Asian States and Empires
About the Book Series
The importance of Asia will continue to grow in the twenty-first century, but remarkably little is available in English on the history of the polities that constitute this critical area. Most current work on Asia is hindered by the extremely limited state of knowledge of the Asian past in general, and the history of Asian states and empires in particular. Asian States and Empires is a book series that will provide detailed accounts of the history of states and empires across Asia from earliest times until the present. It aims to explain and describe the formation, maintenance and collapse of Asian states and empires, and the means by which this was accomplished, making available the history of more than half the world’s population at a level of detail comparable to the history of Western polities. In so doing, it will demonstrate that Asian peoples and civilizations had their own histories apart from the West, and provide the basis for understanding contemporary Asia in terms of its actual histories, rather than broad generalizations informed by Western categories of knowledge.
Chinese and Indian Warfare – From the Classical Age to 1870
1st Edition
Edited
By Kaushik Roy, Peter Lorge
October 13, 2017
This book examines the differences and similarities between warfare in China and India before 1870, both conceptually and on the battlefield. By focusing on Chinese and Indian warfare, the book breaks the intellectual paradigm requiring non-Western histories and cultures to be compared to the West,...
Civil-Military Relations in Chinese History: From Ancient China to the Communist Takeover
1st Edition
Edited
By Kai Filipiak
October 13, 2017
Modern studies of civil--military relations recognise that the military is separate from civil society, with its own norms and values, principles of organization, and regulations. Key issues of concern include the means by which – and the extent to which – the civil power controls the military; and...
Rethinking the Decline of China's Qing Dynasty: Imperial Activism and Borderland Management at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century
1st Edition
By Daniel McMahon
October 12, 2017
The many instances of regional insurgency and unrest that erupted on China’s borderlands at the turn of the nineteenth century are often regarded by scholars as evidence of government disability and the incipient decline of the imperial Qing dynasty. This book, based on extensive original research,...
The Mughal Empire at War: Babur, Akbar and the Indian Military Revolution, 1500-1605
1st Edition
By Andrew de la Garza
October 12, 2017
The Mughal Empire was one of the great powers of the early modern era, ruling almost all of South Asia, a conquest state, dominated by its military elite. Many historians have viewed the Mughal Empire as relatively backward, the Emperor the head of a traditional warband from Central Asia, with ...
China's Second Capital – Nanjing under the Ming, 1368-1644
1st Edition
By Jun Fang
May 10, 2017
This book is a study of the dual capital system of Ming dynasty China (1368-1644), with a focus on the administrative functions of the auxiliary Southern Capital, Nanjing. It argues that the immense geographical expanse of the Chinese empire and the poor communication infrastructure of pre-modern ...
The Military Collapse of China's Ming Dynasty, 1618-44
1st Edition
By Kenneth M. Swope
November 08, 2016
This book examines the military collapse of China’s Ming Dynasty to a combination of foreign and domestic foes. The Ming’s defeat was a highly surprising development, not least because as recently as in the 1590s the Ming had managed to defeat a Japanese force considered to be perhaps the most ...
China's Southern Tang Dynasty, 937-976
1st Edition
By Johannes L. Kurz
March 03, 2016
The Southern Tang was one of China’s minor dynasties and one of the great states in China in the tenth century. Although often regarded as one of several states preceding the much better known Song dynasty (960-1279), the Southern Tang dynasty was in fact the key state in this period, preserving ...
War, Culture and Society in Early Modern South Asia, 1740-1849
1st Edition
By Kaushik Roy
October 25, 2013
This book argues that the role of the British East India Company in transforming warfare in South Asia has been overestimated. Although it agrees with conventional wisdom that, before the British, the nature of Indian society made it difficult for central authorities to establish themselves fully ...
The Third Chinese Revolutionary Civil War, 1945–49: An Analysis of Communist Strategy and Leadership
1st Edition
By Christopher R. Lew
May 15, 2011
This book examines the Third Chinese Revolutionary Civil War of 1945–1949, which resulted in the victory of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over Chiang Kaishek and the Guomindang (GMD) and the founding of The People’s Republic of China in 1949. It provides a military and strategic history of...