Military Conquest Research Articles

Después del genocidio. Registros y memorias territorializadas en Pulmarí, Neuquén

This paper analyzes a process of (de)territorialization in Neuquen province, Argentina, in the context of the genocide perpetrated against Mapuche people during late 19th century. We aim to observe the territorial movements that occurred after the military conquest over the Patagonia region by tracing the dispossession the Mapuche people suffered within the National Park during the 1950s. The objectives are to rethink about post-genocide practices enabled by the violence of military conquest in the 19th century; to analyze the role of the territory as key element in the constitution of both the State and the Mapuche dentity; and to analyze the social memories referring to the Mapuche territory in relation to indigenous resistance. We will examine records, edited reports and population files produced by the National Parks State Agency, as well as the social memory based on testimonies of settlers and Mapuche families that live in Alumine department nowadays.

Captivity Novels as Critique of South African Colonialism

Captivity narratives are a well-established genre in North American settler literature and many South African shipwreck and captivity narratives also articulated settler identity through fear of indigenous peoples and raised fears of miscegenation. But, as Joe Snader has demonstrated, there are many captivity narratives in European and particularly English writing that offer a more critical view of colonialism and the coloniser. This article explores the relatively neglected latter strand in writing about South Africa, concentrating on three novels: the anonymously produced Makanna, or The Land of the Savage (1834), Edward Kendall’s An English Boy at the Cape (1835), and Isabella Aylmer’s The Adventures of Mrs Colonel Somerset in Caffraria (1858). These novels offer a critical view of colonial expansion and military conquest rather than a moral panic about the dangers of an unsettled interior. Analysis of these novels suggests that these authors developed the genre in response to particular South African circumstances and conditions, supporting Snader’s argument that a European form found a wide range of different expressions in different cultures.Keywords: Captivity narratives, South African literature, colonialism, Edward Kendall, Isabella Aylmer, Makanna

Religion as Resistance: Negotiating Authority in Italian Libya

Religion as Resistance: Negotiating Authority in Italian Libya

“Communis Hostis Omnium”: The Smerwick Massacre (1580) and the Law of Nations

AbstractThis article examines the brutal massacre of up to six hundred Spanish and Italian papal troops on the order of the English Lord Deputy Arthur Grey, 14th Baron de Wilton (1536–1593), at Dún An Óir (Forto del Oro), Smerwick, County Kerry, on 10 November 1580. The article investigates the relationship between the religious and juridical rationales for the massacre, shedding new light on the broader relationship between the early modern law of nations, Protestantism, and what Brendan Bradshaw has characterized as “catastrophic violence” in the Elizabethan military conquest of Ireland. While Vincent Carey has emphasized the virulently anti-Catholic character of Grey's rationales for the massacre, my argument instead emphasizes the role of the received laws of nations and of war in justifying Grey's actions both to Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603) and to the English public, from the period immediately following the massacre until the writing of Edmund Spenser's pro-Grey apologetic,A View of the Present State of Ireland(ca. 1596). On this view, the papal troops at Smerwick were considered brigands, pirates, or, in Marcus Tullius Cicero's words, “communis hostis omnium”—a common enemy to all—and enjoyed no standing as lawful enemies under the law of nations. In the sixteenth century, the established law of nations was hardly a seamless web but manifested significant cleavages and fissures allowing for the construction of localized spheres of legal exception in which the ordinary rules of warfare did not apply, thus providing a convenient juridical rationale for atrocity.

An example of de‐Tai‐isation? Longue durée ethnic change in a mountainous area of southern China

Inspired by Grant Evans’ work Tai‐ization: Ethnic Change in Northern Indo‐China, this article explores aspects of historical ethnic change in the Yunkai and Yunwu Mountain Ranges, a small upland region intersected by the boundary of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces in southern China over the period 600–1700 C.E. The discussion begins with some of the early linguistic evidence for populations of Tai speakers in the region and what is known of their political and cultural systems, then moves on to consider how Chinese military conquests of the eighth century coupled with the migration of Sinitic and Mien peoples from the eleventh century onwards altered the ethnic composition and political landscape of the region. This is followed by an examination of different exonyms used in Chinese texts for populations of southern China from the fifteenth century onwards and how these might have related to linguistic groupings and identities on the ground, demonstrating that historical usage of Chinese exonyms now connected with Tai or Mien speakers is not always a reliable indicator of a corresponding presence of historical Tai or Mien‐speaking populations. Further research drawing on a number of disciplines is required on a localised level in order to determine when Tai and Mien languages were abandoned in the region and how the inhabitants of the area shifted from the status of named Others to ordinary Chinese subjects.

