1.1 Introduction

TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF MODERN NATIONAL STATES; FOUR DOST ON THE TIMELINE OF ‘NATIONAL IR’ (1800-2020)

The timeline with a rough landmark of 1800 CE is an important year or dot on the long timeline of history. We postpone for another time the discussion of why the pre-1800 CE is essential for students of global IR to meaningfully grasp what comes after it. The birth of a ‘new man’ and a ‘new world’ is reminiscent of ‘national IR’, a limited approach from which ‘global IR’ should rescue itself. Thus while our present Chapter restricts itself to the post-1800 CE dost on the timeline, it wishes to highlight these as a limitation which might be rectified in the after version of this shot book.

FROM WHERE YOU ‘START’ AND WHERE YOU ‘STAND’

Our narrative of the world looks very different depending on, your start, and ‘where you stand’ on the globe as a vantage point. For that reason, it would be interesting for the students of ‘global IR’ to explore the concept of periods and periodization of history.

Presently we restrict ourselves to the last two long centuries and group them with four dots on the timeline, in a very approximate manner, 1800; 1900; 1950; and 2000.

For each dot on the timeline, we shall look at the globe from four perspectives, geography (land), population (people), Economy and politico-military power. These are the four sources of power discussed in Part One of our short books. In other words, let us look at Part Three of the short book from the perspective which we outlined in Part One regarding four sources of power.

Table # 1

The Global Power-Play

at ≈ 1800 CE

(Source: Angus Maddison Database)

Table # 2

The Global Power-Play

at ≈ 1900 CE

(Source: Angus Maddison)

Table # 3

The Global Power-Play

at ≈ 1950 CE

(Source: Angus Maddison)

Table # 4

The Global Power- Play

at ≈ 2020CE

(Source: World Bank Development Indicators)

World Population Map (1800-2021)

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GDP per capita Maddison Project Database (map)

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