New Diplomatic History and the Study of the Global Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The cultural turn in diplomatic history and the rise of the field of new diplomatic history since the end of the twentieth century has not, to date, had a great impact on the study of the global nineteenth century. This article argues that bringing the methods and perspectives of new diplomatic history to bear on the study of the global nineteenth century is fruitful in at least five respects. First, it encourages multivocality by including informal diplomatic actors in the study of cross-cultural diplomacy and colonial encounters; second, it calls upon the historian to pay equal attention to the motives, perspectives, and worldviews of Europeans and non-Europeans; third, it pays attention to the conditions and circumstances, including violence, coercion, translation, place, ceremony, and gifts, of cross-cultural diplomacy and imperial expansion; fourth, it highlights the long-term character of imperial and diplomatic relations; and fifth, it broadens the range of available sources to include a wide range of textual and non-textual sources. In all of these respects, new diplomatic history can help historians of the global nineteenth century to overcome the traps of Eurocentrism and teleological and macrohistorical biases.