Mobility in an Age of Imperialism, Nation-Building, and Revolution: Kawata Masazō's Late-Nineteenth-Century Pacific World

Abstract:Throughout the nineteenth century, the forces of imperialism, nationalism, and revolution were changing the world's geopolitical landscape at the same time that steamships enabled unprecedented mobility in the Pacific. This article examines Kawata Masazō's life and news reports to ask what he can tell us about how travel, foreign encounter, and intellectual exchange intersected with East Asian geopolitics just prior to the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War in the summer of 1894. Kawata's micro-historical perspective shows that the unique nexus of relationships among Japan, Korea, and China were embedded in the deeply intertwined and contradictory tensions of imperialism, nationalism, and revolution that were playing out across multiple societies in the Pacific world. His story also shows that travel and imperialism are not always, or only, mutually supporting.