ABSTRACT
The very title that Cohen (2000) chooses for his book, East Asia at the Center, is an indication of his rejection of Eurocentrism. Nonetheless, even with this welcome major shift in perception and emphasis, what Cohen writes is not as clear as he claims. The evidence from one Asian region after another suggests that the mid-nineteenth century may have been only the beginning of a watershed at most. A real turning point had not yet arrived, much less been completed. Certainly, the resistance of millions of Asians had not yet been overcome. The Sepoy Mutiny in India was not until 1857 and the Second Opium War in China only in 1860, efforts at economic development substantially independent of the Europeans also still continued, and the Asian order had not yet been shattered. From the evidence below, we should probably conclude that, if we have to pick a date for Asia’s decline and subjugation, it should rather be two decades later in 1870, perhaps beginning with 1860.
