After the Empires: The Creation of Novel Political-Cultural Projects in East Asia

284 Pages·2014·1.492 MB·English

by  P. W. Preston (auth.)

After the Empires
AlsobyP.W.Preston
BRITAINAFTEREMPIRE:ConstructingaPost-WarPolitical-CulturalProject
After the Empires
The Creation of Novel Political-Cultural
Projects in East Asia
P. W. Preston
EmeritusProfessor,DepartmentofPoliticalScienceandInternationalStudies,
UniversityofBirmingham
©P.W.Preston2014
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-34567-7
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Contents
Preface vi
Acknowledgements viii
Prologue ix
1 State-EmpiresandtheShifttotheModernWorld 1
2 State-EmpireSystems:ThePlayers 20
3 State-EmpireSystems:TheLogics 42
4 State-EmpireSystems:FractureLines 65
5 GeneralCrisis:SystemFailureandtheCollapseintoWarfare 86
6 State-EmpireDissolution 116
7 AftertheState-Empires:Territories,States,Nationsand
Development 135
8 PowerfulRegionsandtheSurprisingCostsofSuccess 192
Afterword 223
Notes 228
Bibliography 259
Index 270
v
Preface
Thistextisoneofalinkedpairthataddresstheissueofthedownstream
consequences of the dissolution of state-empire systems for the ways
in which elites and masses within these broad territories have under-
stood the political communities within which they have gone on to
maketheirlives.Thesubstantivefocusofthesetextshasbeenthesome-
timeBritishstate-empire.Thefirsttext,BritainAfterEmpire:Constructing
a Post-War Political-Cultural Project (2014), looked at the ways in which
theBritisheliterespondedtowhatforthemwasthedisasteroftheloss
ofempire,andarguedthatthisresponseentailedamixofcreativefor-
getting,thatthebroadempireterritorieshadconstitutedthesustaining
environment of the elite, and heroic invention, to the effect that the
metropolitancorerumpofempirewasinfactalong-establishednation-
state, recently victorious in a virtuous war and in all something of a
model to which other polities might aspire. The present text, After the
Empires:TheCreationofNovelPolitical-CulturalProjectsinEastAsia,offers
a complementary discussion on a much broader comparative scale.
Wheretheformertextdiscussedeventsinonecoreterritory–Britain–
thisvolumeturnstothesometimeperipheralareasandtracksthedisso-
lutionofEuropeanstate-empiresinEastAsia,anditlooksatthewayin
whichreplacementelitesseizedterritory,builtstates,inventednations,
managed the demands of the Cold War bloc system and thereafter
pursued national development. The dissolution was routinely violent,
confusedanddrawnoutsothattheestablishmentofareplacementset
of political structures was an arduous business. Thereafter, as the dust
settled, newly secure elites engaged in energetic remembering and for-
getting,andforgednovelnationalpastsexplainingandlegitimatingthe
newly made polities as they pursued their various projects of national
development.
The argument made here is constructed by borrowing freely from
the often wonderful work of historians, sociologists and political
economists,andtheintentionisquitesimple:toachieveabroadcom-
parative understanding of the ways in which structural constraints in
thewakeofthecollapseofthesystemofforeignstate-empireswereread
by local elites, producing thereby a diversity of post-empire historical
development trajectories. The obvious disbenefit of this broad-ranging
vi
Preface vii
comparative approach is the inevitably somewhat cavalier use of the
scholarship of others, but it might be recalled that in the real world
of political contestation and struggle, academic preoccupations and
disciplinaryboundariesareofnoaccountatall.
Acknowledgements
Over the years I have been fortunate to be able to live and work in a
number of countries in Europe and East Asia, and I have discussed the
issuesdealtwithinthistextwithmanyfriendsandcolleagues,andthe
members of the various university classes which I have given. I have
enjoyed their company, learned much from them and, as ever, I am
happytorecordmythankstothemall.
viii
Prologue
As Europe and East Asia moved into the modern world, the political
formconstructedandreachingitsapogeeintheyearsbeforetheGreat
Warwasasystemofstate-empires.Themetropolitancoresofthesestate-
empires were in Europe; the peripheries, in various parts of the world,
were drawn into the system at various times and with various levels
of integration. Such integration would include economic, social and
politicalpractices.Morefamiliarmetropolitantreatmentsthatstressthe
determiningroleofthecore,andequallyfamiliarnationalisttreatments
which invert the tale, stressing the costs to extant civilizations of the
process,under-reporttheintegratednatureofthesesystems.
Europe-centredstate-empiresystemsinEastAsiahadaparticularchar-
acter. Integration began early in the period of the shift to the modern
world. It linked European polities to sophisticated polities in East Asia,
involvedshiftingvarietiesofcollaboration/cooperationandoccasioned
extensivesocialchangeinbothmetropolitanandperipheralareas.Inall
of this there were many contrasts with other areas of state-empire
construction–forexample,betweentheearliercreationofstate-empire
systemsintheAmericasandthelatertreatmentofsub-SaharanAfrican
peoples,ortheexchangeswithotherpartsofAsia.
The process of the creation of state-empire systems linking Europe
and East Asia had certain definitive characteristics. It was carried upon
therestlessdynamismoftheindustrialcapitalistsystem,involvedmul-
tipleagentsandevidencedroutineviolence.Itwasalsoaccompaniedby
extensive commentary: at the core, celebratory, exculpatory and con-
cernedorprogressive;andattheperipheries,reactive,accommodative,
opportunistic and also progressive. The overall process was marked by
contingency;therewerenodetailedplans,yetitwasthroughthecolo-
nialexperiencethatEastAsianpolitiesenteredthemodernworld.There
wereanumberofcontendingpowers,competingonewithanotherand
together overbearing local polities: the Portuguese, the earliest traders,
from the sixteenth century onwards; the Dutch, the key group within
Southeast Asia; the British, later arrivals in Southeast Asia, concerned
to trade with China; the French, also late arrivals in Southeast Asia,
concerned too to trade with China; the Americans, delayed by civil
war, active across the Pacific Ocean; the Germans, looking late on for
ix