The demise of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of the First World War marked the end of centuries of multi-ethnic coexistence. To this day, outside the field of history, the perception of both empires is rooted in the idea of the inevitability of their demise, which, as the story goes, was due to the strength of nationalist movements and the intensity of inter-ethnic strife. The ‘orientalising’ of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire has been translated into current understandings of Central Europe, the Balkans and the Middle East and their politics. While ethnic clashes have characterised the histories of these regions in the 20th century and nationalisms still play a central role in their politics, from Hungary to Turkey, national indifference, dynastic loyalty and multi-ethnic coexistence had been central to the life of the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Habsburg and Ottoman Empires.
{"title":"National indifference and dynastic loyalty in comparative perspective: The demise of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires revisited","authors":"Mario Maritan","doi":"10.1111/hic3.12755","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hic3.12755","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The demise of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of the First World War marked the end of centuries of multi-ethnic coexistence. To this day, outside the field of history, the perception of both empires is rooted in the idea of the inevitability of their demise, which, as the story goes, was due to the strength of nationalist movements and the intensity of inter-ethnic strife. The ‘orientalising’ of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire has been translated into current understandings of Central Europe, the Balkans and the Middle East and their politics. While ethnic clashes have characterised the histories of these regions in the 20th century and nationalisms still play a central role in their politics, from Hungary to Turkey, national indifference, dynastic loyalty and multi-ethnic coexistence had been central to the life of the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Habsburg and Ottoman Empires.</p>","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"20 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41490698","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Taiwan is unique among postcolonial societies today for a widespread social nostalgia for Japanese colonial rule. Contrasted with anti-Japanese sentiment in neighboring East Asian societies like South Korea and China, Taiwan seems to present a puzzling instance of “pro-colonial” nostalgia. This article discusses this phenomenon through reviewing recent scholarship of Japanese and Guomindang rule of Taiwan and Taiwanese postcolonialism. Nostalgia for Japanese colonialism in Taiwan emerged after the traumatic experiences of later Guomindang authoritarian rule and the politics of democratization and decolonization that followed the end of Guomindang martial law. While some of this social memory is shaped by a generation who lived through Japanese rule, much of the reshaping of Taiwan's historical memory is more complex than merely “pro-colonialism.” Colonial nostalgia reflects a historical memory shaped by contemporary social experiences of trauma, counterhegemony, and postcolonial agency.
{"title":"Nostalgia for Japanese colonialism: Historical memory and postcolonialism in contemporary Taiwan","authors":"James Lin","doi":"10.1111/hic3.12751","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hic3.12751","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Taiwan is unique among postcolonial societies today for a widespread social nostalgia for Japanese colonial rule. Contrasted with anti-Japanese sentiment in neighboring East Asian societies like South Korea and China, Taiwan seems to present a puzzling instance of “pro-colonial” nostalgia. This article discusses this phenomenon through reviewing recent scholarship of Japanese and Guomindang rule of Taiwan and Taiwanese postcolonialism. Nostalgia for Japanese colonialism in Taiwan emerged after the traumatic experiences of later Guomindang authoritarian rule and the politics of democratization and decolonization that followed the end of Guomindang martial law. While some of this social memory is shaped by a generation who lived through Japanese rule, much of the reshaping of Taiwan's historical memory is more complex than merely “pro-colonialism.” Colonial nostalgia reflects a historical memory shaped by contemporary social experiences of trauma, counterhegemony, and postcolonial agency.</p>","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"20 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42191145","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Histories of medicine are conventionally confined to one geographical region and assume a sharp distinction between medicines and poisons. Recent scholarship, however, has created very different perspectives. Medico-toxic substances were highly mobile commodities that often breached any clear distinction between what kills and what heals. The investigation of poisons could be innovative and integral to the ways in which medicines were conceived and deployed. The search for ‘potent’ remedies, but also for poison antidotes and elixirs, fostered a transregional quest for new ‘wonder drugs’ and the means of ‘taming’ or mastering their toxicity. Further, there is much to be gained by looking at developments from a trans-Eurasian perspective and, rather than imagining discrete ‘systems’ of medicine, exploring patterns of commonality and exchange, as well as divergence, between constituent regions and over an extended period of time.