Sharks upon the Land: Colonialism, Indigenous Health, and Culture in Hawai'i, 1778–1855

The population of Hawaii suffered terribly following European contact in 1778. The dynamics of its decline are distinct and important. Substantial losses occurred before 1820, even in the absence of military conquest, foreign settlement, or exploitation of native land and labor. Seth Archer's analysis offers important lessons for how we think about colonial epidemics and depopulation. Syphilis and gonorrhea arrived with James Cook and caused widespread misery, mortality, and infertility. English, French, Russian, and American traders inundated Hawaii with alcohol, tobacco, and firearms. They created markets for prostitution and fueled inter-island warfare, and their livestock overran crops. Disease disrupted Hawaiian societies, and these disruptions increased susceptibility to disease—a vicious cycle of mortality and poverty. Archer emphasizes Hawaiians' efforts to exploit the colonial encounters. King Kamehameha used European weapons to conquer the archipelago. Noblewomen overthrew the legal and religious system that had governed Hawaiian life. Elites profited at the expense of the common people.

Curse on This Country: The Rebellious Army of Imperial Japan by Danny Orbach

Reviewed by: Curse on This Country: The Rebellious Army of Imperial Japan by Danny Orbach Richard J. Smethurst Curse on This Country: The Rebellious Army of Imperial Japan. By Danny Orbach. Cornell University Press, 2017. 384 pages. Hardcover, $39.95. Many writers on Japan’s road to war against China, the United States, Great Britain, and their allies have oversimplified the origins of World War II. Some writers see a Japan with a ravenous appetite for conquest in Asia; others see a Japan bent on [End Page 267] defending itself and other East Asian countries against Western imperialism. Danny Orbach has written a splendid book in which he complicates our understanding of the road to war by demonstrating how a tradition of insubordinate military actions from below led modern Japan from the Meiji Restoration in the 1860s to World War II in the late 1930s. He advances three main arguments: First, cliques of lower-ranking officers such as the shishi—or, in his translation, “warriors of high aspiration”—forced their late feudal leaders into actions that led to the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate in the 1860s. Second, former samurai such as Saigō Takamori and Etō Shinpei in the 1870s led their forces in rebellions against the very Meiji state that they as shishi had helped establish ten years earlier. And finally, the descendants of these men in the 1930s attempted to carry out a “Showa Restoration” in which they seized nearby territories like Manchuria that were viewed as essential to Japan’s existence and rid the Japanese government of politicians who allegedly put the interests of their political parties and capitalist supporters before the needs of Japan’s “Imperial Way.” These bourgeois leaders, who compromised with hostile (and more powerful) foreigners, needed to be replaced by men who worked for the “good of Japan and its emperor,” as defined of course by the rebels. Another strength of Or-bach’s book is that he describes each of these events in lucid prose. His book is a gripping read. Orbach also writes about how and why the army rebels got away with their insubordination. One reason was that army officers at all levels believed the Meiji Constitution of 1889 gave the army and navy general staffs the authority under certain (ill-defined) circumstances to report directly to the emperor, not through the prime minister or even the army and navy ministers. To the rebel officers of the 1930s, a mélange of elite staff officers who graduated from the Army War College and of non-elite officers who commanded troops on a day-to-day basis, the emperor personally commanded the army, and they knew best how to advise him. The army’s top leaders, themselves often former rebel officers, put up with this pressure from below because it made the army more independent: better, they thought, to have insubordination from below than nonmilitary control from above. Another reason was that the army’s leaders agreed with the goals of the rebels and were willing to put up with insubordination, that is, a weakened chain of command within the army, to achieve these goals. In the 1920s and 1930s, virtually everyone in the Japanese army believed that direct political and military control of Northeast China (Manchuria) was necessary for the armed forces to obtain the natural resources and the means of production they needed to build a total war state. Thus, when colonels Itagaki Seishirō and Ishiwara Kanji, elite staff officers in the Japanese army stationed in Manchuria to protect Japan’s legitimate treaty rights there, planned an incident to allow for the military conquest of Northeast China, the Tokyo commanders quickly overcame their fears of insubordination and gave them their approval. Or take the case of Finance Minister Takahashi Korekiyo. He was assassinated by rebellious army officers on 26 February 1936 ostensibly because of “widespread poverty in the country” (p. 229), when in fact his Keynesian countercyclical fiscal and monetary policies [End Page 268] after assuming his post in December 1931 were bringing the countryside to the highest level of prosperity in its history. But superiors put up with, and in some cases even applauded, the rebels’ actions, because...

