HST 132 GLOBALIZATION OF CHINA, 1500-1840
Everywhere you look these days, individuals and institutions are connected with and influenced by what is happening in other parts of the world. Such a global world as we see today, however, is not entirely a modern product, and nor is it solely a result of European explorations. This course takes the 16th to the early 19th century as the beginning stage of globalization, and in roughly chronological order, we will be focusing on China’s interaction with the New World, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and the US. During this early-modern period of intensifying interaction and exchange, “things” traveled more than ever before, and in their movement across various boundaries, they acquired and created new meanings. We will therefore look into commodities such as ceramics, tobacco, tea, and textiles, all of which generated new relations and expanded the cultural horizon of early modern people. Counts toward Asian Studies minor.