After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire Since 1405 (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Was Europe's domination of the modern international order the inevitable rise of a superior civilization or the piratical hijacking of an evolving world system? A little of both, and a lot of neither, this ambitious comparative study argues—because world history's real center of gravity sits in Eurasia. Historian Darwin (The End of the British Empire) contends that an ascendant Western imperialism was a sideshow to vast, wealthy and dynamic Asian empires—in China, Mughal India, the Ottoman Middle East and Safavid Iran—which proved resistant to Western encroachment and shaped the world into the 21st century. Europe's overseas colonial empires as well as the expansions of the United States across North America and Russia across Siberia—was not inevitable, but rather a slow, fitful and often marginal enterprise that didn't accelerate until the mid-19th century. Darwin analyzes the technological, organizational and economic advantages Europeans accrued over time, but shows how dependent their success was on the vagaries of world trade (the driving force of modern imperialism, in his account) and the internal politics of the countries they tried to control. Nicely balanced between sweeping overview and illuminating detail, this lucid survey complicates and deepens our understanding of modern world history. Photos. (Feb)
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Review

"Undoubtedly a great work, a book that goes truly global in chronicling the history of one of our abiding concerns: the pull and limitations of absolute power. It forces the reader to rethink commonly held assumptions about our collective past. For that alone, it should be read." —Vikram Johri, St. Petersburg Times

“Nicely balanced between sweeping overview and illuminating detail, this lucid survey complicates and deepens our understanding of modern world history.” —Publishers Weekly

'In this marvellously illuminating book, John Darwin accepts much but not all of the revisionist analysis. With an awesome grasp of global  history, he demonstrates that the continental peninsula of Europe was  peripheral for most of the time since the 14th-century conquests of  Tamerlane...Darwin sustains an intricate thesis with enormous panache.' —Piers Brendon, The Independent, 4 May 2007

'An astonishingly comprehensive, arrestingly fresh and vivid history of the forces that underlie the world we live in today, After Tamerlane sets aside ideologies in which European power - sometimes seen as liberating and at others as diabolically oppressive - is the driving force of modern development...After reading this masterpiece of historical writing, one thing is clear. The world has not seen the last empire.'  —John Gray, Literary Review, April 2007

'A work of massive erudition, After Tamerlane overturns smug Eurocentric teleologies to present a compelling new perspective on international history. Though the subject of empire stirs partisan passions these days, Darwin exudes fairmindedness...Big topics demand big treatments, yet few are brave or knowledgeable enough to hazard them. Darwin has provided an ambitious, monumental and convincing reminder that empires are the rule, not the exception, in world history.' —Maya Jasanoff, Guardian, 12 May 2007

'A wonderful and imaginative addition to the select library of books on world history that one really wants to possess, and dip into, for ever...It is rather wonderful to doff one's hat to a historian who can range across time and space, giving the reader continual cause for pause, in the way that Darwin has done.' —Paul Kennedy, Sunday Times

Darwin `gives us world history on the grand scale, equipping his readers with the knowledge and insights to make their own assessment of what is coming next. If only his book could find its way into the right hands, it might also serve to make the world a less dangerous place.' —Tim Blanning, Sunday Telegraph

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Press; 1st US edition (February 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596913932
• ISBN-13: 978-1596913936
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #68,453 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invitation to Thoroughly Rethink European and Western Expansionism, August 25, 2008

By	Serge J. Van Steenkiste (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

John Darwin explores three themes in "After Tamerlane:"

1. The growth of global connectedness that results in the globalization as it is known today;
2. The key role that Europe and later on the West played in that process;
3. The resilience of many of Eurasia's other states and cultures in the face of Europe's expansionism.

Darwin pushes his audience to rethink the history of Europe's expansion by making four assumptions:

1) Europe did not progressively rise to preeminence, then fall and rise again as part of the West. The pace of European advance was spasmodic at best in the 250 years following the arrival of Christophe Columbus in the Americas in 1492 C.E. The subjugation of the Americas did not offer Europe a decisive advantage over the rest of Eurasia during that period. Asians were not interested in most of what the Europeans had to offer, resulting in a flow of American silver to South and East Asia. After 1750 C.E., this pattern progressively changed with the subjugation of India and the advent of the industrial revolution that allowed Europeans to impose a trade of manufactured products against raw materials and foodstuffs in the region.

The great expansion of trade in the 19th century C.E. and the globalization that it helped to promote were possible for two main reasons. Firstly, there was no general war between the major European powers between the Congress of Vienna in 1815 C.E. and the outbreak of the WWI in 1914 C.E. Secondly, industrialization allowed culturally self-confident Europeans to colonize far faster and on a far larger scale than was previously possible. For example, think about the scramble for Africa among European powers at the end of the 19th century C.E.

In contrast, Asian empires showed a remarkable cultural and political resilience in the face of Europe's expansionism. Despite all foreign encroachments, China ultimately lost only Outer Mongolia. A fast-industrializing Japan became quickly a match for its Western alter egos before losing all its colonies at the end of WWII. The victors of WWI failed to partition the Anatolian core of the Ottoman Empire in the early 1920s C.E. Finally, Iran comprises to this day most of "historic" Persia. The great exception to that rule was India because of its openness and accessibility, and because of the sophistication of its financial and commercial life.

2) A global proto-economy came into existence in the 16th century C.E. once the Americas had been connected to Eurasia and Africa. Without the exploitation of American resources, and the commercial integration of North East America and North West Europe to form an "Atlantic" economy, the eventual creation of a global economy in the late 19th century C.E. might not have happened at all. The increased protectionism against free trade that started in the 1880s C.E. did not stop the growth in international commerce before the outbreak of WWI. Globalization remained mostly in limbo during the Europe's second Thirty Years War.

