Class Notes, Tuesday

• Period we’re talking about was during Qing Empire.
• Qing is Manchu, they took over new regions such as Tibet, Shinjian, and other empiric extremities.
• Geographical extent of Chinese empire doubled during the Qing. (150 mil->300 mil) The geographical expanse of China grew to the extent that China actually was not overpopulated.
• Chinese expansion was Militaristic, not settlers moving individually. They charged forward with the intent of building a great empire.
• Manchu were definitely different from the Han Chinese. But they were so influenced by the Chinese emperors of old that they became ‘sinified’, like the Chinese. But the new theory of sinification is that it never actually took place for the Manchu. The Qing empire was an amalgamation of ruling styles; they used ideas from everyone, from the Han to other multi-ethnic groups that influenced them.
• “How does Nationalism effect the environment in China?”
• Created national identity. Big theme of book: construction of national identity.
• Where did the national identity come in?
• Forcing people to identify with the national government/ethnicity will lead them to follow the group.
• They integrated the Muslims; they let them keep their religion, but they favored certain groups over others.
• “Beg”: Muslim term, Qing gave “Beg” title to key Muslims.
• “Jasak”: Mongol term, Qing gave “Jasak” title to key ____.
• Imperial system trying to tie in huge variety of ethnic groups.
• Qing did not enforce assimilation into the Qing ethnic group. They just required that the outer groups look to the Qing gov’t for leadership. This allowed them to manipulate identity and maintain control at the local levels.
• "Does Chinese History (or any history) mirror its environment?”
• Cultural shifts stemming from climate change.
• Would he say that climate change is the most important socioeconomic factor of China?
• No. Claiming it’s merely climate change eliminates other social changes.
• Geographical Determinism; could play a role in nationalism. People identified strongly with the location of their birth.
• Environmental Determinism; cold play a role in nationalism. Peoples livelihoods were determined entirely by the environmental.
• Determinism is a theory that explains everything in monocausal terms. This lacks the complexity required to actually explain anything. Leaves certain people/things out of history. Takes out the ability of people to make their own history, deprives people of Agency.
• Manifest Destiny; parallels between China’s Qing history and North America within this time period.
• The Turner Hypothesis: The Frontier is the shaping force of American History. European expansion is the key. Very euro-centric.
• Expansion of an empire westward was just as much a part of Chinese history during the 1700s as in America during roughly the same period.
• GLOBAL EXPANSION during the 1700’s. Russia, US, China, etc.
• Frontierland Colonies designed to milk resources from the frontier and support the motherland. (wohoo). Military Agrarian Societies.
• These colonies were meant to be both self-sufficient and to be a place to get resources and send them back to the capital. Soldiers who farm. Cheaper for the government to support their troops that way.
• Agricultural Colonies, in practice, were a place to exile their criminals to, a place where soldiers were sent for a bit until they deserted, and whichever common people they could convince or force to go out there. Merchants went to get and make money, etc. Expanded trade routes. Deserting soldiers would rent/lease their land, rather than giving up their land rights.
• Government setups for soldiers often attracted Civilians who would come in and fill the gap left by the soldiers
• Still required huge investments from the gov’t in order to create the areas where an agrarian society was possible. They had to pay to clear land and set up the (water system). Public Good & Free Rider issues. Nobody but the Gov’t was willing to pony up the money to pay for this. In the 19^th century, the Qing government had other priorities, so they stopped investing in the inland region and the area fell apart.
• “Overall, what did the Qing expansion do to the environment of Central Asia?”
• Deforestation (“But there weren’t a lot of trees in this part of Asia”)
• Overgrazing (“there might not have been a lot of trees, but there was a lot of grass”) - huge flocks of sheep and goats would wander through an area and devour the grass. Overgrazing was a huge problem in central Asia during this time.
• Disease (“the contact between central Asian populations- like Mongols- and Chinese populations led to the introduction of things like smallpox.”) the spread of diseases decimated the groups that had not acquired an immunity to the disease.
• The type of farming that they were doing required a huge amount of governmental support, and when the gov’t withdrew their support, the system fell apart.