The Discovery of Afghanistan in the Era of Imperialism

2019 ◽  
pp. 119-138
Author(s):  
Senzil Nawid
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Personal Observation ◽  
The West ◽  
Asiatic Society ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society ◽  
Travel Accounts

The establishment of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in the late eighteenth century, whose chief goal was to introduce the civilizations of Eastern societies to the West, encouraged a series of enquiries by British writers and travelers on the history, culture, art, antiquities, and literature of Eastern countries, including Afghanistan. This chapter analyzes the writings of three enterprising British explorers who traveled to Afghanistan in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It focuses on the travel accounts of George Forster, Mountstuart Elphinstone, and Charles Masson, men separated in time, interests and ambitions, but whose work, when examined collectively, delivers from personal observation an expansive picture of Afghanistan in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Such detail has not been found anywhere else, even within indigenous sources, which makes their writings essential and indispensable resources for studying the history, culture and society of Afghanistan in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Together, their enquiries concerning ethnographic, cultural, and social life in Afghanistan have formed a topographical and cultural template for future researchers.

The Origins of Western Dermatology

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 255-266
Author(s):  
J. Barrie Ross
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Defining Moments ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth

Objective: On the premise that historical background makes the present more understandable, this review covers the origins of Western dermatology from its Greek and Roman origins through the Middle Ages to the defining moments in the late eighteenth century. Background and Conclusion: The development of major European centers at this time became the background for future centers in the eastern United States in the midnineteenth century and, finally, to the West Coast of the United States and Canada by the midtwentieth century.

Origins of a Misunderstanding: the Qianlong Emperor's Embargo on Rhubarb Exports to Russia, the Scenario and its Consequences

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chang Che-Chia ◽  
Penelope Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
The Body ◽  
Specific Method ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
The West ◽  
Opium War ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth

This paper casts light on the myth, current in China before the Opium War, that the Europeans could not survive without rhubarb. The myth has its roots in differences between pharmaceutical theories and material culture in the Chinese and Western traditions. In China, rhubarb was considered a drastic purgative, indicated only in case of grave illness. In the West, in consequence of a specific method of processing, it was regarded as a mild and gentle drug, albeit wonderfully effective in ridding the body of superfluous humoral substances. Thus the same herb acquired completely different images in China and in the West. An important factor that fostered the myth was the Russian government's termination of the rhubarb monopoly in the prelude to the Sino-Russian border conflict in the late eighteenth century. This gave rise to increased smuggling, which was misinterpreted in China as evidence that Russia stood in desperate need of rhubarb. When the border conflict came to an end in 1792, Russia's unusually submissive attitude tended to confirm this misapprehension. This article not only explains why the Qjng government adopted an embargo on rhubarb; it also shows how differing pharmaceutical views influenced international affairs.

Catholicism, Apostasy and Politics in Late Eighteenth-Century England: The Case of Sir Thomas Gascoigne and Charles Howard, Earl of Surrey

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-298
Author(s):  
Alexander Lock
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Old English ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
The West ◽  
Political Careers ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Scale ◽  
The Social ◽  
Late Eighteenth

Apostasy among the English Catholic gentry in the late eighteenth century was not uncommon. In this period contemporary Catholic observers were concerned by what they perceived to be a great qualitative decrease of English Catholic gentry and they regarded apostasy as ‘a major and catastrophic cause of the decline’. Conformity to the established religion was a social virtue and was rewarded with social advantages; it was part and parcel of one's rise in the social scale and so was a great temptation for gentlemen outside the Anglican fold who were desirous of a service or parliamentary career. In almost every county in England many heads of old English Catholic families conformed. Indeed, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, of the twenty-four Catholic gentry families that existed in the Riding in. 1706 only twelve remained by 1780. Between the years 1754–1790 seven members of the House of Commons had renounced Roman Catholicism in order to pursue political careers and according to the contemporary Catholic priest Joseph Berington, by 1780 there were but 177 landed Catholic families in England ten of which had either died out or recently abjured their faith. Just a few conversions could have devastating consequences for Catholic communities. As David Butler points out, often ‘Catholic missions were over-dependent on the Catholic aristocracy and gentry for the continuance of Catholic worship’ and for Butler, in eighteenth-century London alone, if ‘just eight prominent families had apostatised … the Catholic missions would have lost about half of their numbers’.

