Summary History of International Relations (UpToDate)
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Course
History of International Relations (1200PSWHIP)
Institution
Universiteit Antwerpen (UA)
Book
History of International Relations
Dive into the most up-to-date and complete summary of the course of Jorg Kustermans. With this document you study only the necessary information making this summary the most eligible preparation for your exam of 'History of International Relations'.
China and East Asia ......................................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction: What is China? .............................................................................................................................. 4
The ‘warring states period’ ................................................................................................................................. 4
The development of the Chinese state ............................................................................................................... 5
The overland system ........................................................................................................................................... 7
The tribute system .............................................................................................................................................. 8
India and Indianization ................................................................................................................................... 9
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 9
Vedic India ........................................................................................................................................................ 10
Classical India ................................................................................................................................................... 11
Indianization ..................................................................................................................................................... 12
The Mughal Empire .......................................................................................................................................... 13
India as an international system ...................................................................................................................... 13
The Muslim Caliphates .................................................................................................................................. 14
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................... 14
The Arab expansion .......................................................................................................................................... 14
The Umayyads and the Abbasids...................................................................................................................... 16
The Arabs in Spain ............................................................................................................................................ 17
An international system of caliphates .............................................................................................................. 18
The Ottoman Empire ........................................................................................................................................ 19
The Mongol Khanates ................................................................................................................................... 20
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................... 20
From Temüjin to Genghis Khan ........................................................................................................................ 20
A nomadic state ................................................................................................................................................ 21
How to conquer the world ................................................................................................................................ 22
Dividing it all up ................................................................................................................................................ 23
An international system of khanates ................................................................................................................ 24
Africa ............................................................................................................................................................ 24
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................... 24
1
, The Nile River Valley ......................................................................................................................................... 25
(North Africa) .................................................................................................................................................... 25
The kingdoms of West Africa ............................................................................................................................ 25
East Africa and the Indian Ocean ..................................................................................................................... 27
An African international system? ..................................................................................................................... 27
European Expansion ..................................................................................................................................... 28
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................... 28
A sea route to India .......................................................................................................................................... 29
Europeans in the “New World”......................................................................................................................... 30
A commercial world economy .......................................................................................................................... 32
An industrial world economy ............................................................................................................................ 33
The apotheosis of colonialism .......................................................................................................................... 34
Belgian Colonialism....................................................................................................................................... 35
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................... 35
The Congo Free State (1884-1906) ................................................................................................................... 36
Belgian Congo (1908-1960) .............................................................................................................................. 39
Ruanda-Urundi (1916-1962) ............................................................................................................................. 41
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................ 41
Global Governance in the 19th century .......................................................................................................... 42
Prehistory (17th – 18th century) ......................................................................................................................... 42
19th century....................................................................................................................................................... 43
The League of Nations and its failure ............................................................................................................ 46
Observations of WWI........................................................................................................................................ 46
The League of Nations: origins ......................................................................................................................... 47
The League of Nations: organizational form .................................................................................................... 48
The ‘failure’....................................................................................................................................................... 49
The United Nations and decolonization ........................................................................................................ 50
Introduction: WWII ........................................................................................................................................... 50
The establishment of the United Nations ......................................................................................................... 52
Human Rights in the UN Charter ...................................................................................................................... 54
Decolonization and the Bandung Conference................................................................................................... 55
2
,Introduction
Why?
Useful for social scientists to study history?
• Understand the present: causal connection the past - the present (influence)
1) Historical legacies = stickiness of the past
Ex. Post-communist societies: little political trust (< communist rule)
2) Politics of historical memories = narrative motivates behaviour
Ex. RUS & OEKR past annexation à now invasion
Political/collective memories
- Pushing, Effort: Are cultivated, propagated by ‘memory activists’
- Selection & exclusion
- Takes infrastructure, political pedagogy
Ex. build museum, rewrite history books
- High degree homogeneity
- Relies on symbols & rites à enhances emotions of empathy &
identification
• To cultivate political wisdom/prudence, to learn out of past mistakes
o Trying to see patterns ‘history repeats itself’
• The contingency of moral ideas & social arrangements
Ex. no slavery, gender equality, etc.
o Why has things developed this way?
o It’s not obvious, was not always like this
What?
Expect to learn in this class? People, events, concepts, processes
• Emphasis bad events/people/… : skewed representation
• Presentist: Recent history
o Expand timeframe
• Eurocentric bias: Western international history
o Is changing, globalizing
o Expand geographical horizon
Is it a problem that it is presentist & Eurocentric?
• Patterns
Ex. Balance of power theory (= 1 powerful country, others also or group together to
even out the power): evidence only from EU history
• Useful to study: Non-western powers are re-asserting themselves for their power
(hist legacies & memories)
• Hasty conclusions
o Narrow, little empirical evidence
The International system
• Basic unit: state, sovereign state
à identification: Strict borders, flags, anthems
à belonging to = passports, no freedom of travel/living
à Rules & norms: sovereign equality, non-interference
• Implications: anarchy, security dilemma, violence
• Good to remember: International politics has functioned differently in the past
3
, China and East Asia
Introduction: What is China?
2 questions
1. What is China?
o A ‘country’; definition
- a common authority
- groups of people identify w/ it (a nationality)
- clear borders
- a state
o Need to be historically explained
o WHAT NOT: a nation-state
- The government wants a nation-state (nationalism ideology)
- History: ( A succession of) Imperial dynasties of being the ‘middle
kingdom’ (zhongguo)
§ Not called China (now neither)
§ Ruled over by dynasties: not all culturally Chinese, they were
nomadic
- A civilizational zone: sharing set of ritual practices
Ex. seasonal celebrations, ancestor worship, human sacrifices,
alphabet, etc.
§ Travelling across territory = same zone
§ Recognizing each other
§ Ruled bcs mandate of heaven
2. What does it mean to identify a ‘Chinese’ international system?
o A systematic interaction w/ rules & norms between East-Asian policies
o China dominated the system à influenced so hard that it defined it
- For their own benefit
- Reflecting a Chinese tradition, culture: what is the substance
o Chinal centric system: not stable, under challenge regulary
o Confusion political tradition à political practices formed the org of diplomatic
interaction
o WHAT NOT: encompassing, unchanging, unquestionably Confucian system (=
Chinese philosophy, impact on chin politics, official philosophy)
- They were more philosophies (some w/ more influence)
- Overland system: policies to the N & W
- Tribute system: policies to the S & E (inspired
by Confucianism)
à different way of ruling, philosophies
The ‘warring states period’
= earliest episode in Chinese history (475 – 251 BCE)
!!BCE = same calendar as BC, Before the Commen Era
• Not a ruling dynasty, multiple equally
powerful&independent policies (middle kingdoms)
Ex. Zhao, Yan, etc.
4
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