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European Studies in Asia: Contours of a Discipline, written by Georg Wiessala

2016; Brill; Volume: 3; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1163/22141332-00302006-05

2214-1332

Frederik Vermote McLintock,

Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics

Georg Wiessala's European Studies in Asia: Contours of a Discipline examines the exchange of knowledge between Europe and Asia from the perspective of two disciplines, history and education.As such, the book is divided in three parts: Theoretical Aspects and Historical Predecessors (part one); The Contemporary Representations and Actors (part two); Teaching Europe in Asia: Case Studies (part three).The Central Asian exchange networks of goods and ideas, the Portuguese maritime empire and Jesuit missionary enterprise, and finally the network between pre-modern Siam, Japan, and Europe are the three historical contexts Wiessala examines as precursors of European studies in Asia.Wiessala does not merely focus on material goods, but in each period and region he emphasizes the role of religious actors in establishing a meeting and dialogue between the cultures and people of Europe and Asia.The efforts of Buddhist monks or Jesuit priests in educating the people they met also allows Wiessala to analyze their "analytical tools and frameworks" (6), the ways of how they disseminated and translated knowledge from Europe to Asia and vice versa, and how these historical examples can inform the present-day "theories of international relations" (6).This review will pay special attention to Wiessala's historical precedents, and more specifically his study of "the role of 'faith-based' exchange, religious enquiry and inter-faith cooperation as key drivers informing all manner of knowledge transfer" (6).Wiessala starts his analysis of "historical predecessors" with the Silk Road, immediately recognizing that recent scholarship has emphasized that it was not simply one road or that silk was its main trading item.Relying on authoritative and recent scholarship, he carefully reconstructs the importance of this network of exchange of knowledge back to Roman and Han times.In this sweeping overview of the connections between both ends of the Eurasian continent, he correctly acknowledges the boost of the pax Mongolica to this trading network, though he may want to change the name of Tamerlane with Chinggis Khan (20).The Mongol successors of Chinggis Khan established and maintained the pax Mongolica, a safety that was no longer as ubiquitous or guaranteed by the time of Tamerlane's rule (1370-1405).Wiessala is correct in emphasizing that after the overland trade network experienced this brief stretch of violence during the fifteenth century, the upcoming European maritime trade networks by no means destroyed the overland trade connections.The Silk Roads network had always incorporated both overland and maritime routes and this continued to be the case until the eighteenth century.The