Technology and Manufacturing in China before the Industrial Revolution and Glimpses of the Future

We have four goals in this study. First, we chronicle China's history of technology and manufacturing before the Industrial Revolution. This history of monumental developments is scattered in dozen of books and hundreds of articles, but it is not available in a concise form. Although, this history is relevant to all disciplines in social sciences, science, and technology, it is most relevant to the discipline this journal represents. Second, we analyze the role of exports in improving quality of goods and improving manufacturing. Before the Industrial Revolution, China was the world leader in inventions and the world's largest manufacturer. Despite its strengths, it failed to become a major exporter. Exports could have helped it to unleash a quality evolution and to expand its economy further. Third, we describe the role of international relations and wars in economic development and economic decay. During the Industrial Revolution, China's manufacturing output decreased, and its economy took a big hit because of military conquests by Britain and the resulting dynamics of international relations. We also point out that China missed the opportunity to become a naval power before the Industrial Revolution, which contributed to its fate during the Industrial Revolution. Fourth, we briefly describe the dramatic changes in international relations after World War II, and China's emergence once gain as the world's largest manufacturer. We point out that exports have been a major driver of China's phenomenal economic growth. We also speculate on China's current options which may lead to a promising future for China and the world.

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca: American Trailblazer by Robin Varnum

Reviewed by: Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca: American Trailblazer by Robin Varnum Paul E. Hoffman Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca: American Trailblazer. By Robin Varnum. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. 2014. Pp. xvi, 368. $26.95. ISBN: 978-0-8061-4497-9.) Raised in Jerez de la Frontera, a client and servant of the powerful Dukes of Medina Sidonia throughout his life, a veteran of war in Italy, and married to a wealthy conversa (a person of Jewish origins from a family that converted to Christianity during the late medieval period), Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was appointed royal Treasurer for the expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez in 1526 and subsequently Governor of the Spanish province of Río de la Plata (roughly today's Paraguay) in 1540. Both appointments failed to produce the results he evidently hoped for while, somewhat paradoxically, allowing him to create a reputation as a "good conquistador," one who saw the Native Americans as fully human persons capable of embracing Christianity and Spanish rule without Spanish use of violence, [End Page 395] i.e., military conquest. He also gained a reputation as a sort of Christian missionary, not only because of his seeming stance on how to treat Native Americans but also because, once forced into the role by Native insistence, he used Christian prayers as part of healings, events that could be considered miracles. The Narváez expedition landed on the west coast of Florida, marched north to near modern Tallahassee, and then by locally built barges sailed along the Gulf Coast until the ships were wrecked or lost at sea on the Texas coast. From there Cabeza de Vaca and three other survivors eventually wandered across northern Mexico and part of the future United States Southwest until they met Spaniards in Sinaloa. He returned to Spain without the fortune he had hoped to obtain but with his version of a joint report on the odyssey that he and his companions had prepared in Mexico, and that, with some additional editing, he published at Zaragoza in 1542 (La Relación que dio Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca de lo acaesido en las Indias en la armada donde iva por governador Pánfilo de Narbáez …) and in a second edition in 1555 (the book is better known under its 1749 title: Naufragios). He declined offers to join Hernando de Soto's expedition, which was making up when he returned to Spain. Cabeza de Vaca's appointment as Governor of the Río de la Plata (1540) also ended in failure. There he encountered an entrenched group of Spaniards and Spaniard-Guarani relations that included the use of women to cement alliances and provide services of all sorts for their (common law) husbands. That is, he found conditions that flew in the face of Catholic teachings about marriage and in the face of the Ordinanzas of 1526 that were to govern the Spanish "conquest" of the Americas. When, by his account, he tried to correct these and other abuses, as his contract with the Crown required, the local powers organized a mutiny, imprisoned him, and sent hm to Spain in chains. He was accompanied by papers that characterized him as a violator of the Ordenanzas. Jailed and duly charged with various crimes, Cabeza de Vaca spent the remaining years of his life seeking first a lessening of his sentences (achieved) and then exoneration. As part of that effort, his secretary, Pero Hernández, wrote a commentary on the events in Paraguay (published in La Relación y Comentarios del gobernador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca de lo acaescido en las dos journadas que hizo a las Indias … [Valladolid, 1555]). Cabeza seems to have died (1556?) without a full pardon. Professor Varnum ably weaves the recent scholarship on Cabeza's life, the Narváez expedition (especially on the route he took in Texas) and his activities in the Río de la Plata with his own writings (and those of Hernández) about those events. The views of Cabeza's opponents in Paraguary are noticed but quickly passed over as she continues to follow his account. The result is...

