Nicola di cosmo

The Cambridge World History of Violence - edited by Matthew Gordon March 2020

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The Eldgjá lava flood is considered Iceland’s largest volcanic eruption of the Common Era. While it is well established that it occurred after the Settlement of Iceland (circa 874 CE), the date of this great event has remained uncertain. This has hampered investigation of the eruption’s impacts, if any, on climate and society. Here, we use high-temporal resolution glaciochemical records from Greenland to show that the eruption began in spring 939 CE and continued, at least episodically, until at least autumn 940 CE. Contemporary chronicles identify the spread of a remarkable haze in 939 CE, and tree ring-based reconstructions reveal pronounced northern hemisphere summer cooling in 940 CE, consistent with the eruption’s high yield of sulphur to the atmosphere. Consecutive severe winters and privations may also be associated with climatic effects of the volcanic aerosol veil. Iceland’s formal conversion to Christianity dates to 999/1000 CE, within two generations or so of the Eldgjá eruption. The end of the pagan pantheon is foretold in Iceland’s renowned medieval poem, Vǫluspá (‘the prophecy of the seeress’). Several lines of the poem describe dramatic eruptive activity and attendant meteorological effects in an allusion to the fiery terminus of the pagan gods. We suggest that they draw on first-hand experiences of the Eldgjá eruption and that this retrospection of harrowing volcanic events in the poem was intentional, with the purpose of stimulating Iceland’s Christianisation over the latter half of the tenth century.

Newly available paleoclimate data and a re-evaluation of the historical and archaeological evidence regarding the Uyghur Empire (744-840)-one of several nomadic empires to emerge on the Inner Asian steppe-suggests that the assumption of a direct causal link between drought and the stability of nomadic societies is not always justified. The fact that a severe drought lasting nearly seven decades did not cause the Uyghur Empire to collapse, to wage war, or to disintegrate gives rise to speculations about which of its characteristics enabled it to withstand unfavorable climatic conditions and environmental change. More broadly, it raises questions about the complex suite of strategies and responses that may have been available to steppe societies in the face of environmental stress. © 2018 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Inc.

In our 2016 article in Scientific Reports, we advanced a new hypothesis for the Mongol withdrawal from Hungary in 1242 CE, based on a joint analysis of climatic, environmental, and historical data. The re-evaluation now offered by Pinke et al. casts doubt on this hypothesis. However, their arguments are based on a level of generality that fails to appreciate the specific conditions of the Mongol invasion, do not offer new or different climatic data, and are supported by anachronistic production data and environmental information, which cannot be related to the period in question. While we acknowledge the importance of an open debate, we stand by our conclusions.

The collapse of the Eastern Türk Empire (ETE, ca. 584–630 CE) in 630 CE marked the rise of Tang China as the paramount power on the Silk Road. It was followed by the Tang defeat of the Western Türk Empire in 659 and opened a phase of Chinese expansion into central Asia. Climate-induced environmental changes as well as economic and political consequences are mentioned in medieval Chinese records as major factors in the ETE collapse. The role of cooler temperatures has also been discussed in current scholarship. Here, we re-evaluate this question by assessing the available historical sources in the light of a global network of 16 tree-ring chronologies for this period, which reveal distinct summer cooling in the ETE heartland between 626 and 632 CE. Reconstructed peak cooling of up to − 3.4 °C in 627 and 628 CE (relative to the 1961–90 mean climatology) coincided with heavy snowfall and severe frost events in the territory of the ETE. A strong sulfate spike in Greenland ice cores that has been dated circa 626 CE is implicated in the abrupt surface cooling. We argue that the climatic perturbation and associated reduction in vegetation growth and livestock mortality are relevant in understanding the causes of the fall of the ETE but these indirect drivers must be evaluated within a comprehensive analysis of political relations within both the Türk and the Tang leadership. Our study underscores and contextualizes the vulnerability of past nomadic societies to small and episodic climate fluctuations, particularly when coupled with concurrent socioeconomic, political, and demographic changes.

