Different networks are seen in the case of religion. Imperial powers, such as China in Tibet and the French in Senegal, sought to direct these networks by co-opting religious leaders with whom they could deal. The response could be troublesome. Osterhammel notes widespread fears of a Muslim revolt.
The need on the part of non-Western societies to respond to the greater strength and power-projection of their Western counterparts is readily apparent, and is discerned in a variety of contexts.
The growing pressure and incentive, including outside the colonies, to learn European languages is a good example. In 1862, the Tongwenguan translation school was founded in Beijing, its dual task to train English speakers and to translate Western technical literature. Japanese universities developed on the Western model, which aided the acquisition of scientific knowledge.
Some of the other arguments can be queried. The idea of the 19th century as an age of increased self-reflection is advanced, but not really substantiated. If the 19th was an age of asymmetrical efficiency growth, so also were other centuries.
More weight can be placed on Osterhammel's idea that key features were the tension between equality and hierarchy and the significance of emancipation; although, as he is well aware, these are also 20th-century themes.
The discussion of war is overly short, and domestic politics tends to be underplayed unless in the form of revolution or the spread of the franchise. But picking holes is unhelpful. What is impressive is the range and interest. Links are offered with reflections. For example, 80 per cent of Portugal's exports in 1870 went to the British Isles: "Moreover, brutal exploitation was practised in conditions that were no longer possible in Britain itself — for example, when British firms employed Portuguese children on piece rates to cut cork for bottles with cutthroat razors."
The source of change is not presented as solely Western. The invention and rapid spread of rickshaw use from Japan is a good example. So also with the discussion of the slave-based dynamic industrial expansion at Kano in modern Nigeria.
There are some British counterparts to work of this ambition, notably Christopher Bayly's The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914 (2004), but Bayly has retired and Osterhammel's ambition, industry and scale shows up the work of all-too-many other historians. Similar books should be produced for other centuries. Let us hope that British historians can rise to the challenge of writing them.
The need on the part of non-Western societies to respond to the greater strength and power-projection of their Western counterparts is readily apparent, and is discerned in a variety of contexts.
The growing pressure and incentive, including outside the colonies, to learn European languages is a good example. In 1862, the Tongwenguan translation school was founded in Beijing, its dual task to train English speakers and to translate Western technical literature. Japanese universities developed on the Western model, which aided the acquisition of scientific knowledge.
Some of the other arguments can be queried. The idea of the 19th century as an age of increased self-reflection is advanced, but not really substantiated. If the 19th was an age of asymmetrical efficiency growth, so also were other centuries.
More weight can be placed on Osterhammel's idea that key features were the tension between equality and hierarchy and the significance of emancipation; although, as he is well aware, these are also 20th-century themes.
The discussion of war is overly short, and domestic politics tends to be underplayed unless in the form of revolution or the spread of the franchise. But picking holes is unhelpful. What is impressive is the range and interest. Links are offered with reflections. For example, 80 per cent of Portugal's exports in 1870 went to the British Isles: "Moreover, brutal exploitation was practised in conditions that were no longer possible in Britain itself — for example, when British firms employed Portuguese children on piece rates to cut cork for bottles with cutthroat razors."
The source of change is not presented as solely Western. The invention and rapid spread of rickshaw use from Japan is a good example. So also with the discussion of the slave-based dynamic industrial expansion at Kano in modern Nigeria.
There are some British counterparts to work of this ambition, notably Christopher Bayly's The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914 (2004), but Bayly has retired and Osterhammel's ambition, industry and scale shows up the work of all-too-many other historians. Similar books should be produced for other centuries. Let us hope that British historians can rise to the challenge of writing them.
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