Indian Petitioning and Colonial State-Formation in Eighteenth-Century Bengal

AbstractThis article explores the role of Indian petitioning in the process of consolidating British power after the East India Company's military conquest of Bengal in the late eighteenth century. The presentation of written petitions (often termed‘arziin Persian) was a pervasive form of state-subject interaction in early modern South Asia that carried over, in modified forms, into the colonial era. The article examines the varied uses of petitioning as a technology of colonial state-formation that worked to establish the East India Company's headquarters in Calcutta as the political capital of Bengal and the Company as a sovereign source of authority and justice. It also shows how petitioning became a site of anxiety for both colonial rulers and Indian subjects, as British officials struggled to respond to a mass of Indian ‘complaints’ and to satisfy the expectations and norms of justice expressed by petitioners. It suggests that British rulers tried to defuse the perceived political threat of Indian petitioning by redirecting petitioners into the newly regulated spaces of an emergent colonial judiciary.

The Wittenberg Concord: Creating Space for Dialogue by Gordon A. Jensen

Reviewed by: The Wittenberg Concord: Creating Space for Dialogue by Gordon A. Jensen Adam Koontz Gordon A. Jensen, The Wittenberg Concord: Creating Space for Dialogue. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2018. Pp. 235. $34.00. Most histories of Protestant denominations will include a chart of the permutations of formation, fissure, and union. Disagreement or agreement can be tracked through lines plunging away from or toward one another. This may appear normal now, but in sixteenth-century Europe, fissure seemed unnatural to most. Jensen’s book chronicles the efforts of many, especially the Strasbourg reformer Martin Bucer, to unite the already diverging streams of the Lutheran reformation in Saxony from the different theological tendencies of southern Germany and Switzerland. The discussions at Wittenberg in 1536 that led to the Saxons’ signing a statement on the controverted articles of the Lord’s Supper, baptism, and absolution with various southern Germans did not arise in a political vacuum. The imperial cities of southern Germany were militarily vulnerable within an increasingly politically hostile Holy Roman Empire, and they needed to affirm the 1530 Augsburg Confession to join the Smalcaldic League anchored by the larger powers of Electoral Saxony and Hesse. Political and military urgency was behind this burst of ecumenical dialogue. Jensen very thoroughly covers the theological background to the Concord, including the failures to put forward a common Protestant witness at the 1529 Marburg Colloquy and the 1530 imperial Diet at Augsburg, where [End Page 294] three separate Protestant parties each made separate confessions of faith to a finally unreceptive Charles V. Their disagreements about the nature of the sacraments and about how lay rulers ought to go about reformation of church property, among many things, could not be resolved before 1536. The Concord signed just after Ascension Day in 1536 did not attempt to resolve all issues. Jensen is clear that the Concord was not a new confession but a southern German interpretation of the Augsburg Confession. The Wittenberg Concord was sufficient in its sacramental statements for the southern Germans to celebrate the Lord’s Supper with the Saxons on Ascension Day. The document carefully avoided larger theological issues behind sacramental statements such as how Christ’s ascended human nature relates to the divine nature, and the dialogues at Wittenberg failed to produce a joint statement on how lay authorities should confiscate ecclesiastical property—due to great differences between Saxony and southern Germany on the theology of church-state relations. Jensen wants to apply the Wittenberg Concord’s successes to contemporary ecumenical dialogue, but at least two things make this more difficult than he allows. First, the necessity for dialogue was existential for the militarily beleaguered southern Germans, making potential military conquest the stimulus to discussion. Second, the implosion of Lutheran-Reformed dialogue later in the century may not have been a “hardening” of positions that could have been softer with a better approach to dialogue. Instead, posterity had to deal with the deeper christological and linguistic positions that the Concord glossed over, and the children could not fix what the forebears would not touch. Adam Koontz Temple University, Philadelphia, PA Copyright © 2019 Journal of Ecumenical Studies

Territorial sovereignty and the end of inter-cultural diplomacy along the “Southern frontier”