Mammalian herbivores are an essential component of grassland and savanna ecosystems, and with feedbacks to the climate system. To date, the response and feedbacks of mammalian herbivores to changes in both abiotic and biotic factors are poorly quantified and not adequately represented in the current global land modeling framework. In this study, we coupled herbivore population dynamics in a global land model (the Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model, DLEM3.0) to simulate populations of horses, cattle, sheep and goats, and their responses to changes in multiple environmental factors at the site level across different continents during 1980-2010. Simulated results show that the model is capable of reproducing observed herbivore populations across all sites for these animal groups. Our simulation results also indicate that during this period, climate extremes led to a maximum mortality of 27% of the total herbivores in Mongolia. Across all sites, herbivores reduced aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) and heterotrophic respiration (Rh) by 14% and 15%, respectively (p < 0.05). With adequate parameterization, the model can be used for historical assessment and future prediction of mammalian herbivore populations and their relevant impacts on biogeochemical cycles. Our simulation results demonstrate a strong coupling between primary producers and consumers, indicating that inclusion of herbivores into the global land modeling framework is essential to better understand the potentially large effect of herbivores on carbon and water cycles in grassland and savanna ecosystems.

Investigations of the impacts of past volcanic eruptions on climate, environment, and society require accurate chronologies. However, eruptions that are not recorded in historical documents can seldom be dated exactly. Here we use annually resolved radiocarbon ($^{14}$C) measurements to isolate the 775 CE cosmogenic $^{14}$C peak in a subfossil birch tree that was buried by a glacial outburst flood in southern Iceland. We employ this absolute time marker to date a subglacial eruption of Katla volcano at late 822 CE to early 823 CE. We argue for correlation between the 822–823 CE eruption and a conspicuous sulfur anomaly evident in Greenland ice cores, which follows in the wake of an even larger volcanic signal (ca. 818–820 CE) as yet not attributed to a known eruption. An abrupt summer cooling in 824 CE, evident in tree-ring reconstructions for Fennoscandia and the Northern Hemisphere, suggests a climatic response to the Katla eruption. Written historical sources from Europe and China corroborate our proposed tree ring–radiocarbon–ice core linkage but also point to combined effects of eruptions occurring during this period. Our study describes the oldest precisely dated, high-latitude eruption and reveals the impact of an extended phase of volcanic forcing in the early 9$^{th}$ century. It also provides insight into the existence of prehistoric woodland cover and the nature of volcanism several decades before Iceland's permanent settlement began.

Investigations of the impacts of past volcanic eruptions on climate, environment, and society require accurate chronologies. However, eruptions that are not recorded in historical documents can seldom be dated exactly. Here we use annually resolved radiocarbon (14C) measurements to isolate the 775 CE cosmogenic 14C peak in a subfossil birch tree that was buried by a glacial outburst flood in southern Iceland. We employ this absolute time marker to date a subglacial eruption of Katla volcano at late 822 CE to early 823 CE. We argue for correlation between the 822–823 CE eruption and a conspicuous sulfur anomaly evident in Greenland ice cores, which follows in the wake of an even larger volcanic signal (ca. 818–820 CE) as yet not attributed to a known eruption. An abrupt summer cooling in 824 CE, evident in tree-ring reconstructions for Fennoscandia and the Northern Hemisphere, suggests a climatic response to the Katla eruption. Written historical sources from Europe and China corroborate our proposed tree ring–radiocarbon–ice core linkage but also point to combined effects of eruptions occurring during this period. Our study describes the oldest precisely dated, high-latitude eruption and reveals the impact of an extended phase of volcanic forcing in the early 9th century. It also provides insight into the existence of prehistoric woodland cover and the nature of volcanism several decades before Iceland’s permanent settlement began.

Büntgen et al. reply — We agree with Helama et al. in their call for further research into the climate of the first half of the Common Era. However, we argue that they underestimate the combined efficacy of environmental, archaeological and historical indicators in establishing a prolonged period of cold summers across much of the Northern Hemisphere landmass between 536 and about 660 ad, which we term the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA)1.