Captain George Vancouver and British Columbia's First Play

2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-148
Author(s):  
James Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
West Coast ◽  
Vancouver Island ◽  
The West ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Considerable Doubt ◽  
At Home

In June, 1790, in the midst of politically charged debates in Britain over the tiny trading port of Nootka Sound, on the west coast of what is now called Vancouver Island, a play opened in London that performed events both in the colony and at home—as the country prepared for war with Spain. In this article, I trace the historical and theatrical context of the staging of Nootka Sound; Or, Britain Prepar'd at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. Creatively using the possible attendance of George Vancouver at the opening performance, I consider the ambivalent role this production played in the hegemonic operations of Empire in the late eighteenth century. Appearing centrally within the imperial dramatic apparatus, it nonetheless contained considerable doubt and dissent, even anti-colonial assertion. In its direct engagement with both the locale and the politics of the west coast, I make a case for calling Nootka Sound; Or, Britain Prepar'd British Columbia's first play.

scholarly journals KOREA: KLUCZ DALEKIEGO WSCHODU (1905) AND WACŁAW SIEROSZEWSKI’S VIEW OF KOREA

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 127-146
Author(s):  
Yeong-Mi LEE
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
The West ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Western View ◽  
Better Than

The aim of this paper is to review Wacław C. Sieroszewski’s (1858-1945) view of Korea. He, well-known Polish writer, traveled to Korea, i. e., Daehan Empire (大韓帝國), in fall of 1903, and published Korea: Klucz Dalekiego Wschodu (1905). Considering that most of travelogues of Korea were written by American, British, French, and German, so-called “Western powers,” KKDW was a pretty valuable book.The author believes that Western view of Korea was notably changed around the late eighteenth century. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Europeans did not ignore or belittle Korea and Korean. They regarded Korea as a rich and well-systemized country, and Korean as an intelligent nation, although they had very little knowledge of Korea. On the other hand, generally speaking, they degraded Korea and Korean in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and Sieroszewski was one of them. Poland was one of the weakest countries in Europe, but his view was not different from that of American, British, French, and German authors.Sieroszewski was favorably impressed by Japan before he came to Korea in October, 1903, and, as a result, he constantly compared Korea and Japan. He even wrote that Japan was better than Europe in some ways. He truly believed that Japan was the only country to carry out a desirable reform for Korea. Meanwhile, he never approved the Russia’s imperialist ambition for Korea. He considered Japan as an agent of the West. In conclusion, his idea of Korea and the East was quite similar to that of other contemporary Western travelers.

The Career of Colonel Polier and Late Eighteenth-Century Orientalism

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early History ◽  
The West ◽  
Large Measure ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Manuscript Collections

This essay is concerned with the career of a somewhat obscure figure in the early history of Orientalism, Colonel Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier, who is however known both to aficionados of the early European manuscript collections in the West, as well as to historians of the more obscure aspects of the Enlightenment on the Continent. The occasion for the research on which this essay is based is, in large measure, a project intended to translate the extensive Persian letter-book that Polier (together with his amanuensis, or munshī, Kishan Sahay) produced during his long stay in India; this translation, of a text entitled I jāz-i-Arsalānī (which is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris), has recently been brought to partial fruition by Muzaffar Alam and Seema Alavi, through the auspices of Oxford University Press (Delhi). In this context, it may be useful to reflect somewhat on the rather extraordinary career, and fascinating milieu, of Colonel Polier.

From Borno to Sokoto

2018 ◽  
pp. 18-32
Author(s):  
Murray Last
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
The West ◽  
Lake Chad ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Lake Chad Basin ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
River Niger

Once Muslims took over from Copts the trade to the regions around Lake Chad c.1000 ad, the process of Islamization could begin in Kanem and Borno. The state of Borno by the sixteenth century had become dominant in the Lake Chad basin, and Borno’s ruler had been given the title of Caliph. To the west of Borno, under its suzerainty were the savanna trading cities of Hausaland, where the two main merchant networks, one from Birni Ngazargamu in Borno, the other (“Wangara”) from Jenne and Gao (on the River Niger), combined trade with scholarship. By the late eighteenth century, a shaikh of the Qadiriyya brotherhood, ‘Uthman dan Fodio, demanded local rulers be strictly Islamic; this gave rise to four years of jihad and its ultimate success in 1808 led to the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate, the largest precolonial state in Africa (much larger than today’s northern Nigeria).

The Idle and the Industrious – European Ideas about the African Work Ethic in Precolonial West Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 117-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klas Rönnbäck
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Work Ethic ◽  
Significant Trend ◽  
Previous Literature ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Travel Accounts

AbstractThere is a growing interest in the historical attitudes to work globally. This paper studies the stereotype of the “lazy African” in European travel accounts from precolonial West Africa. This was one of the central aspects in the European construction of an African “other” during this period, and came to be used as a justification for much European oppression in Africa in both precolonial and colonial times. It is argued in the paper that the stereotype has existed for much longer than suggested in previous literature in the field. Previous studies have also made over-simplified statements about the stereotype, since it overlooks a most significant trend among European writers, who described not only idleness, but also industriousness, among the Africans they wrote about. By the late eighteenth century, finally, the development of an anti-slavery ideology was followed by a challenge to the whole stereotype.

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