Nicola Di Cosmo: Environmental Crisis and Political Economy in the Early Manchu State

The Moynihan Institute’s East Asia Program presents Nicola Di Cosmo from Princeton University.

How a small people of shepherds and hunters managed to invade, conquer and then rule China for over two hundred and fifty years is still a mystery. Much has been said about the fall of the Ming dynasty, but how did the Manchus become a contender (and the final winner) in the contest for succession?  Diverging from a traditional focus on both the Ming crisis and Manchu military prowess, this talk examines interlocking aspects of natural disasters, trade, and agricultural development to explain key aspects of the expansion and consolidation of the early Manchu state from 1600 to 1620.

Nicola Di Cosmo is Henry Luce Foundation Professor of East Asian Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton University). He has a Ph.D. in Uralic and Altaic studies from Indiana University and has held positions at Cambridge, Harvard and the University of Canterbury (New Zealand). He has published several authored and edited volumes dealing with the history of the relations between China and Inner Asia from the first millennium BCE to the early modern period.  His current work focuses on the connections between climate, environment and politics in the history of steppe empires.