Underground Empires: German Imperialism and the Introduction of Geology in China, 1860--1919 (2010)
Wu, Shellen Xiao (Author)
Princeton University
Elman, Benjamin
Edition Details: Advisor: Elman, Benjamin.
Physical Details: 306 pp.
Language: English
My dissertation examines the introduction of geology in China from the 1860s through the 1910s. The intersection and mutually reinforcing effects of science and empire form the focus of this dissertation, in particular the German attempt to corner the market on technical advisors in Qing industries and control the management of mineral resources in their Shandong colony from 1898-1914. I show in my dissertation that outside of the conventional narrative of science in Europe, geology developed in close connection with mining and the control of mineral resources. Valued mineral deposits during the period of my dissertation, particularly coal, became the battlegrounds of European and American powers and the Qing state and local elites. My approach reveals the complexity of the debate both at the center and the provincial levels in China, not only addressing the importation of science and technology from the West, but also the political and legal strategies to retain sovereignty and control over mineral rights. I show in my dissertation that when the first China Geological Survey began work in the 1910s, conceptions of natural resources, industry, and modern technology had already gradually shifted during the previous decades. I begin with the 1868-1872 China expeditions of the German geologist/geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen, proceed to consider the geology translations in the 1870s and 1880s, before exploring the role of German technical advisors in late Qing industrial enterprises. Finally, I examine the effects of foreign demands for mining concessions on the reforms of Chinese mining law in the 1900s, and the impact on the discourse of geology in the late Qing and early Republican period. Neither the introduction in China of Western science in general nor geology specifically was simply tied to history of science narratives. During a period of expanding empires and emerging nation-states, science offered one way to achieve a new ordering of the world. My work is a cultural history of how a new view of the state's role in controlling the exploitation of mineral resources emerged during the late Qing period.
...MoreDescription Cited in Dissertation Abstracts International-A 71/12, Jun 2011. Proquest Document ID: 761622441.
Similar Citations
Article
Wu, Shellen Xiao;
(2014)
The Search for Coal in the Age of Empires: Ferdinand von Richthofen's Odyssey in China, 1860--1920
(/isis/citation/CBB001451914/)
Book
Shellen Xiao Wu;
(2015)
Empires of Coal: Fueling China’s Entry into the Modern World Order, 1860-1920
(/isis/citation/CBB702604725/)
Article
Xi Ma;
(2021)
Mineral and mineralogy in late Qing China: translations and conceptualizations, 1860s–1910s
(/isis/citation/CBB712469540/)
Chapter
Benjamin A. Elman;
(2010)
The Investigation of Things (gewu 格 物), Natural Studies (gezhixue 格 致 學), and Evidental Studies (kaozhengxue 考 證 學) Gewu in Late Imperial China, 1600-1800
(/isis/citation/CBB533601903/)
Article
Geric, Michelle;
(2014)
Reading Maud's Remains: Tennyson, Geological Processes, and Palaeontological Reconstructions
(/isis/citation/CBB001201801/)
Article
Xu, Fei;
Mao, Shi-zhen;
(2005)
Historical influence of Chinese educational mission students on the development of science and technology in modern China in the Qing Dynasty
(/isis/citation/CBB000650794/)
Article
Sihn, Kyu-hwan;
(2012)
The Anatomical Revolution and the Transition of Anatomical Conception in Late Imperial China
(/isis/citation/CBB001210622/)
Article
Wang, Hongxia;
(2006)
Knowing Western Medicine through the Magazine A Review of the Time in the Late Qing China
(/isis/citation/CBB001020744/)
Article
Wang, Bin;
(2011)
A Preliminary Inquiry into the Rise and Collapse of Traditional Chinese Needle-Making in Its Social Context
(/isis/citation/CBB001221313/)
Article
Xiaoxing Jin;
(2022)
The Evolution of Social Darwinism in China, 1895–1930
(/isis/citation/CBB079283075/)
Article
Cheang, Sarah;
(2006)
Women, Pets, and Imperialism: The British Pekingese Dog and Nostalgia for Old China
(/isis/citation/CBB000660019/)
Book
Kim, Hoi-Eun;
(2014)
Doctors of Empire: Medical and Cultural Encounters between Imperial Germany and Meiji Japan
(/isis/citation/CBB001422439/)
Article
Hugh Torrens;
Madeleine Gill;
(2018)
John Player's 'geological observations' of 1764-1766, and his contributions to the society of arts Journal Museum Rusticum et Commerciale
(/isis/citation/CBB189155137/)
Chapter
Renshaw, Michelle;
(2009)
“Family-Centred Care” in American Hospitals in Late-Qing China
(/isis/citation/CBB001031535/)
Article
Asen, Daniel;
(2008)
Approaching Law and Exhausting Its (Social) Principles: Jurisprudence as Social Science in Early 20th-Century China
(/isis/citation/CBB001023353/)
Article
Zhang, Jiuchen;
(2007)
Survey of Mineral Resources on the Borderland during the Upsurge in Exploiting the Nautral Resources of Northwest China: A Case Study of the Sino-Swedish Scientific Expedition to the North-Western Provinces of China
(/isis/citation/CBB000933501/)
Article
Ganaway, Bryan;
(2008-9)
Engineers or Artists? Toys, Class and Technology in Wilhelmine Germany
(/isis/citation/CBB001032585/)
Book
Hilary A. Smith;
(2017)
Forgotten Disease: Illnesses Transformed in Chinese Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB891109049/)
Book
Günergun, Feza;
(1998)
Osmanli Bilimi Arastirmalari II
(/isis/citation/CBB000110619/)
Article
Togo Tsukahara;
(2014)
An Unpublished Manuscript Geologica Japonica by Von Siebold: Geology, Mineralogy, and Copper in the Context of Dutch Colonial Science and the Introduction of Western Geo-sciences to Japan
(/isis/citation/CBB139009205/)
American Historical Review
Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology
Comparative Studies in Society and History
Earth Sciences History: Journal of the History of the Earth Sciences Society
East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine
Be the first to comment!