The Eight-Nation Alliance War against China, which occurred during the Boxer Rebellion in the early twentieth century, represented both Japan's earliest joint military operation with Western powers against China and the first involvement of a Japanese quasi-nongovernmental organization (QNGO) in an international issue. A prominent Japanese QNGO, T & omacr;a D & omacr;bunkai, intervened in the incident with the aim of ensuring "federal preservation." This organization attempted to establish a so-called federal state that was independent of the Qing government yet subject to Japanese influence, primarily by persuading and assisting senior officials in southern China who exhibited a certain "independent" tendency, as well as anti-establishment forces during the incident. However, owing to the refusal of independence by senior officials in southern China and the defeat of the anti-establishment forces by the Qing army, this policy was eventually replaced by the more urgent Hokushin-ron policy, which focused on countering the Russian occupation of Northeast China. By reconstructing this historical process on the basis of primary sources, this study analyses the similarities and differences between the ideas and actions of Japanese QNGOs and the policy of the Japanese government towards China. On this basis, the research seeks to reveal the distinctive role of Japanese QNGOs in Japan's early expansion into China.
Defining the central point on maps and other visual representations of the world posed practical questions during the early modern period, particularly for organizations engaged in long-distance and overseas activities. The Society of Jesus, like many such organizations, grappled with the "meridian question." However, the Jesuits were exceptional in their dual consideration of this question from both geographical and spiritual standpoints. Furthermore, the Jesuits disseminated their perspectives globally through widely circulated publications, embedding their views in the consciousness of diverse audiences. This article argues that Jesuit media turned "centre" from a fixed cartographic spot into a functional and movable reference - a Jesuit meridian - chosen to coordinate hours, jurisdictions, languages, or devotion. Reading Sino-Jesuit cartography alongside Roman publications associated with Athanasius Kircher, the study shows that media and venue shape how "centre" works. Projection-driven maps manage centre through convention; Roman instruments and emblematic programmes declare a coordinating reference; theological-linguistic diagrams recentre meaning rather than space. Rather than a single answer, Jesuit materials present a repertoire calibrated to task and audience. Because the Society was global and influential yet plural in voice, its media show how early modern actors made distant worlds commensurable without insisting on one middle.
Abstract In the first half of the nineteenth century, a scientific society called the Unio Itineraria was formed in Esslingen, a small town near Stuttgart in what was then the German states. Operating as a joint-stock company for the collection, sale, and distribution of botanical specimens, it became well-known and well-respected as a mechanism to acquire plants from around the world in Europe. This paper argues that this provincial organization and its attached naturalists facilitated a transnational network of plant exchange and provides a unique case in understanding the relationship between scientific credibility and the specimen trade. Likewise, it will demonstrate how the Regensburg-based journal Flora and other scientific journals became the marketplace where the promotion and trade of the associated specimens took place. This makes the Unio a complex case. Not only does this call into question the role of commerce in European scientific practice, but it shows how scientific authority was fashioned and negotiated in the German states during this period, forcing us to think more carefully about where, how, and by whom the sciences developed. Finally, it contributes to growing research on Germans as active agents in the wider European imperial enterprise before Germany had colonies of its own.
This article examines the nexus between decolonization and internationalization through the Southern Cameroons independence question. It argues that the territory's trajectory toward self-determination - culminating in a 1961 UN-organized plebiscite offering only two options and resulting in reunification with La R & eacute;publique du Cameroun - reflects a more complex process than conventional narratives acknowledge. Through systematic analysis of UN deliberations, the article investigates why the third option for an independent Southern Cameroons was excluded despite its documented popularity. The analysis reveals a fundamental disjuncture between the UN institutional framework and local political realities, documented by the 1958 Visiting Mission and pre-and post-plebiscite developments. This disconnect resulted from the systemic privileging of imperial interests, regional alliances, and exclusionary politics at the Fourth Committee - undermining popular consent as mechanisms for guaranteeing human rights and self-determination. The article concludes by contextualizing the 2017 separatist movements in Cameroon's Anglophone regions as a third-generation resurgence of 1950s aspirations that were consciously overlooked by an international system which, despite commanding substantial legitimacy among the people, ultimately served interests divergent from its mandate to non-self-governing territories.
Abstract Missionary efforts followed the expansion of the Old World’s frontiers, often entwined with trade. This article reviews the accounts of the Franciscan mission in China and of the obras pías of Manila during the eighteenth century to analyse how local conditions and empire-wide structures translated into specific actions on the ground. Through a reconstruction of the economic circumstances, the article explores how the interests of religious orders and merchants became entangled in Manila, showing how this marriage between religion and commerce resulted in a peculiar approach to the financing of the missions, which highlights the versatile nature of Catholic organisation abroad and is reflected in the recordkeeping of the missionaries themselves. The fragmentation and co-optation of multiple interests resulted in greater independence for religious provinces and a method of accounting that prioritised reporting to different patrons over a unified recordkeeping of expenses and sources of income.