{"title":"Toxic remedies: Poisons and medicine in Eurasian history","authors":"David Arnold","doi":"10.1111/hic3.12752","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hic3.12752","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Histories of medicine are conventionally confined to one geographical region and assume a sharp distinction between medicines and poisons. Recent scholarship, however, has created very different perspectives. Medico-toxic substances were highly mobile commodities that often breached any clear distinction between what kills and what heals. The investigation of poisons could be innovative and integral to the ways in which medicines were conceived and deployed. The search for ‘potent’ remedies, but also for poison antidotes and elixirs, fostered a transregional quest for new ‘wonder drugs’ and the means of ‘taming’ or mastering their toxicity. Further, there is much to be gained by looking at developments from a trans-Eurasian perspective and, rather than imagining discrete ‘systems’ of medicine, exploring patterns of commonality and exchange, as well as divergence, between constituent regions and over an extended period of time.</p>","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"20 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42475439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"U.S. citizenships and American identities: Examining methods of belonging in North America","authors":"Kris Klein Hernández","doi":"10.1111/hic3.12749","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12749","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46529795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The crisis of the postcolonial nation‐state and the emergence of alternative forms of statehood in the Horn of Africa","authors":"N. Matshanda","doi":"10.1111/hic3.12750","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12750","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43540649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Patricia Crone famously identified three distinct sub-traditions within early Islamic historiography: a “religious tradition”, a “tribal tradition”, and a “secular tradition”. Whereas the first is extremely unreliable and the second is partially unreliable regarding early Islamic history in general (c. 600–750 CE), Crone argued that the third provides “a coherent historical account”, at least as far back as the beginning of the Umayyad period (c. 661 CE). Some confusion has since arisen over the identity of this “secular tradition” (thanks to Crone's famously terse and technical style), but a close examination of her work reveals that she had in mind state-oriented chronology and prosopography (i.e., basic political information on early Muslim caliphs, governors, judges, and commanders) or proto-taʾrīkh. Crone argued that this material (which mostly survives intermingled with the religious and tribal traditions in extant Islamic literary sources) derives via continuous written transmission from rudimentary state-oriented chronicles and prosopographies composed by pro-Marwanid Muslim writers in eighth-century Syria. Although these proto-tawārīkh are now lost, Crone argued that their eighth-century existence can be inferred from contemporaneous references thereto in extant Christian chronicles—a conclusion strengthened by more recent scholarship. For this reason, the “secular tradition” is substantially more reliable than the other traditions within early Islamic historiography, which underwent a protracted process of oral transmission and consequent mutation, distortion, and growth.
{"title":"Patricia Crone and the “secular tradition” of early Islamic historiography: An exegesis","authors":"J. J. Little","doi":"10.1111/hic3.12747","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hic3.12747","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Patricia Crone famously identified three distinct sub-traditions within early Islamic historiography: a “religious tradition”, a “tribal tradition”, and a “secular tradition”. Whereas the first is extremely unreliable and the second is partially unreliable regarding early Islamic history in general (c. 600–750 CE), Crone argued that the third provides “a coherent historical account”, at least as far back as the beginning of the Umayyad period (c. 661 CE). Some confusion has since arisen over the identity of this “secular tradition” (thanks to Crone's famously terse and technical style), but a close examination of her work reveals that she had in mind state-oriented chronology and prosopography (i.e., basic political information on early Muslim caliphs, governors, judges, and commanders) or proto-<i>taʾrīkh</i>. Crone argued that this material (which mostly survives intermingled with the religious and tribal traditions in extant Islamic literary sources) derives via continuous written transmission from rudimentary state-oriented chronicles and prosopographies composed by pro-Marwanid Muslim writers in eighth-century Syria. Although these proto-<i>tawārīkh</i> are now lost, Crone argued that their eighth-century existence can be inferred from contemporaneous references thereto in extant Christian chronicles—a conclusion strengthened by more recent scholarship. For this reason, the “secular tradition” is substantially more reliable than the other traditions within early Islamic historiography, which underwent a protracted process of oral transmission and consequent mutation, distortion, and growth.</p>","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"20 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hic3.12747","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48045809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
During the colonial era, liberal Western states established vast empires which came to encompass almost all of the world's Muslims. Western states worked out specific methods for governing Muslims, which were often referred to as “Muslim policy”. Recent scholarship on Muslim policy exhibits several key trends. One is expansion of geographical scope, leading scholars to produce more comprehensive global accounts of Muslim policy. Another trend is expansion of temporal scope, leading scholars to systematically link colonial Muslim policy with the governance of Muslims in the post-colonial era. A final trend is the reevaluation of liberal governance. Accordingly, scholars argue that, contrary to conventional assumptions, liberal ideology allows for - or even encourages - imperialism, authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, and racism. The present article makes several new contributions. It provides a synthesis of recent studies on Muslim policy - giving special attention to the key trends mentioned above. Moreover, the article proposes a novel way of conceptualizing Muslim policy. It is argued that Muslim policy centers on three overlapping projects: (1) a “human rights” project (2) a “religious reform” project and (3) a security project akin to what is now known as “counter-terrorism”. Finally, the article argues that liberals created Muslim policy in the colonial era, and continue to champion it in the post-colonial era. As such, it may be regarded as a distinctive long-standing liberal policy for governing Muslim populations.
