Why is China so Big?

The Qing dynasty (1644-1912) doubled China’s size to roughly its current dimensions. But initially there was no consensus that Inner Asian territories conquered by the Qing were good as much more than buffer states. Prof. Pomeranz will discuss changes that involved a re-thinking of physical space, crucial both to the efforts made to cement control of these territories during the tumultuous end of the imperial era, and to the form that the Chinese nation state took thereafter.