Ranking among the largest volcanic eruptions of the Common Era (CE), the ‘Millennium Eruption’ of Changbaishan produced a widely-dispersed tephra layer (known as the B-Tm ash), which represents an important tie point for palaeoenvironmental studies in East Asia. Hitherto, there has been no consensus on its age, with estimates spanning at least the tenth century CE. Here, we identify the cosmogenic radiocarbon signal of 775 CE in a subfossil larch engulfed and killed by pyroclastic currents emplaced during the initial rhyolitic phase of the explosive eruption. Combined with glaciochemical evidence from Greenland, this enables us to date the eruption to late 946 CE. This secure date rules out the possibility that the Millennium Eruption contributed to the collapse of the Bohai Kingdom (Manchuria/Korea) in 926 CE, as has previously been hypothesised. Further, despite the magnitude of the eruption, we do not see a consequent cooling signal in tree-ring-based reconstructions of Northern Hemisphere summer temperatures. A tightly-constrained date for the Millennium Eruption improves the prospect for further investigations of historical sources that may shed light on the eruption's impacts, and enhances the value of the B-Tm ash as a chronostratigraphic marker.

The Mongol invasion of Eastern Europe, and especially its sudden withdrawal from Hungary in 1242 CE, has generated much speculation and an array of controversial theories. None of them, however, considered multifaceted environmental drivers and the coupled analysis of historical reports and natural archives. Here we investigate annually resolved, absolutely dated and spatially explicit paleoclimatic evidence between 1230 and 1250 CE. Documentary sources and tree-ring chronologies reveal warm and dry summers from 1238-1241, followed by cold and wet conditions in early-1242. Marshy terrain across the Hungarian plain most likely reduced pastureland and decreased mobility, as well as the military effectiveness of the Mongol cavalry, while despoliation and depopulation ostensibly contributed to widespread famine. These circumstances arguably contributed to the determination of the Mongols to abandon Hungary and return to Russia. While overcoming deterministic and reductionist arguments, our 'environmental hypothesis' demonstrates the importance of minor climatic fluctuations on major historical events.

Climatic changes during the first half of the Common Era have been suggested to play a role in societal reorganizations in Europe1,2 and Asia3,4. In particular, the sixth century coincides with rising and falling civilizations1–6 , pandemics7,8 , human migration and political turmoil8–13. Our understanding of the magnitude and spatial extent as well as the possible causes and concurrences of climate change during this period is, however, still limited. Here we use tree-ring chronologies from the Rus- sian Altai and European Alps to reconstruct summer tempera- tures over the past two millennia. We find an unprecedented, long-lasting and spatially synchronized cooling following a cluster of large volcanic eruptions in 536, 540 and 547 AD (ref. 14), which was probably sustained by ocean and sea-ice feedbacks15,16 , as well as a solar minimum17 . We thus identify the interval from 536 to about 660 AD as the Late Antique Little Ice Age. Spanning most of the Northern Hemisphere, we suggest that this cold phase be considered as an additional environmental factor contributing to the establishment of the Justinian plague7,8, transformation of the eastern Roman Empire and collapse of the Sasanian Empire1,2,5, movements out of the Asian steppe and Arabian Peninsula8,11,12, spread of Slavic-speaking peoples9,10 and political upheavals in China13.

Although many studies have associated the demise of complex societies with deteriorating climate, few have investigated the connection between an ameliorating environment, surplus resources, energy, and the rise of empires. The 13th-century Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous land empire in world history. Although drought has been proposed as one factor that spurred these conquests, no high-resolution moisture data are available during the rapid development of the Mongol Empire. Here we present a 1,112-y tree-ring reconstruction of warm-season water balance derived from Siberian pine (Pinus sibirica) trees in central Mongolia. Our reconstruction accounts for 56% of the variability in the regional water balance and is significantly correlated with steppe productivity across central Mongolia. In combination with a gridded temperature reconstruction, our results indicate that the regional climate during the conquests of Chinggis Khan's (Genghis Khan's) 13th-century Mongol Empire was warm and persistently wet. This period, characterized by 15 consecutive years of above-average moisture in central Mongolia and coinciding with the rise of Chinggis Khan, is unprecedented over the last 1,112 y. We propose that these climate conditions promoted high grassland productivity and favored the formation of Mongol political and military power. Tree-ring and meteorological data also suggest that the early 21st-century drought in central Mongolia was the hottest drought in the last 1,112 y, consistent with projections of warming over Inner Asia. Future warming may overwhelm increases in precipitation leading to similar heat droughts, with potentially severe consequences for modern Mongolia.

