ABSTRACT
The shift to the modern world in East Asia was routed through the experience of subordinate incorporation within metropolitan European, American and Japanese state-empire systems. This chapter explores three issues each internally complex. First in respect of the construction and character of empires, where two polar opposite positions are readily identifiable: colonialism brought enlightened civilization to traditional societies; and colonialism violently overthrew existing civilizations in the pursuit of profit – in the one case, development, in the other, the development of underdevelopment. Second, in respect of the process of the collapse of state-empires in general crisis, both events and residues have been extensively discussed. And third, in respect of the role of state-empires in the process of the shift to the modern world in East Asia, the mixture of external and internal social dynamics has been discussed.
