1. Empires: China and Portugal
Galleons and Caravans
Tutor: Giorgio Riello
Week 9. Wednesday 3 December 2009
Empires: China and Portugal

2. Table 1. Mega-Empires in the Historical Record
Date (peak)
Empire name
World region
Area (million sq km)
1380
Mali
Africa
1.10
1400
Mamluk
2.10
1270
Mongol
Central Asia
24.00
1310
Golden Horde
6.00
1350
Chagatai
3.50
1405
Timurid
4.40
1450
China-Ming
East Asia
6.50
1790
China-Manchu
14.70
1480
Lithuania-Poland
Europe
1683
Ottoman
5.20
1800
Russia
15.50
1290
Khmer
Southeast Asia
1.00
1312
Delhi
South Asia
3.20
1690
Mughal
4.00
1760
Maratha
2.50
Il-Khanid
Southwest Asia
3.75
Peter Turchin, ‘A theory for formation of large Empires’, Journal of Global History, 4/2 (2009), pp

3. A1. Political outlines of the Chinese Empire
In 1300 the Empire is in disarray. Run over by Mongols.
Reunified under the Ming dynasty in 1368 (see Tim Brook’s Confusion of Pleasures)
Reorganisation of society, with strong focus on the state. Return to agrarian empire.
Late Ming cultural and economic flourishing
Qing invasion and establishment of Manchu rule in High Qing flourishing: siku quanshu and Gujin tushu jicheng: encyclopedia of all gathered knowledge. (See Craig Clunas’s Superfluous Things)
Relationship with British turned sour post 1800

4. A1. Political outlines of the Chinese Empire
In 1300 the Empire is in disarray. Run over by Mongols.
Reunified under Zhu Yuanzhang, who established the Ming dynasty in 1368 (see Tim Brook’s Confusion of Pleasures)
Reorganisation of society, with strong focus on the state. Return to agrarian empire.
Late Ming cultural and economic flourishing
Qing invasion and establishment of Manchu rule in High Qing flourishing: siku quanshu and Gujin tushu jicheng: encyclopedia of all gathered knowledge. (See Craig Clunas’s Superfluous Things)
Relationship with British turned sour post 1800

5. A2. Approaches to Chinese History
Voltaire

6. Hegel

7. Max Weber

8. Karl
Wittfogel

9. A3. Themes in the History of the Chinese empire
The nature of the central government
initial importance given to the despotic nature of the Chinese state.
later importance to civil service as a meritocracy: ‘enlightened’ civil servants. See Ho Ping-ti’ The Ladder of Success in Imperial China: Aspects of Social Mobility, (1964)
- Others have been critical of this position. See Benjamin Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China.

11. A3. Themes in the History of the Chinese empire
Empire and foreign relations
official pattern: trade was restricted by the tribute system or to specific places in the south
but vibrant regional and interregional trade
- and great deal of illegal activities

12. B. Portugal

13. B1. Chronology of Empire Building
a. North Africa

14. B1. Chronology of Empire Building
a. North Africa
b. The Atlantic Islands

15. B1. Chronology of Empire Building
a. North Africa
b. The Atlantic Islands
c. Brazil

17. B1. Chronology of Empire Building
a. North Africa
b. The Atlantic Islands
c. Brazil
d. Central Africa

18. B1. Chronology of Empire Building
a. North Africa
b. The Atlantic Islands
c. Brazil
d. Central Africa
e. Asia

21. B2. The Crisis of the Estado
Expansion of the Safavid and Moghul empires (loss of Hormuz 1621)
2. The Dutch republic takes over Northeast Brazil, El Mina, Luanda in central Africa and Malacca in 1640
3. loss of key nodes of exchange in the Indian Ocean (advantage of the Dutch and English)
Final decline of the Estado between 1650 and 1740

22. No. of Portuguese migrating to the colonies
B3 The Relational Logic of the Portuguese Empire
What sort of Empire was this?
“The Portuguese empire was a vast, global administrative and economic system that linked continents, peoples, and economic organisations in a network of exchange” (S.B. Schwarz, ‘The Economy of the Portuguese Empire’, p. 19).
1. The Empire stretching over Asia, Africa and America had some common features:
- Portuguese population moved to all of these areas
Period
No. of Portuguese migrating to the colonies
50,000
180,000
360,000
150,000
600,000

23. B3 The Relational Logic of the Portuguese Empire
What sort of Empire was this?
“The Portuguese empire was a vast, global administrative and economic system that linked continents, peoples, and economic organisations in a network of exchange” (S.B. Schwarz, ‘The Economy of the Portuguese Empire’, p. 19).
1. The Empire stretching over Asia, Africa and America had some common features:
- Portuguese population moved to all of these areas
- the Portuguese mixed with local populations
- there was an active willingness to convert people.
2. An overlap between its formal structure and its informal one.
3. This was as much a centralised empire as an empire of links
4. An example of the relational logic is the Dutch challenge both in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic.

24. Conclusion
China was a land empire with a strong bureaucratic system. It was marked by discontinuities (changes of dynasties). --- case of ‘mirror Empire’ theory proposed by Peter Turchin.
Portugal developed (and lost) an empire over a shorter period. This was a maritime, not a land empire, characterised by trade and the exploitation of resources. It was administered flexibly from a weak and distant centre --- case of ‘colonial empire’.