Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
rice, the diking and draining of southern wetlands, and the colonization
of the tribal far south allowed the population of the empire to triple;
and it gave rise to the most commercial and urban economy to exist
anywhere on earth prior to the eighteenth century.
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Meanwhile, the
pastoralists to China's north founded formidable regimes that joined
vast cavalries and tribal structures with Chinese-style bureaucracy. By
the early twelfth century, half of the empire had been occupied by the Ju-
rchen people of Manchuria; by the late thirteenth century, the Mongols
had toppled the remainder of the empire. Analysis and mapping using
the DGSD reveals that the spatial organization of the empire changed
substantially in reaction to these events; and it also demonstrates that
historical spatial data analysis and HGIS have matured to the point that
spatial analysis, at least when it is performed using a resource developed
with historical understanding in mind, can be integrated with documen-
tary research to yield new historical insights.
Our core research and data design question - why was the Song po-
litical landscape so unstable? - was inspired by a well-known work of
social science history, completed before historical spatial data model-
ing, visualization, and analysis made it possible to answer empirically.
Sociologist Charles Tilly argued that the spatial organization of state
power emerged when governments sought to balance the often contra-
dictory requirements of war making and revenue extraction. Emergent
territorial jurisdictions allowed regimes to collect taxes more efficiently.
However, spatial organization was unstable because the spatial distribu-
tion of state activity that served military priorities differed significantly
from the spatial distribution that facilitated revenue production.
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Mili-
tary forces had to be located between their likely sites of activities and
their major sources of supplies, while civilian officials had to be distrib-
uted in correspondence to population geography. Meanwhile, revenue-
collecting activities needed to be organized around the geography of
trade, wealth, and income. Finally, short-term political imperatives could
contradict all of these considerations, so the spatial distribution of state
activities often reflected the agendas of politically successful parties.
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Atempts to reconcile the demands of extraction and war making pro-
duced distinctive forms of regional spatial organization, which was then
renovated in accordance with new struggles, crises, and priorities.
