MODERN SILK ROADS: <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 /> CHINA & CENTRAL ASIA RECONNECTED (HIST 4990)

Time & Location: M: 3:10-5:40 pm; HI 60

Instructors:     Michael Brose                          Marianne Kamp

                        Office:  History 360                              History

                                    6-5125; mbrose@uwyo.edu                 6-5103; mkamp@uwyo.edu

                                    Office Hrs: MWF 10-11am

This seminar focuses on the history and present-day configuration of overland trade routes and mechanisms that link China with its western neighbors, especially Central Asia, with particular emphasis on the ways in which the old traditional overland trade routes/systems have been revived in the past few years to accommodate trade between China and Central Asian states.

Textbooks. Required texts include the following:

Olivier Roy, The New Central Asia : the Creation of Nations.  New York : New York University Press, 2000.

Lutz Kleveman, The New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia . New York : Grove Press, 2004.

 Course Requirements and Grading:

Read.  Come to class.  Discuss.  Write two response essays and one research paper. Take in class quizzes.

Class Schedule and Reading Assignments

Week 1 (1/9):   Course Intro.

Readings to be discussed on 1/23:

On E-Reserve

Mark Mancall, “The Ch’ing Tribute System: an Interpretive Essay,” in The Chinese World Order: Traditional China’s Foreign Relations, ed. John Fairbank.  Cambridge : Harvard University Press 1968, pp. 63-89.

Joseph Fletcher, “ China and Central Asia , 1368-1884,” in The Chinese World Order: Traditional China’s Foreign Relations, ed. John Fairbank.  Cambridge : Harvard University Press 1968, pp. 206-224.

Available through Project Muse, JSTOR or the Coe Library Catalog electronic journals:

David Christian, “Silk Roads or Steppe Roads,” in The Journal of World History, 11, no. 1, Spring 2000, 1-25.  You may want to study the maps, below, first, or else look at them in conjunction with this article.

 “Silk,” from the Art of the Silk Road Exhibit, found on-line on the Silk Road Seattle Website.

 Maps: study the following maps, and come up with a description, based on these maps, of the territory that silk road traders crossed.

Trade route maps, found at the Silk Road Foundation.  Go to Maps, and select Trade Routes, and look closely at the Silk, China 2 and China 4 maps.  Select Empires, and look closely at the map of the Mongol Empire.

Maps from Silk Road Seattle .  Go to the Silk Road Seattle website, select Maps.  Under India and Central Asia , look at the maps for Timur’s Empire.  Under East Asia , look at the map for the Mongol Empire.  Under Cities and Regions, look at the Tarim Basin .  Under Physical Geography, look at all three maps.  Under Silk Road Travellers, pick a couple of travelers and look at their routes.   You may want to look at these maps before you read Christian’s article.

Week 2  (1/16)            **No Class – Martin Luther King Day

                                    Reading :

 Week 3  (1/23)            Russian-Chinese relations and the re-orientation of Silk Road trade; Discussion of readings re. Chinese imperial foreign policy, etc.

Mote, F. W., Imperial China , 900-1800. Harvard University Press 1999, pp. 685-701 and 949-973.

Frank, Andre Gunder, Re-Orient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley : University of California Press , 1998, 108-130; maps, and 185-225.

Levi, Scott, “ India , Russia , and the Eighteenth-Century Transformation of the Central Asian Caravan Trade,” Jl. of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 42, 4: 519-458.

Rossabi, Morris , China and Inner Asia from 1368 to the Present Day (London: Thames and Hudson, 1975), 84-138 (Chapters 4 and 5 on China/Russia interactions)

 Week 4  (1/30)            The Great Game: 19th century competition for control of Central Asia

                                    Reading : 19th and early 20th century travel accounts

Week 5  (2/6)              In class discussion of travel accounts; 5 page paper due.

For next week read:

Benson, chs. 1-3 from The Ili Rebellion.                                   

Week 6  (2/13)           In Class Discussion: Xinjiang readings; finish travel accounts readings

Lecture:  Russian and Soviet Central Asia

         Reading for next week : Roy , New Central Asia to p. 84

       Work Due: short, non-graded paper proposal

Week 7  (2/20)  In-class discussion: Roy, New Central Asia; cultures of Central Asia

                      Reading on Kyrgyz culture.  See E-companion for Week 8, Kyrgyz Musicians.  There are about 8 uploaded documents.  In addition, several Kyrgyz stories will be placed on Reserve.  Due to the length of the stories, they will go on regular (hard copy) reserve, not e-reserve.  Read one of the following.  Reserve hard copies are available for 4 hour use, in or out of the library.  They look long, but the print is large.