The second wave of globalization that started after the end of WWII under the leadership of the U.S. has gone far beyond the limited promise of the pre-1914 world. The "great divergence" in wealth and economic performance between the Euro-Atlantic West and most of the rest of Eurasia has given way instead to the "great convergence," which should, if it continues, restore the balance to the rough equilibrium of half a millennium ago in the next fifty years.

3) Reducing the history of Europe's global expansion to that of Britain, the Low Countries, northern France, and western Germany is misleading for three reasons. Firstly, the quarrels and conflicts of the European states were a constant limiting factor on their collective ability to impose Europe's domination on the rest of the world. Secondly, this reductive approach ignores the territorial expansionism of tsarist Russia that was a European power. Finally, that analysis ignores the contribution of the early colonies to Europe's global expansion.

4) Empire has been the default mode of political organization throughout most of history. However, European imperialism stood out for two main reasons. Firstly, Europe was the main driver behind modernity in political, economical, and cultural terms. Secondly, Europe had a superior capacity for organized violence through expropriation by subjugation, and if necessary, by exclusion, expulsion, or liquidation.

Despite these strengths, European imperialism was inherently both unstable and unsustainable. The long interregnum of competitive coexistence that existed since the peace of 1815 C.E. crumbled for good in 1914 C.E. Furthermore, the Europeans lacked the resources and sometimes the motive to parcel out, or, if kept in existence, to reduce the remaining Asian empires to semi-protectorates before 1914 C.E. After 1918 C.E., their divisions were greater and the task even harder. Equally important, these Asian empires displayed tenacious traditions of political and cultural resistance in the face of Europe's expansionism.

To summarize, Darwin succeeds in his endeavor to encourage his audience to go beyond the received wisdom about European and Western expansionism.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Meta-Survey of Economics and Empire, August 23, 2008

By	Loring D. Wirbel (Colorado Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Critics of this work make legitimate points, but miss the point. "After Tamerlane" is intended to be a survey of deeper analyses of empires in various regions. Like Mae "mes2000" says, there is not an overabundance of specific human examples of struggles on the ground. One might want to read this book in conjunction with some of the new Napoleonic War surveys, with the recent biographies of Tamerlane, with "The Pursuit of Glory" or "Liberators," etc. In fact, Cesar Gonzales has provided us with a fairly comprehensive list in his review.

Gonzales legitimately complains that Darwin spends a good deal of time answering a negative - i.e., telling us why the traditional views of European power don't completely explain what happened to world culture post-1750. But Rouco is wrong in saying Darwin never reaches that explanation. Darwin says that the abstraction of financial instruments, combined with globalized trade patterns, led to hyper-militarism. He wants to make sure readers understand that it is not merely the Industrial Revolution, not merely Marx or Weber concepts of capitalism, that brought Euro- and U.S. cultures to this point, and to make this clear, Darwin must first mention the negatives.

This is a dense and subtle book, but it is masterfully written. I kept trying to think of a more straightforward way Darwin might have written this to avoid the problems mae and Cesar have, but I'm not sure that's possible. Darwin is writing a meta-analysis to observe post-Tamerlane civilizational history from the 75,000-foot level, perhaps even the orbital level, so it certainly should not be read on its own, but as a companion piece to more detailed regional historical surveys of empire.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There was no western way of war , March 11, 2008

By	Tom Munro "tomfrombrunswick" (Melbourne, Victoria Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

In 1400 Europe was a backward part of the world. The Ottoman, Murghal and Chinese Empires were all infinitely richer and stronger. Yet by the 19th Century European Empires dominated the world. European historians explained this by suggesting that Europe had a superior culture which in turn led to successful economic systems and superior technology. A march of progress.

As we enter the 21st Century the pattern of things is changing. The shift in world power is moving east to India and China. Europe is in decline at least as a military power.

This book examines the old explanations for Europe's rise to world domination and comes up with a different take on things. Up to the 19th Century Europe had two big successes. The first was the taking over of the Americans. This was done against a weak opposition. The second was the destruction of the Murghal Empire and the colonisation of India. This was a significant achievement and was the result not so much of European technology but the impact of Persia's wars with India. Britain was able to defeat a rump state which was just a shadow of its former self. Until the 19th Century most European colonisation with the exception of the Americas and India was on the coastal periphery of weaker states.

Europe never succeeded in destroying or taking over China and Japan was able to develop quickly and achieved military equality with the leading imperial powers. The golden age of colonialism occurred in the later 19th Century and its basis was that Europe was reasonably cohesive and the major powers accepted zones of control. European wars occurred but were of brief duration and not destructive. The development of the railroad and steam powered ships gave a dominance which enabled the seizure of Africa and parts of South East Asia.

In the 20th Century there were major conflicts between the European powers which strengthened the hand of the colonial nations in their dealing with their colonizers. Thus Indonesia, Algeria and Vietnam were able to fight victorious anti colonial wars. Following the Second World War the conflict between the Soviet Block and the Western Powers enabled colonial and third world countries to play both sides to gain and maintain independence.

During the height of empire a number of ideologies were invented to justify the system. Non white people were not civilized and empire was a device to bring them to civilization. Western ideas were superior and the way of the future, Eastern ideas were repressive and the way of the past. Central of course was racism. The conquered people were not seen to behave in certain ways because of a shared history or culture they were seen to behave because it was tied up with racial destiny. In retrospect the history of empire has been tied up with this same inherent racism and this book is closer to a real history of how Europe came to dominate the world. Even today some books have been written saying that there is an inherent western way of war. This book indicates that the Eastern Empires were flexible and adapted to technological and organisational change. The Ottoman Empire had started to reform itself in the 18th Century in response to Russian aggression and it was these reforms which formed the basis of the later secular Turkish state.

Brilliant book well worth a read.