From alien land to inalienable parts of China: how Qing imperial possessions became the Chinese Frontiers

Scholarship on the origins of modern territoriality and modernist conception territory has largely been confined to Europe its colonial histories. Few attempts have made understand from an alternative epistemic starting point. This article moves beyond critiques Eurocentrism by examining territorial metamorphosis Qing Empire China. Like United States Russia, China retained early continental possessions. In order explain territorialisation multi-ethnic empire, this engages empirically with cartographic textual representations Confucian literati scholars, European Jesuit cartographers Manchu imperial court 17th 19th centuries. The empirical study shows that century, a new territorialised ‘China’ closely resembling had emerged. ‘modern’ Sinocentric form encompassed areas were hitherto seen as foreign non-Chinese. opposition extant Eurocentric historiography, traces emergence in nexus techniques, conquests synthesis forms territoriality. By showing deep historical processes global entanglements behind state, makes case for polycentric account