Let’s imagine Chinese historiography as an immensely long, apparently seamless piece of cloth woven in broadly similar patterns but with shifting shades and subtle differences, extending over twenty-six centuries. If we take that bolt of cloth and unfurl it to its starting point, it would take us to a long, frayed, multistrand beginning with weak and loosely connected threads. No matter how tattered and frail, those strands produced what is arguably the foundation of China as a unified cultural entity. During the Han dynasty (221 bc- ad 220), scattered annalistic traditions were pulled together and woven into a much stronger historical fabric by the founders of imperial historiography, Sima Qian (ca. 145 bc- 86 bc) and Ban Gu (ad 32- 92), respectively, the authors of the first comprehensive history of China, the Shiji (Memoirs of the Grand Historian), and of the first dynastic history, the Hanshu (Nienhauser 2011; Durrant 2005). © 2014 University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved

This volume centres on the history and legacy of the Mongol World Empire founded by Chinggis Khan and his sons, including its impact upon the modern world. An international team of scholars examines the political and cultural history of the Mongol empire, its Chinggisid successor states, and the non-Chinggisid dynasties that came to dominate Inner Asia in its wake. Geographically, it focuses on the continental region from East Asia to Eastern Europe. Beginning in the twelfth century, the volume moves through to the establishment of Chinese and Russian political hegemony in Inner Asia from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Contributors use recent research and new approaches that have revitalized Inner Asian studies to highlight the world-historical importance of the regimes and states formed during and after the Mongol conquest. Their conclusions testify to the importance of a region whose modern fate has been overshadowed by Russia and China.

The proclamation of the Qing dynasty in 1636 signalled the beginning of a new phase in both Chinese and Inner Asian history The dynasty established by the Manchurian Aisin Gioro royal clan was going in a few years to conquer China and rule it down to the year 1911. During this period of time the political and territorial configuration of the eastern part of Inner Asia, and in particular Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet, would be transformed as the Qing extended their rule over these regions. The year 1636 marked not only a new dynastic beginning, but also the end of a period of consolidation during which the Jin dynasty founded by Nurhaci in 1616 and continued by his son Hong Taiji (r. 1627–43) led to the completion of several military and political projects. These projects were milestones on the road to the self-strengthening of the Manchu regime vis-à-vis the Ming, while at the same time anticipated the transformations in the political and social fabric of the Inner Asian borderlands under Qing rule. Early achievements included the unification of the Manchurian aristocratic kingdoms, the military defeat of the Ming and conquest of the Liaodong peninsula, and successful expeditions against Korea. Above all, however, it was arguably the success of the Manchus' multisided policy with regard to the south Mongol tribes that contributed the most to stabilizing the Inner Asian front and allowing the Manchus to reorganize the Mongols as a component of the newly minted Qing dynasty.

Before 1644, the Manchu rulers pursued a deliberate policy of alliances with the southern (later Inner) Mongol tribes. In the 1630s the system of treaties and alliances gave way to the creation of the League-Banner system, the jasaq system, and the Lifan Yuan. The new territorial and political organization meant that the southern Mongols, while retaining a degree of autonomy, became subjects of the Qing dynasty. This essay explores the historical circumstances of the transformation of the relationship between Manchus and Mongols from partnership to subordination. It also aims to explain the political principles deployed by the Manchus in the redefinition of their relationship with the Mongol elites. More specifically, the essay proposes that the new forms of administration of Inner Mongolia stemmed from a condition of tutelage. Tutelage was not simply imposed by the Manchus upon their erstwhile allies, but actively sought by Mongol aristocrats in the context of the intra-Mongol wars carried out by the Čaqar leader Ligdan Khan.

