Admission requirements
Students should have successfully completed both second-year tutorials, one of which is part of the same specialization as the present third-year seminar. Some experience with early-modern handwriting is useful but not necessary.
Description
The course will inventory and compare Dutch (and perhaps other European) diplomatic missions in period 1600-1800 to various courts in South, Southeast, East, and West Asia. Aiming at an investigation of the differences between these embassies and courts, the focus lies with such aspects as court protocol, gifts, access to rulers, negotiation practices, diplomatic insult, the role of middle-men, orientalist notions, etc. All students will choose one court or region, select one or a few missions, and study these aspects on the basis of both primary sources (for example the VOC archives) and secondary literature. Findings are to be presented by everyone in a lecture and discussed by the group, before a conclusive paper is written.
Course objectives
The student can:
divise and conduct research of limited scope, including
- identifying relevant literature and select and order them according to a defined principle
- organising and using relatively large amounts of information
- an analysis of a scholarly debate
- placing the research within the context of a scholarly debate
write a problem solving essay and give an oral presentation after the format defined in the Themacolleges, including
- using a realistic schedule of work
- formulating a research question and subquestions
- formulating a well-argued conclusion
- giving and receiving feedback
- responding to instructions of the lecturer
reflect on the primary sources on which the literature is based
select and use primary sources for their own research
analyse sources, place and interpret them in a historical context
The student has:
knowledge of a specialisation, more specifically of the development of global networks which facilitate an ever growing circulation of people, animals, plants, goods and ideas, and the central role of European expansion in this from around 1500
Knowledge and insight in the main concepts, the research methods and techniques of the specialisation, more specifically of the combining of historiographical debates with empirical research of primary sources and/or the combining of various historiographical traditions through the use of innovative research questions
Knowledge and insight in the main concepts, the research methods and methodology of the historical discipline
Course specific objectives:
To gain a general understanding of the European presence and diplomacy in early-modern Asia
To gain a general understanding of Asian courts in early-modern Asia
To gain a general understanding of primary sources on early-modern European-Asian diplomacy
To gain specific knowledge of one early-modern Asian court and its diplomatic relations with Europeans
To gain specific knowledge of archival sources on the contacts of one early-modern Asian court with Europeans
Timetable
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Excursion to National Archives, The Hague
Course Load
Total course load: 10 EC = 280 hours, roughly broken down as follows:
attending lectures: 1 EC = 28 hours
studying compulsory literature: 1 EC = 28 hours
completing assignments for lectures: 4 EC = 112 hours
writing paper: 4 EC = 112 hours
Assessment method
participation (15% of final mark)
presentation (15% of final mark)
essay (70% of final mark)
Participation in the lectures and discussions tests the following course objectives:
general: giving and receiving feedback.
specialisation of European expansion: knowledge of a specialisation, more specifically of the development of global networks which facilitate an ever growing circulation of people, animals, plants, goods and ideas, and the central role of European expansion in this from around 1500; knowledge and insight in the main concepts, the research methods and methodology of the historical discipline.
course specific: gain a general understanding of the European presence and diplomacy in early-modern Asia; gain a general understanding of Asian courts in early-modern Asia; gain a general understanding of primary sources on early-modern European-Asian diplomacy.
Giving a presentation tests the following course objectives:
general: divise and conduct research of limited scope; give an oral presentation; reflect on the primary sources on which the literature is based; select and use primary sources for one’s own research; analyse sources, place and interpret them in a historical context.
specialisation of European expansion: knowledge and insight in the main concepts, the research methods and techniques of the specialisation, more specifically of the combining of historiographical debates with empirical research of primary sources and/or the combining of various historiographical traditions through the use of innovative research questions.
course specific: gain specific knowledge of one early-modern Asian court and its diplomatic relations with Europeans; gain specific knowledge of archival sources on the contacts of one early-modern Asian court with Europeans.
Writing the essay tests the following course objectives:
general: divise and conduct research of limited scope; write a problem solving essay (including using a realistic schedule of work, formulating a research question and subquestions, formulating a well-argued conclusion, and responding to instructions of the lecturer); reflect on the primary sources on which the literature is based; select and use primary sources for one’s own research; analyse sources, place and interpret them in a historical context.
specialisation of European expansion: knowledge and insight in the main concepts, the research methods and techniques of the specialisation, more specifically of the combining of historiographical debates with empirical research of primary sources and/or the combining of various historiographical traditions through the use of innovative research questions.
course specific: gain specific knowledge of one early-modern Asian court and its diplomatic relations with Europeans; gain specific knowledge of archival sources on the contacts of one early-modern Asian court with Europeans.
To complete the final mark, please take notice of the following: the final grade for the course is established by (i) determination of the weighted average combined, with (ii) the additional requirement that all subtests (participation, presentation, essay) be sufficient.
Blackboard
Will probably not be used.
Reading list
Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Courtly Encounters. Translating Courtliness and Violence in Early Modern Eurasia (Cambridge, MA, 2012): introduction (pp. 1-33).
Peter Rietbergen and Elsbeth Locher-Scholten, ‘Een dubbel perspectief. Aziatische hoven en de VOC, circa 1620 – circa 1720’, in idem (ed.), -Hof en handel. Aziatische vorsten en de VOC_ (Leiden, 2004) (pp. 1-14).
further literature will be discussed during course.
Registration
Through uSis.
Contact
dhr. L.P.J. Bes MA
071.527.1743 (mobile: 06.4607.6619)