Torn Between Empires

After the collapse of the Han dynasty in the third century CE, China divided along a north-south line. This book traces the changes that both underlay and resulted from this split in a period that saw the geographic redefinition of China, more engagement with the outside world, significant changes to family life, developments in the literary and social arenas, and the introduction of new religions.

This volume explores Caribbean literature from 1800-1920 across genres and in the multiple languages of the Caribbean.

In 1837, a small group of rebels proclaimed the short-lived Republic of Canada. Between then and the Act of Confederation of 1867, colonial Canadians tried to imagine the future of their communities in North America. The choice between monarchy and republicanism shaped both colonial self-images and images of the United States; it also drove the political deliberations that eventually united the colonies of British North America into a self-governing Dominion under the British Crown. Between Empire and Republic is a thematic exploration of the political discourse embedded in the literary output of the period. Colonial authors Susanna Moodie, Th. Ch. Haliburton, and John Richardson enjoyed transatlantic popularity and explained colonial realities to their British, Canadian, and American readership. Collectively, their writings serve as the lens into colonial Canadian perceptions of American and British political ideas and institutions. Between Empire and Republic discusses North America as a literary contact zone where British principles of constitutional monarchy competed with American ideas of republicanism and democratic self-government. The author argues that political ideas in pre-Confederation Canada filtered into the literary works of the time, creating two settler-colonial communities whose recognizable cultural characteristics echoed public attitudes towards the political projects underpinning them.

Contemporary America, with its unparalleled armaments and ambition, seems to many commentators a new empire. Others angrily reject the designation. What stakes would being an empire have for our identity at home and our role abroad? A preeminent American historian addresses these issues in light of the history of empires since antiquity. This elegantly written book examines the structure and impact of these mega-states and asks whether the United States shares their traits and behavior. Eschewing the standard focus on current U.S. foreign policy and the recent spate of pro- and anti-empire polemics, Charles S. Maier uses comparative history to test the relevance of a concept often invoked but not always understood. Marshaling a remarkable array of evidence—from Roman, Ottoman, Moghul, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and British experience—Maier outlines the essentials of empire throughout history. He then explores the exercise of U.S. power in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, carefully analyzing its economic and strategic sources and the nation’s relationship to predecessors and rivals. To inquire about empire is to ask what the United States has become as a result of its wealth, inventiveness, and ambitions. It is to confront lofty national aspirations with the realities of the violence that often attends imperial politics and thus to question both the costs and the opportunities of the current U.S. global ascendancy. With learning, dispassion, and clarity, Among Empires offers bold comparisons and an original account of American power. It confirms that the issue of empire must be a concern of every citizen.

An innovative historical and ethnographic examination of Dominican identity formation in the Dominican Republic and the United States.

This in-depth, comparative study focuses on the economy, society, and political culture of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic in the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Viewing developments as they relate to the countries' common heritage of insularity, colonialism, and slavery, Luis Martínez-Fernández points out profound, underlying balance-of-power transformations during a time of ostensibly small change in the region's political status.

In this book, _lvarez-L-pez details the history of revolution in the Dominican Republic, which was an infant independent nation struggling to preserve its political independence from Haiti and from the expansionist policies of northern European countries and the United States. In 1861, the Dominican Republic was annexed to Spain. The Spanish empire expansionist policy sought to preserve Cuba and Puerto Rico, and the acquisition of the Dominican Republic strengthened Spain's hold on the Antilles Empire. Spain's policies strengthened the political objectives of the Dominican ruling class, which were political stability and control of the political power under a Caucasian empire. While both these objectives were achieved, the new colonial experiment was a total failure. The exclusion of the native ruling class, over taxation, economic exploitation, coercive imposition of the Catholic Church customs, prejudice against blacks and mulattos led to war, ending with the defeat of the Spanish Empire. This defeat opened a revolutionary cycle in the Spanish Caribbean.

Geschiedenis van de Verenigde Staten als wereldmacht in het licht van de tanende invloed en opkomend protectionisme van de afgelopen decennia.