David Robinson must be highly commended for writing one of the most innovative, informative, and potentially field-changing books on the East Asian “Middle Period.” This statement refers to substance as well as to method and approach. At the most basic level, it reconfigures two classic forms of “packaging” Chinese history: the geographical and territorial definition of what China (especially as an “empire”) is assumed to be, and the dynastic cycle. The regional focus of the book, Northeast Asia, which extends to parts of north China (the eastern part of today’s Inner Mongolia), Shandong, Liaodong (for which it was meant roughly what is today China’s dongbei but chiefly southern Manchuria), and Korea, is unusual and shows how a regional perspective can destabilize narratives that refer to the territory classically associated to the “Chinese empire” even when no such empire existed. Moreover, the discontinuities usually associated with dynastic change are muffled if not overall eliminated by two converging paths of approach: the end of the Yuan as “Mongol empire,” and the long wave of decentralization and militarization that characterized Northeast Asia (as defined by Robinson). Therefore, “dynastic change” appears as a process at the same time longer, more local, and more “transnational” (because of its connections with Korea) than if seen only through a “Chinese history” perspective. Robinson demonstrates the advantages of the “sideways view” that he casts upon China, while illuminating Korean and Mongol history with admirable analytical perspicacity and mastery of the sources (Korean, Chinese, and Japanese). The book opens with a chapter on the Yuan ulus (a term Robinson prefers to “dynasty”) and Mongol politics in the crepuscule of the empire. Together with a balanced assessment of Toghan-Temür’s reign, this chapter touches on several important changes that occurred in Northeast Asia under the Mongols, particularly in regard to the political and military situation. What Robinson stresses is the aristocratic character of the upper layers of society, its multiculturalism, and the higher level of economic integration achieved under the Mongols. At the same time, the region and its attendant parts retained specificity in various realms, from intellectual life to the legal codes that applied to different peoples. The balance between circuits of integration and policies that respected and preserved existing boundaries is a function of the Mongol empire that Robinson rightly underscores and that is essential to a correct understanding of the general backdrop of this period’s events. This is followed by a chapter on the Mongol rulers’ attempts to respond and react to the many challenges of the mid-fourteenth century, together with the rise of millenarian movements that would eventually feed the Red Turban revolts. Robinson stresses the mounting tide of society’s militarization, the spreading of violence and chaos, while unrest swelled and local militias were created to fill the void left by an ineffective and weakened central government to secure protection for the local people. Robinson depicts a vivid picture of an increasingly beleaguered Mongol leadership confronted by rebel warlords such as Mao Gui 毛貴. As we learn of the ravages of Red Turbans under Master Guan and Cracked-Head Pan in northeast China and of their subsequent march into Korea in early 1359, Robinson turns to Koryŏ under the Mongols (Chapter Three). With the quick-brush dexterity and detail-oriented precision that is typical of his style, Robinson explicates the relationship between the Koryŏ and the Mongol court focusing on the reign of the Korean king Kongmin 恭愍 (1351–74) and the vicissitudes of court politics. Among many fascinating details, one may note the reassessment of the political and ritual functions of the “Colors Banquets.” These were lavish feasts that introduced at the Mongol court elements of the steppe political culture meant to forge bonds of loyalty, exhibit imperial grandeur, and grant privileged status to the invitees. As Robinson shows, Koryŏ court politics was heavily invested in the glittery world of Daidu’s 大都 Mongol court. The duties of Korea to serve the Mongols became clear when a request arrived to send troops to fight the Red Turbans. King Kongmin obliged, but then moved in a direction of increasing autonomy that would eventually take him to the brink of war against...

At the invitation of the current Editor of Early China I have accepted to write a response to Sophia-Karin Psarras's review of my book, published in 2002, Ancient China and Its Enemies, The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History ( Early China 31, 2007: 227–259, published in June 2010). As a frequent book reviewer myself and former book review editor, I do believe that reviews have an important role in academia, but it is a role sometime abused, and something needs to be said when the credibility of a book and its author is treated in a manner that, by any standard, can only be regarded as prosecutorial. A point-by-point rebuttal would be a tedious and unnecessary exercise, and therefore I shall address only a few illustrative issues. On p. 231 I am accused of appropriating Lin Yun's language and of having taken terms from him without proper attribution (implying some kind of plagiarism). But in the passage that immediately precedes the incriminating excerpts, I say: “The standard typology of the Northern Zone's complex metal inventory, provided by Lin Yun [my emphasis] includes daggers, axes with short sockets, axes with tubular sockets, mirrors, and ‘bow shaped’ objects.” Did the reviewer miss this?

