War and state formation in ancient China and early modern Europe / Victoria Tin-bor Hui.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hui, Victoria Tin-bor, 1967- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World politics.

State, The.

War.

China--Politics and government--To 221 B.C.

China.

Europe--Politics and government.

Europe.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 294 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

War & State Formation in Ancient China & Early Modern Europe

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Eurocentric conventional wisdom holds that the West is unique in having a multi-state system in international relations and liberal democracy in state-society relations. At the same time, the Sinocentric perspective believes that China is destined to have authoritarian rule under a unified empire. In fact, China in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (656-221 BC) was once a system of sovereign territorial states similar to Europe in the early modern period. Both cases witnessed the prevalence of war, formation of alliances, development of the centralized bureaucracy, emergence of citizenship rights, and expansion of international trade. This book, first published in 2005, examines why China and Europe shared similar processes but experienced opposite outcomes. This historical comparison of China and Europe challenges the presumption that Europe was destined to enjoy checks and balances while China was preordained to suffer under a coercive universal status.

Contents:

Cover; Half-title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Tables and Maps; Acknowledgments; 1 A Dynamic Theory of World Politics; 2 The Dynamics of International Politics in Ancient China; 3 Rethinking the Dynamics of International Politics in Early Modern Europe; 4 The Dynamics of State Formation and Transformation; 5 Conclusion and Implications; Appendix I: List of Wars Involving Great Powers in Early Modern Europe (1495-1815); Appendix II: List of Wars Involving Great Powers in Ancient China (656-221 bc); Appendix III: Operational Criteria for the Lists of Wars Involving Great Powers

Appendix IV: Chronology of Periods of Unification and Division in Chinese HistoryBibliography; Index

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-283) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-14528-7

1-280-45840-2

0-511-16137-9

0-511-19121-9

0-511-16009-7

0-511-29970-2

0-511-61454-3

0-511-16066-6

OCLC:

647502993