Book contents
- Recentering the World
- Law in Context
- Recentering the World
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Archives and Databases Consulted
- Treaties, Agreements, and Legislation
- Cases
- Introduction
- Part I Preserving Stateliness, 1850–1894
- 1 Universal Prosperity
- 2 Synarchy
- 3 Vast Imperium
- Part II Asserting Sovereignty, 1895–1921
- Part III Internationalisms, 1922–2001
- Glossary of Chinese and Japanese Names
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - Vast Imperium
from Part I - Preserving Stateliness, 1850–1894
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 October 2022
- Recentering the World
- Law in Context
- Recentering the World
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Archives and Databases Consulted
- Treaties, Agreements, and Legislation
- Cases
- Introduction
- Part I Preserving Stateliness, 1850–1894
- 1 Universal Prosperity
- 2 Synarchy
- 3 Vast Imperium
- Part II Asserting Sovereignty, 1895–1921
- Part III Internationalisms, 1922–2001
- Glossary of Chinese and Japanese Names
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Diplomatic conflict with a newly rising Meiji Japan spurred the first significant importation into official discourse of notions of “sovereignty” in the sense of state authority over a specified territory based on a legal title. Earlier accounts of sovereignty via diplomatic encounters and Martin’s translations had, by contrast, emphasized only its aspects related to “independence” of a state vis-à-vis others. The notion of a legally defined title to state territory was thrust into the Qing consciousness by Meiji efforts to annex the Ryūkyū Kingdom and Taiwan, which reached a climax in 1875 and affected the reshuffling of Qing politics and diplomacy that came in the wake of Emperor Tongzhi’s untimely death that same year.
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- Recentering the WorldChina and the Transformation of International Law, pp. 57 - 76Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022