Chapter One: Modern Political Economic History and International Politics

Study

Chapter Summary

Chapter 1 presents a concise summary of world history. For scholars of world politics, history is the data set against which theories are tested. What has occurred in the past and what will occur in the future are not due to happenstance but rather depend on choices about alternative paths that could be taken. To understand international affairs, we need to know the facts of history--and we need theories to organize these facts. The past several hundred years have been a natural experiment in the success and failure of the alternative forms of governance that have shaped our world.

Study Questions

• Look for broad themes in history that have emerged and, in some cases, declined. Can you see instances in which power, preferences, or perceptions mattered in the decisions and outcomes traced in this chapter?
  
  

• Think about general themes that run through the history of international politics. What factors or ideas are important in international politics today that were not in, say, the 1500s? What are some factors or ideas that are not important now that were prominent in previous centuries?
  
  

• How do changes in technology affect history and international politics? In particular, think of some changes that have affected world politics in different eras before the twentieth century.
  
  

• Why does leadership in the international system change hands? List some reasons contributing to the rise and fall of several different hegemons or leading states in the past five centuries.