Eurasian Empires

Eurasian Empires explores the connected and comparative history of empires from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Our intellectual remit combines histories of global and regional imperial formations including the Russian, Ottoman, Safavid/Qajar, Uzbek, Mughal, Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese, British, French, and Spanish empires. We will focus not only on how imperial centers governed diverse peoples, creating "empires of difference," but also how the global age of capitalist expansion and nation state formation shaped and transformed these dynamics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The overarching theme for this academic year will be "Histories of Capitalism" and we are especially interested in engaging with studies in economic and social history.  The workshop will organize its engagements around three broad and interrelated sub-themes, one per quarter: (1) Labor Relations; (2) Property Regimes; and (3) Oceanic Connections. Through each of these themes we will understand the nature of capitalist transformation under imperial rule across Eurasia.

Cover image credit: David Rumsey Map Center

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