These methodological innovations, however, could be pushed still further. The next stage in the development of the field is to reconceptualize the spatial understanding of empire and its legacy on post-imperial states and to extend transimperial history to the oceans, borderlands, and space. Temporally, a strong argument might be made that various transimperial relations thickened around the globe from around the mid-1800s—including rising non-governmental interactions by colonized people and competition and cooperation amongst both European and non-European empires. A counter-argument against this modern focus might be that it encourages Euro-centrism, because it emphasizes precisely the period of dominance for European empires. Moreover, many relationships and connections across empires were modeled on earlier imperial formations; think of ancient Rome as role model for multiple European empires. The changing understanding of historical empires is therefore essential to “modern” transimperial histories.

This panel will address both the spatial and temporal dimensions of transimperial history by asking how these relationships and connectivities change over time and across spaces not traditionally included in imperial histories. Catia Antunes relocates the transition from colonialism to imperialism from the 1880s to the 1720s, thereby reassessing European societies' role in the history of empire. Tatiana Linkhoeva will discuss the construction of the Manchuria-Mongolia territory at the crossroads of the Japanese, Russian (Imperial and Soviet), and Chinese (Qing and Republican) empires. Gregory Cushman pushes the temporal boundaries of transimperial history by turning to the concept of Homogenocene, the intense biological homogenization of the world, which, in his case study of the Hawai’ian Islands, extends to the early modern period. Vicky Shen takes transimperial history in a new direction by accounting for non-human actors.