European politics at the turn of the 19th century saw a dramatic reduction in the number and diversity of polities as the territorial nation-state emerged as the dominant form of political organization. The transformation had a profound impact on the periphery. The study examines how embracing the principle of territoriality transformed relations between settler societies and indigenous peoples in South America. As this shift coincided with independence from Spain, Creole elites rapidly dismantled the remnants of imperial heteronomy, ending centuries of inter-cultural diplomacy. The study illustrates this shift in the case of the “Southern frontier,” where Spain had maintained a practice of treaty making with the Mapuche people since the mid-17th century. This long-standing practice broke down shortly after Chile gained independence in 1818. What followed was a policy of coercive assimilation through military conquest and forced displacement — a policy that settler societies implemented elsewhere in the 19th century. In contrast to explanations that emphasize the spread of capitalist agriculture and racist ideologies, this study argues that territoriality spelled the end of inter-cultural diplomacy along the “Southern frontier.”

The BBC Eastern Service and the Crisis of Cosmopolitanism

In the 1940s, the BBC Imperial Service was a fertile place of interaction for writers from South Asia, as it was for those from British colonies in Africa and the West Indies. Leftist, Marxist, and anti-imperialist intellectuals from around the world converged in London, and radio was one of several media by which they discussed fascism, democracy, and aesthetics. Cosmopolitanism was the preferred vision of empire articulated by the BBC’s Eastern Service broadcasts to South Asia, marking a shift from nineteenth-century narratives about empire celebrating military conquest. It was the discourse of propaganda in the war years and acted as a counter-discourse to fascism and anti-imperial movements. The characterization of the BBC Imperial service as a cosmopolitan space in its own discourse, in contemporary criticism, and in discussions of the medium neglects the reality that the BBC broadcasts to South Asia were conceptually narrow in order to disseminate the vision of an open, pluralistic imperial centre and to erase realities of famine, oppression, and anti-imperial activity in the Raj.

Cannibalism and the Body Politic: Independent Indians in the Era of Brazilian Independence

Abstract Concentrating on the first two decades of the nineteenth century, this article explores the limitations of state-directed efforts to incorporate colonial Brazil’s autonomous native peoples, especially those known as the Botocudo. Significant discord divided state actors charged with implementing plans to transform into loyal subjects these mobile hunters and foragers, who inhabited a forested expanse separating the colony’s primary inland mining district from the Atlantic coast. Actively engaging settlers, soldiers, and agents of the state, the Botocudo contested Portugal’s geopolitical strategy of absorbing native domains in order to link the interior with coastal markets. Despite being condemned as cannibals and subjected to military conquest, they managed to curtail the most violent elements of this strategy. The gap between royal policy and exchanges with Indians in the forests exposed the fragility of attempts to subordinate these peoples and seize their lands as the colonial period came to an end. Altering the politics of empire, native capacities played an unrecognized role in the history of this decisive era.

Natural history values and meanings in nineteenth-century Chile

In nineteenth-century Chile, naturalists and their supporters argued that scientific work and study, including natural history, were good for individuals and society because they developed and tempered the character of their practitioners. These practitioners and boosters, Chileans, European visitors and European immigrants, made this argument in a context in which Chilean state support for natural history institutions, publications and education helped disseminate scientific training, perspectives and practices. Examining this nineteenth-century discourse of beneficial science is important for three reasons: first, the discourse of value-laden sciences offered this field a powerful justification for its development, especially in the face of criticism; second, because naturalists believed in this discourse, it helps explain what their work meant to them, and, finally, these values highlight the disjuncture between discourses about natural history and its links to military conquests, as well as the ways in which natural history was an exclusionary practice.

La caravana de la Modernidad: apuntes para consolidar un concepto de Modernidad ilustrado

El presente artículo revisa el horizonte de pensamiento que ofrecen algunos intelectuales, cuyos planteamientos están relacionados con la Modernidad como fenómeno social, político e ideológico que tiene su auge en el subcontinente durante el siglo XIX, y sigue tomando posición y resignificándose durante el siglo XX, a través de la Ilustración como proyecto desde el que se planea la educación en los países latinoamericanos. El principal propósito entonces radica en rastrear el concepto de modernidad, para comprender su origen y proyección histórica en la diversidad histórica, política y educativa del subcontinente latinoamericano. Se concluye a partir de dicho rastreo que los procesos de hibridación y apropiación de la modernidad están estrechamente vinculados con los procesos educativos, con el impulso crítico y reflexivo de los pueblos, producto del proyecto ilustrado que se tradujo en cada uno de los países latinoamericanos a un ritmo diferente, pero siempre desde una proyección educativa-formativa.Â

