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.
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