Geoffrey Blainey. A Short History of the World. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2002. Pp. xi, 464. 827.50 (US). Reviewed by W. Warren Wagar

The term Pax Mongolica indicates a period of time (c. 1280-1360) during which Mongol domination seemingly guaranteed security on the Eurasian commercial routes. At this time the Italian maritime powers of Genoa and Venice established their commercial “emporia” on the Black Sea. This essay examines the links between Mongol-controlled continental Asia and Italian-controlled maritime trade by separating the sphere of interests of the Venetian and Genoese governments from the sphere of activities of private merchants, whose presence in China and Central Asia depended heavily upon Mongol support. The end of the Pax Mongolica had a different impact on both of these two spheres.Le terme Pax Mongolica indique une période (environ 1280-1360) pendant laquelle la domination mongole assurait apparemment la sécurité des itinéraires commerciaux eurasiatiques. A cette époque les puissances maritimes de Gênes et de Venise établissaient leurs `emporia' commerciaux sur la Mer Noire. Cette contribution étudie les liens entre l'Asie continentale contrôlée par les Mongols et le commerce maritime, contrôlé par les Italiens en séparant la sphère d'intérêt des gouvernements vénitiens et génois de la sphère d'action des commerçants privés, dont la présence en Chine et Asie centrale dépendait du soutien mongol. La fin de la Pax Mongolica devrait affecter ces deux sphères de façon différente.

Empires of the Silk Road: a history of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the present - By BeckwithChristopher I.. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009. Pp. xxv + 472. Hardback £24.95, ISBN 978-0-691-13589-2. - Volume 4 Issue 3 - Nicola Di Cosmo

The essay focuses on the idea of just war within the context of the rise of Manchu power in the decades preceding the Manchu conquest of China and the establishment of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). At this time of momentous political changes, the founders of Manchu powers Nurhaci and his successor Hung Thiji, issued proclamations in which they sought to justify their wars against China and Korea. The template of these man:festos, known as the Seven Great Grievances, is analyzed here within the frame of the discussion of just war theory in European and non-European contexts as an example of a practice of jus ad bellum by a people normally associated with the war culture of steppe nomads, such as the Mongols. The investigation into the war ethics of the Manchus is extended also to the question of the jus in bello, based on proclamations issued to the army that contain rules and laws about the behavior of troops in combat and during a military campaign. Not only are these proclamations comparable with similar manifestos issued in Seventeenth-century Europe, which have been read as instances of a praxis of just war, but contemporary European observers were also impressed by the Manchu justification of war. The last part of the essay will analyze Martino Martini's treatment of the Manchu .xgrievances in his Bellum Tartaricum as a basis for waging war against China. The famed Jesuit recognized these as just causes and was then able to inscribe the conquest of China within a Christian view of history that was entirely different from the interpretation of a victory of barbarism against civilization that might have been inspired by Chinese and European notions of Thrtarian invasions.