Masculinity, Organizational Culture, Media Framing and Sexual Violence in the Military

Sexual violence in the military is woven into history, with stories and myths that date back to the times of ancient Rome. For example, military conquests thousands of years ago involved looting, pillaging, and raping—the “spoils of war” for the winning side. Over time, women, seen as sexual outlets, continued to be used to boost soldier morale in combat. Today, instances such as the Marine sexual misconduct scandal are still associated with notions of male empowerment through victimization of enlisted and civilian women, despite female officers making up 14% of service members across all military branches. To determine if the optics of violent and predatory behavior within the military has changed from the “spoils of war”, the current study utilized qualitative content analysis to analyze the media frames of military sexual assault and sexual harassment over the past 20 years. Through holistic reflection, the inquiry explores military framing by the media during high-profile incidents of misconduct from 1996 to 2013. The Aberdeen Proving Ground, Lackland Airforce Base, and Airforce Academy sexual assault cases demonstrate that responsibility and human-interest frames are the most prominent optics used by the media to describe these events. Further, since the first case in 1996, media coverage of sexual harassment and assault within the military has declined significantly. This suggest that, while media framing may accurately reflect these offenses, these offenses are considered less and less news worthy.

Praising Christ the King

Abstract Royal connotations are recognized throughout the book of Revelation, including chapter 5 where the Lamb is depicted upon the heavenly throne (5:6) receiving acts of obeisance and hymnic acclamations from the heavenly retinue (5:8-14). However, the extent to which the hymns themselves manifest royal ideology and discourse has been neglected. In what follows, the author explores various elements of the hymns in light of widespread patterns of kingship discourse in the ancient Mediterranean world, including especially the fact that the Lamb is praised alongside God and in terms otherwise used for God. The author then demonstrates that the hymnic claim that the Lamb has assumed the power to rule on account of his bloody death on the cross (5:9) constitutes an inversion of a popular motif that kings assumed power through violent military conquest.

Immigration and Refugee Crises in Fourth-Century Greece: An Athenian Perspective

The fourth-century B.C. was a period during which a large number of Greek cities were affected by civil wars, military conquests, and destruction, with the displacement of large numbers of men, women and children as a result. This has implications for the modern debate on Athenian attitudes to immigration, which normally focuses on just two groups of free non-citizens: adult, able-bodied men who moved to Athens voluntarily to take advantage of the city’s economic opportunities and (more recently) on the free non-citizen population who had come to Athens as slaves and who stayed on after their manumission. This article argues that refugees were likely to have constituted a considerable component of the migration to Athens during certain troubled periods in the course of the fourth century. This means that the size of Athens’s immigrant population was likely to have fluctuated considerably, that many of the refugees would have been destitute, that women and children (sometimes unaccompanied by adult male relatives) may have made up an even greater proportion of the non-citizen population than normally assumed, and, thus, that a considerable number of these immigrants would not have been able to contribute substantially to Athens’s grain trade or military. The implications of this for our assessment of the Athenian motives for admitting groups of refugees are discussed, and it is argued that the requirement that all male and all unaccompanied female immigrants had to find an Athenian sponsor and pay a special metic tax may have constituted a certain level of control over immigrant numbers.

“Sturdy Boulders that Protect the Realm” Early Medieval Chinese Thinkers on Decentralized Governance

The period between the formal end of the Han dynasty in 220 ce and the reestablishment of unified imperial authority in the Sui-Tang period (late sixth century ce) is considered one of political fragmentation and recurrent military conflict. During three centuries, several kingdoms and short-lived dynasties were established and destroyed, either by military conquest or by court intrigues and coups. In this context, many political thinkers of the time looked back to the long rule of the Han as a time of peace and prosperity, and argued that it was the institutions of centralized governance that propped the dynasty’s long-lasting reign. Against this view, a handful of thinkers claimed that the Zhou-style system of investiture offered several advantages to secure the permanence of the ruling house and improve the governance of the realm. Among them, the Wei dynasty thinker Cao Jiong argued that the Zhou system was superior to centralized rule both in moral and military terms, while the Jin dynasty scholar Lu Ji discussed the benefits and problems of relying mostly on kin for controlling the realm. By identifying the key ideas in these writings in relation to the historical context of the early medieval period in China, I will challenge the longstanding assumption that post-Han thinkers advocated for the institutions of centralized administration over those of decentralized governance.