Expansionism

About: Expansionism is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 979 publications have been published within this topic receiving 11169 citations.

The Politics of War Apology: From Murayama to Abe

Abstract: The election of the Abe Government in December 2012 launched a period of nationalistic revisionism in Japanese politics. This was not unprecedented, in the sense that several previous prime ministers (in the recent past most obviously Koizumi Junichirō) had used nationalistic themes in some of their rhetoric—and in Koizumi’s case conspicuously in his several visits to the Yasukuni Shrine during the five and half years (2001 to 2006) during which he was prime minister. The emergence of Abe, however, represents a major shift towards an energetic nationalism, with constitutional revision, enhancement of the role of the Self Defence Forces, a desire to confront Chinese expansionism in East Asia, greater control over information and the mass media, restrictions on human rights and radical reassessment of both the Asia-Pacific War and the Allied Occupation, in the new government’s sights. This was in fact the second period in office as prime minister for Abe, since he had succeeded Koizumi in 2006, though he lasted only a year. The end of 2012 saw the collapse of a failed three-year experiment in replacement of the long term “party in power” (LDP) by the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). The DPJ Government failed because of inexperience, internal dissent, poor leadership and the triple disasters of force nine earthquake, devastating tsunami and meltdown at the reactors of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station on 11th March 2011 (now known as 3/11), so that once the LDP was back in power, it faced a weak and debilitated opposition. Moreover, the LDP itself, which used to be a kind of coalition between different ideological strands led by strong leaders balancing each other’s power, had become less factionalized, and more united around a single ideological approach, combining a strategy for economic revival with the aim of diluting post-war democratic and pacifist reforms with a nationalistic and revisionist agenda.

The Iron Age in Central Thailand

Abstract: The emergence of iron metallurgy in Mainland Southeast Asia (~fifth century BC) marks a major breakthrough rather cohesive, although strongly regionalized cultural traditions rooted in the southward, long- haul agricultural dispersal originating from south-central China. With the establishment of the centralized states of the Qin (221–206 BC) and Western Han (206 BC–AD 23) dynasties, the northern belt of Mainland Southeast Asia (Lingnan region, Yunnan lacustrine plains, and Song Hong River valley) attracted the expansionist policies of the Chinese empire. The southern regions of Southeast Asia, including central Thailand, followed a different path leading to interactive contacts with the Indian subcontinent and to increased regional trade networks. Iron tools, surplus management, population expansion, and a progressive localization of exotics cultural traits drove the elites of central Thailand toward a step-by-step growth in cultural complexity with the emergence of medium-complex social systems/chiefdom analogues.

Bullying Britain, Conquering Mexico, Claiming the Canal

Abstract: Franklin's vision of an expanding British North American empire required a colonial union. The lesson, Franklin learned from the example of the Six Nations Confederacy was about the importance of union to the establishment of the imperial control of North America. The most radical aspect of Franklin's vision was his conception of an emerging parity between England and the colonies. Washington's and Franklin's efforts to spur unity suggest that the move toward the creation of an American union is best understood as a 'grasstips' movement. Franklin and Washington's participation in the expansionist thrust reflected both the personal and the public interests each had in acquiring control of the Ohio Country. The revolutionary faction in the colonies wouldn't accept political subordination or limitations on its territorial and commercial expansionism. The bloody battles at Lexington and Concord in April 1775 marked the beginning of a de facto war of independence for the colonies.

The Indonesian Eurasian Community and Japan

Abstract: This article deals with connections between the rise of Japan, Indonesian nationalism and the Eurasian community between 1900 and 1942. It shows how Dutch official and public assessments of Japan as an external threat differed over time. The same was true of Indonesian views of Japan. Eurasians were caught in the middle between Dutch conservatism on the one hand and Indonesian nationalism on the other. Different choices on this domestic issue also resulted in different positions towards Japanese expansionism. Therefore, in this period Indonesian and Japanese historical dynamics became entangled.