Transforming Inner Mongolia: Commerce, Migration, and Colonization on the Qing Frontier

This book explores the impact of Han Chinese migration into Inner Mongolia during the Qing era, focusing on commercial expansion, land reclamation, and Catholic proselytism. It reconstructs the socioeconomic, cultural, and administrative history of Inner Mongolia at a time of unprecedented Chinese expansion and integration into global frameworks. It argues that border regions such as Inner Mongolia played a central role in China's transformation from a multiethnic empire to a modern nation-state.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 354 pages
Publication date: 08 August 2023
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

This groundbreaking book delves into the profound impact of Han Chinese migration into Inner Mongolia during the Qing era. In the first comprehensive English-language history, Yi Wang explores the intricate processes that shaped the Mongol frontier long before it was officially colonized and integrated into the Chinese state. Wang reconstructs the socio-economic, cultural, and administrative history of Inner Mongolia during a period of unprecedented Chinese expansion into its peripheries and China's integration into the global frameworks of capitalism and the nation-state. By introducing a peripheral and transregional dimension that connects local and regional processes to global ones, Wang emphasizes both broad macro-historical analysis and detailed micro-studies of specific regions and agents. She argues that border regions like Inner Mongolia played a crucial role in China's transformation from a multiethnic empire to a modern nation-state, serving as a fertile ground for economic and administrative experimentation. Drawing on a diverse array of Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian, and European sources, Wang seamlessly integrates the two major trends in current Chinese historiography—new Qing frontier history and migration history—in a significant contribution to the history of Inner Asia, border studies, and migrations.

Weight: 485g
Dimension: 229 x 153 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781538183670