a Divergence: Habsburg Sovereignty and the End of the Lankan Island Empire.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-248) and index.

ISBN:

0198823398

9780198823391

OCLC:

1030968856