War and State Formation in Ancient China and Early Modern Europe

by Victoria Tin-bor Hui

• ISBN13: 9780521819725
• ISBN10: 0521819725
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-07-04
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

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 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.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Maps	x
Acknowledgments	xi
1 A Dynamic Theory of World Politics	1	(53)
1.1 Cases	2	(5)
1.2 Method	7	(3)
1.3 Building Blocks for a Dynamic Theory of World Politics	10	(14)
1.4 Dynamics of International Politics	24	(14)
1.5 Dynamics of State Formation	38	(12)
1.6 Self-Strengthening Reforms Versus Self-Weakening Expedients: Other Things Are Rarely Equal in Comparative History	50	(2)
1.7 "Alternative" Explanations	52	(2)
2 The Dynamics of International Politics in Ancient China	54	(55)
2.1 Early Triumph of the Logic of Balancing (656-284 BC)	55	(9)
2.2 Qin's Rise from Relative Weakness to Universal Domination (356-221 BC)	64	(3)
2.3 Overcoming the Balance of Power	67	(12)
2.4 Overcoming the Rising Costs of Expansion	79	(20)
2.5 Launching the Final Wars of Unification	99	(2)
2.6 Why Did Qin Develop Cleverer Strategies?	101	(6)
2.7 Conclusion	107	(2)
3 Rethinking the Dynamics of International Politics in Early Modern Europe	109	(59)
3.1 The Balance of Relative Weaknesses Between Self-Weakened France and the Self-Weakened Habsburg Empire (1495-1659)	111	(9)
3.2 Competition Between Self-Weakened France and Self-Strengthened Britain (1661-1715)	120	(7)
3.3 Near Domination by the Self-Strengthened Revolutionary and Napoleonic France	127	(12)
3.4 Initial and Environmental Conditions	139	(3)
3.5 Divergent Models of Self-Strengthening Reforms in Early Modern Europe	142	(7)
3.6 Comparing the Intensity of War	149	(7)
3.7 Was the Ancient Chinese System More Hobbesian and Machiavellian Than the Early Modern European System?	156	(3)
3.8 "Alternative" Explanations	159	(7)
3.9 Conclusion	166	(2)
4 The Dynamics of State Formation and Transformation	168	(52)
4.1 The Logic of Balancing in State Formation	170	(8)
4.2 Self-Strengthening Reforms, State Formation, and the Coercive State in Ancient China	178	(12)
4.3 Self-Weakening Expedients, State Deformation, and the Constitutional State in Early Modern Europe	190	(5)
4.4 Initial and Environmental Conditions	195	(12)
4.5 Diversity in State Formation and State Strength	207	(9)
4.6 Collapse of the Qin Dynasty and Transformation of State-Society Relations in the Han Dynasty	216	(4)
5 Conclusion and Implications	220	(19)
5.1 Rejoining the Dynamics of International Politics and State Formation	224	(7)
5.2 Transformation of World Politics in the Post-Napoleonic Era	231	(8)
APPENDIXES
I List of Wars Involving Great Powers in Early Modern Europe (1495-1815)	239	(3)
II List of Wars Involving Great Powers in Ancient China (656-221 BC)	242	(7)
III Operational Criteria for the Lists of Wars Involving Great Powers	249	(8)
Inclusion and Exclusion of Wars Involving Great Powers	249	(3)
Delineation of Wars Involving Great Powers	252	(1)
Identification of Great Powers	253	(2)
Participation	255	(1)
Identification of Initiators, Winners, and Losers	256	(1)
IV Chronology of Periods of Unification and Division in Chinese History	257	(2)
Bibliography	259	(26)
Index	285