Global History with Chinese Characteristics, 1st ed. 2021 Autocratic States along the Silk Road in the Decline of the Spanish and Qing Empires 1680-1796 Palgrave Studies in Comparative Global History Series

This open access book considers a pivotal era in Chinese history from a global perspective. This book?s insight into Chinese and international history offers timely and challenging perspectives on initiatives like ?Chinese characteristics?, ?The New Silk Road? and ?One Belt, One Road? in broad historical context. Global History with Chinese Characteristics analyses the feeble state capacity of Qing China questioning the so-called ?High Qing? (shèng q?ng ??) era?s economic prosperity as the political system was set into a ?power paradox? or ?supremacy dilemma?. This is a new thesis introduced by the author demonstrating that interventionist states entail weak governance. Macao and Marseille as a new case study aims to compare Mediterranean and South China markets to provide new insights into both modern eras? rising trade networks, non-official institutions and interventionist impulses of autocratic states such as China?s Qing and Spain?s Bourbon empires.

Manuel Perez-Garcia (PhD.) is tenured associate Professor at the Department of History, School of Humanities, at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. Principal Investigator of GECEM Project funded by the ERC (European Research Council)-Starting Grant / Horizon 2020, www.gecem.eu. Founder and director of the Global History Network in China (GHN).