Research Catalog

Title

(Dis)connected Empires : Imperial Portugal, Sri Lankan diplomacy, and the making of a Habsburg conquest in Asia / Zoltán Biedermann.

Author

Biedermann, Zoltán

Publication

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2018.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 255 : illustrations (black and white), maps; 24 cm

Summary

(Dis)connected Empires takes the reader on a global journey to explore the triangle formed during the sixteenth century between the Portuguese empire, the empire of Kotte in Sri Lanka, and the Catholic Monarchy of the Spanish Habsburgs. It explores nine decades of connections, cross-cultural diplomacy, and dialogue, to answer one troubling question: why, in the end, did one side decide to conquer the other? To find the answer, Biedermann explores the imperial ideas that shaped the politics of Renaissance Iberia and sixteenth-century Sri Lanka. (Dis)connected Empires argues that, whilst some of these ideas and the political idioms built around them were perceived as commensurate by the various parties involved, differences also emerged early on. This prepared the ground for a new kind of conquest politics, which changed the inter-imperial game at the end of the sixteenth century. The transition from suzerainty-driven to sovereignty-fixated empire-building changed the face of Lankan and Iberian politics forever, and is of relevance to global historians at large. Through its scrutiny of diplomacy, political letter-writing, translation practices, warfare, cartography, and art, (Dis)connected Empires paints a troubling panorama of connections breeding divergence and leading to communicational collapse. It examines a key chapter in the pre-history of British imperialism in Asia, highlighting how diplomacy and mutual understandings can, under certain conditions, produce conquest.

Subject

• 1500-1599
• History, Modern > 16th century
• Imperialism > History > 16th century
• History, Modern
• Imperialism
• Diplomatie
• Kolonialismus
• Portugal
• Spain
• Sri Lanka

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-248) and index.

Contents

1. (Dis)connecting Empires: Towards a Critical History of Early Modern Imperial Connections -- 2. Lords of the Land, Lords of the Sea: Establishing an Imperial Dialogue Against the Odds -- 3. Matrioshka Principle and Its Discontents: Connecting Imperial Ideas Across the Continents -- 4. Conversion Diplomacy: Lankan Imperial Projects and the Politics of Catholic Universalism -- 5. Moving into the Native Ground: Turmoil and Diplomatic Diversification in the Middle of the Century -- 6. Translatio Imperii in the Tropics: Colombo, the Spectre of Cortes in Asia, and the Unification of Iberian Empires -- 7. From Allies to Invaders: Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of Global Iberian Imperialism -- 8. Anatomy of a Divergence: Habsburg Sovereignty and the End of the Lankan Island Empire.

Call Number

JFE 19-2680

ISBN

• 0198823398
• 9780198823391

LCCN

2018947664

OCLC

1030968856

Author

Biedermann, Zoltán, author.

Title

(Dis)connected Empires : Imperial Portugal, Sri Lankan diplomacy, and the making of a Habsburg conquest in Asia / Zoltán Biedermann.

Imprint

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2018.

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-248) and index.

Chronological Term

1500-1599

Research Call Number

JFE 19-2680