{"title":"Liberalism's distinctive policy for governing Muslim populations: Human rights, religious reform, and counter-terrorism from the colonial era until the present","authors":"Aria Nakissa","doi":"10.1111/hic3.12748","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hic3.12748","url":null,"abstract":"<p>During the colonial era, liberal Western states established vast empires which came to encompass almost all of the world's Muslims. Western states worked out specific methods for governing Muslims, which were often referred to as “Muslim policy”. Recent scholarship on Muslim policy exhibits several key trends. One is expansion of geographical scope, leading scholars to produce more comprehensive global accounts of Muslim policy. Another trend is expansion of temporal scope, leading scholars to systematically link colonial Muslim policy with the governance of Muslims in the post-colonial era. A final trend is the reevaluation of liberal governance. Accordingly, scholars argue that, contrary to conventional assumptions, liberal ideology allows for - or even encourages - imperialism, authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, and racism. The present article makes several new contributions. It provides a synthesis of recent studies on Muslim policy - giving special attention to the key trends mentioned above. Moreover, the article proposes a novel way of conceptualizing Muslim policy. It is argued that Muslim policy centers on three overlapping projects: (1) a “human rights” project (2) a “religious reform” project and (3) a security project akin to what is now known as “counter-terrorism”. Finally, the article argues that liberals created Muslim policy in the colonial era, and continue to champion it in the post-colonial era. As such, it may be regarded as a distinctive long-standing liberal policy for governing Muslim populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"20 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hic3.12748","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46379027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Indian Ocean studies and saintly materials from the Islamic East","authors":"Teren Sevea","doi":"10.1111/hic3.12744","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hic3.12744","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"20 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48794286","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The South Asian presence in East Africa has roots in antiquity through oceanic trade routes linking the Subcontinent to Africa. Existing paper archives date to the colonial period, held both by the government and various communities. Only the most recent sliver of more than two millennia of history is therefore recorded on paper. Of that, most of the academic (Hofmeyr) work done on the Asian minority in East Africa has used colonial era archives in European languages, such as German and English. The voices of Asian merchant communities are rarely heard in their own language and context. Their texts are either totally absent from analysis or dismissed as religious and not addressing the “interesting” historical questions of power (economic, political, and social) that dominate academic historical research on the region.
{"title":"The Gujarati archive in Tanzania","authors":"Iqbal S. Akhtar","doi":"10.1111/hic3.12745","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hic3.12745","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The South Asian presence in East Africa has roots in antiquity through oceanic trade routes linking the Subcontinent to Africa. Existing paper archives date to the colonial period, held both by the government and various communities. Only the most recent sliver of more than two millennia of history is therefore recorded on paper. Of that, most of the academic (Hofmeyr) work done on the Asian minority in East Africa has used colonial era archives in European languages, such as German and English. The voices of Asian merchant communities are rarely heard in their own language and context. Their texts are either totally absent from analysis or dismissed as religious and not addressing the “interesting” historical questions of power (economic, political, and social) that dominate academic historical research on the region.</p>","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":"20 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45838883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A political turn? New developments in Indian constitutional histories","authors":"A. Elangovan","doi":"10.1111/hic3.12746","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12746","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46376,"journal":{"name":"History Compass","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44809395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}