The Road Taken - China’s Incorporation Process into the Capitalist World System and Its Capitalist Transition

Traces China's transformations with a focus on China's incorporation process in the nineteenth century, which help to grasp the historical origins of China's capitalism.
As Europe's colonial powers reached China in the nineteenth century, they became so strong that China could no longer ignore them. Given that the unprecedented geographical expansion of the European system undermined a China-centered world order and brought unprecedented changes to Chinese society, an intriguing question--why and how the Chinese empire entered into the capitalist world economy--has attracted increasing attention among historians, historical sociologists, and world-systems researchers. Yet, there has been no comprehensive monograph touching on China's incorporation process into the capitalist world-economy. To rectify this, The Road Taken investigates China's incorporation process. Incorporation studies, based on world-systems analysis, aims to illustrate the long-term integration process of external arenas into the capitalist world-economy. Ru traces China's transformations with a focus on how incorporation process unfolded over the course of a century (1780s-1890s), which represents a watershed era in the relations between China and the capitalist world.

About the author

Sung Hee Ru is Assistant Professor at Bright College, University of Hankyong National University, South Korea.

Product details

• Authors: Sung Hee Ru
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 09.02.2026
• EAN: 9798855803068
• ISBN: 979-8-8558-0306-8
• No. of pages: 414
• Dimensions: 178 mm x 254 mm x 32 mm
• Illustrations: 27 b&w illus., 12 tables, schwarz-weiss Illustrationen, Tabellen, schwarz-weiss
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; Ethnic Studies, Social Theory, HISTORY / Modern / 19th Century, HISTORY / Modern / 18th Century, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Social Theory, HISTORY / Asia / China, General & world history, Asian History, General and world history, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Cultural & Ethnic Studies / Asian Studies, Ethnic studies / Ethnicity