THOMAS S. BURNS. Rome and the Barbarians, 100 BC-AD 400. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. Pp. xiv, 461. $49.95 (US). Reviewed by Peter S. WellsCATHARINE EDWARDS and GREG WOOLF, eds. Rome the Cosmopolis. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Pp. xv, 249. $60.00 (US). Reviewed by Richard J. A. TalbertWALTER E. KAEGI. Heraclius: Emperor of Byzantium. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Pp. xii, 359. $70.00 (US). Reviewed by Clive FossALFRED W. CROSBY. Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–1900, 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. xxii, 368. $20.00 (US), paper. Reviewed by Geoffrey W. RiceDONALD B. FREEMAN. The Straits of Malacca: Gateway or Gauntlet? Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003. Pp. xxix, 249. $55.00 (CDN). Reviewed by Nicholas TarlingRICHARD BARBER. The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. Pp. xiv, 463. $27.95 (US). Reviewed by Ian N. WoodMARTIN DIMNIK. The Dynasty of Chernigov, 1146–1246. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Pp. xxxviii, 437. $80.00 (US). Reviewed by David GoldfrankHERBERT FRANKE. Krieg und Krieger im chinesischen Mittelalter (12. bis 14. Jahrhundert): Drei Studien. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2003. Pp. 245. €49.00, paper. Reviewed by Nicola Di CosmoPAULA SUTTER FICHTNER. The Habsburg Monarchy, 1490–1848. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Pp. xxiii, 222. $22.95 (US), paper; MICHAEL HOCHEDLINGER. Austria's Wars of Emergency: War, State, and Society in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1683–1797. London and New York: Longman, 2003. Pp. xviii, 466. £24.99, paper. Reviewed by Karl A. RoiderMARY ANN LYONS. Franco-Irish Relations, 1500–1610: Politics, Migration, and Trade. Woodbridge, UK and Rochester, NY: Boydell Press for the Royal Historical Society, 2003. Pp. xiii, 242. $70.00 (US). Reviewed by Ronald S. LoveGARY P. LEUPP. Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543–1900. New York: Continuum, 2003. Pp. xii, 313. $125.00 (US). Reviewed by Ian NishJEROEN DUINDAM. Vienna and Versailles: The Courts of Europe's Dynastic Rivals, 1550–1780. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Pp. xi, 349. $80.00 (US). Reviewed by Roger MettamMARSHALL T. POE. The Russian Moment in World History. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2003. Pp. xv, 116. $17.95 (US). Reviewed by John P. LeDonneCAESAR E. FARAH, ed. and trans. An Arab's Journey to Colonial Spanish America: The Travels of Elias al-Mûsili in the Seventeenth Century. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2003. Pp. xxvii, 117. $24.95 (US). Reviewed by Richard E. BoyerBENNO TESCHKE. The Myth of 1648: Class, Geopolitics, and the Making of Modern International Relations. London and New York: Verso, 2003. Pp. xii, 308. $35.00 (US). Reviewed by David ParrottGLYN WILLIAMS. Voyages of Delusion: The Quest for the Northwest Passage. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003. Pp. xx, 467. $29.95 (US). Reviewed by Richard C. DavisEDWARD CORP, with contributions by EDWARD GREGG, HOWARD ERSKINE-HILL, and GEOFFREY SCOTT. A Court in Exile: The Stuarts in France, 1689–1718. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. xvi, 386. $85.00 (US). Reviewed by Andrew C. ThompsonANNE SALMOND. The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook's Encounters in the South Seas. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003. Pp. xxii, 506. $30.00 (US); NICHOLAS THOMAS. Cook: The Extraordinary Voyages of Captain James Cook. Toronto: Viking Canada, 2003. Pp. xxxvii, 467. $40.00 (CDN). Reviewed by Ian C. CampbellSANKAR MUTHU. Enlightenment against Empire. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2003. Pp. xiv, 348. $69.50 (US). Reviewed by Dane KennedyDANIEL MORAN and ARTHUR WALDRON, eds. The People in Arms: Military Myth and National Mobilization since the French Revolution. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Pp. ix, 268. $65.00 (US). Reviewed by John Lawrence ToneALAN MACFARLANE. The Savage Wars of Peace: England, Japan, and the Malthusian Trap. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Pp. xxxv, 427. $24.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by Sheldon WattsLAURENT DUBOIS. Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution. Cambridge, MA and London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004. Pp. viii, 357. $29.95 (US). Reviewed by Norman HampsonVICTORIA JOAN MOESSNER, trans. The First Russian Voyage around the World: The Journal of Hermann Ludwig von Lowenstern (1803–1806). Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2003. Pp. xxx, 482. $35.95 (US). Reviewed by Glynn WilliamsSTEVE STRIFFLER and MARK MOBERG, eds. Banana Wars: Power, Production, and History in the Americas. Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 2003. Pp. viii, 364. $22.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by Lester D. LangleyCHRISTOPHER CLARK and WOLFRAM KAISER, eds. Culture Wars: Secular-Catholic Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Pp. viii, 368. $70.00 (US). Reviewed by Ann Pottinger SaabHEINZ DUCHHARDT and MALGORZATA MORAWIEC, eds. Vision Europa: Deutsche und polnische Föderationspläne des lg. undfrühen 20. Jahrhunderts. Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 2003. Pp. xiv, 137. €24.80. Reviewed by Richard BlankePHILIPPA LEVINE. Prostitution, Race, and Politics: Policing Venereal Disease in the British Empire. London and New York: Roudedge, 2003. Pp. ix, 480. $25.00 (US), paper. Reviewed by Linda BryderDAVID PAULL NICKLES. Under the Wire: How the Telegraph Changed Diplomacy. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2003. Pp. 265. $30.95 (US). Reviewed by H. W. BrandsPATRIZIA PALUMBO, ed. A Place in the Sun: Africa in Italian Colonial Culture from Post-Unification to the Present. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003. Pp. 332. $24.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by R. J. B. 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Military developments in Inner Asia lay at the basis of the rise of a number of Ancient and Early Modern Empires. This is the first scholarly work to embrace Inner Asian military history across a broad spatial and chronological spectrum, from the Turks and Uighurs to the Pechenegs, and from the Mongol invasion of Syria to the Manchu conquest of China. Based on previously unknown and until now underestimated sources, the contributors to this volume explore the context, development, and characteristic features of Inner Asian warfare, making original contributions to our understanding of Asian and world history.

