Les Routes de la soie, invention impérialiste ?
Coined in 1876 by the German geographer Ferdinand Von Richthofen, the term « Silk Road » was born in the context of the triumphant European imperialism of the second half of the nineteenth century. As soon as it was conceived, the concept precluded the part of eastern trade transiting through the au...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | fra |
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Association Paul Langevin
2021-12-01
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| Series: | Cahiers d’histoire. |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/chrhc/17664 |
| Summary: | Coined in 1876 by the German geographer Ferdinand Von Richthofen, the term « Silk Road » was born in the context of the triumphant European imperialism of the second half of the nineteenth century. As soon as it was conceived, the concept precluded the part of eastern trade transiting through the autral (South-East Asia, India...) and maritime (Indian Ocean) routes. It also refers to a Western imaginary forged during the « Great Discoveries », that there can only be long-term trade with empires that organize and profit from it. This is why the Mongol Empire yesterday, and Xi Jinping's China today, fit perfectly into a narrative framework that is as restrictive as it is teleological. Let us make a bet: by taking a step aside, would global history make it possible to restore the thickness and complexity of what it would call the « silk roads », in order to emancipate them from this imperialist dimension and to restore more broadly how they have deeply affected world history? |
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| ISSN: | 1271-6669 2102-5916 |