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Russian Rule in Turkestan: A Comparison with British India through the Lens of World-Systems Analysis

Dempsey, Timothy A.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275340850

Abstract Details

2010, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Slavic and East European Studies.
This thesis is an attempt to analyze the Russian conquest and subsequent colonization of southern Central Asia using Immanuel Wallerstein’s world-systems approach. In the middle of the nineteenth century the Russian empire’s position in the European-centered, capitalist world-system was weakening. Its economy was gradually becoming more geared to low value-added production, and its military prowess vis-à-vis other European powers like France and Britain was badly compromised after its defeat in the Crimean War. In order to prevent its complete peripheralization within that system Russia undertook to conquer southern Central Asia in order to create a captive market for its manufactures and to secure a more reliable supply of raw cotton for its burgeoning textile industry. As a result of this process, Central Asia was incorporated into the periphery of the expanding capitalist world-system, whereby it underwent a number of painful social and economic transformations that were observable in other lands that had been colonized by European powers. Following the example of Alexander Morrison, this thesis compares the colonial experience of Russian Turkestan with British India, but instead of comparing the administrative structures of the two colonial regimes, it seeks to find similarities in effects of economic colonization on the indigenous populations. Russian colonization of Turkestan, however, was tempered by the fact that the Russian empire, being a semiperipheral power in the capitalist world-system, had fewer resources to facilitate an efficient exploitation of its southern colony. In addition, the Russian autocracy remained too strong in relation to its national bourgeoisie and actively inhibited the accumulation of capital in the core by preventing total exploitation of Turkestan.
Scott Levi, PhD (Advisor)
Nicholas Breyfogle, PhD (Committee Member)
106 p.
Agriculture; Cultural Anthropology; Ecology; Economic History; Economic Theory; European History; International Relations; Middle Eastern History; Russian History; Sociology; Womens Studies
World-systems; Turkestan; Central Asia; Russia; Colonialism; Dependency theory; Wallerstein; British India; Alexander Morrison;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Dempsey, T. A. (2010). Russian Rule in Turkestan: A Comparison with British India through the Lens of World-Systems Analysis [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275340850

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Dempsey, Timothy. Russian Rule in Turkestan: A Comparison with British India through the Lens of World-Systems Analysis. 2010. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275340850.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Dempsey, Timothy. "Russian Rule in Turkestan: A Comparison with British India through the Lens of World-Systems Analysis." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275340850

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1275340850
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.