The history of empires created by inner Asian peoples bears direct relevance to the conceptualization of world history down to the early modern period, as their impact on surrounding civilizations resulted in long-lasting demographic, economic, and political changes. This essay explores the basic mechanisms of state formation in inner Asia and presents an argument for the periodization of inner Asian history based on the incremental ability of inner Asian empires to extract from outside sources the wealth necessary for the maintenance of political and military state apparatus. On this basis, the essay proposes a four-phase periodization, including ages of tribute empires (209 B.C.- A.D. 551), trade-tribute empires (551Ð907), dual-administration empires (907Ð1259), and direct-taxation empires (1260Ð1796).

In his article about Central Asia in the first millennium B.C., NICOLA DI COSMO challenges the established characterizations of the region's peoples as greedy (according to traditional Chinese historians) or needy (according to modern social scientists). He instead proposes that their economy paralleled that of Scythian Central Asia where scholars have long recognized the existence of a stable symbiotic relationship between agricultural production and steppe pastoral nomadism. Di Cosmo presents a variety of evidence-including historical texts, archaeological findings, and modern field studies of nomads-all suggesting that sufficient agricultural production existed within ancient Central Asia to support the population's needs. He proposes that the aggressive activities of the Xiongnu nomadic confederation beginning in the third century B.C. should be understood as a defensive response to Chinese expansion into the Central Asians' grazing and agricultural lands. He argues that during the reign of Han Wudi (141-87 B.C), the Chinese altered this policy by withdrawing from permanent occupation of Central Asian lands, and adopted a more successful pattern of short-term military campaigns aimed at weakening the Xiongnu confederation.

For some years, historians of Europe and Asia have showed that zpe-riods dominated by nomadic invasions were not merely traumatic blackouts that sent civilization back to "square one," but rather times in which scorched earth and pillage were at least partly counter-balanced by positive achievements. This historiographical tendency maintains that a definite contribution should be first and foremost acknowledged in the contacts and connections across Eurasia that the nomads allowed to take place and develop. This is particularly evident in the century following the Mongol conquest, when Turco-Mongol courts, armies, and administrative apparati dictated the terms and conditions that regulated the flow of people and goods from China to the Mediterranean. The world became more open, remote lands more accessible, and knowledge increased as a result of trav-els and cultural exchange. Openness was also, largely, the result of a built-in necessity of nomadic empires to feed themselves, with trade being an obvious producer of revenues and commercial communities being requested to pay taxes and tributes. 1 Rulers needed commercial income (among other types of revenues) to offset the expenditures of large court com-plexes, personal bodyguards and standing armies, and the kind of "lifestyle" to which rulers and their extended families were accustomed. Merchants were also, relatively, uncomplicated partners, since a com-mon language could be found regardless of linguistic, religious or political barriers. On the other side, the Mongols' attitude to gov-ernance was marked by a distinct propensity towards the employment 1 For the argument that access to and control over various "economic zones" is vital to explain the survival or success of Mongol policies see J.