This project brings together historians and International Relations scholars to describe and compare how interpolity relations worked in different regions of the world before or during the early phases of European imperialism. Our aim is to investigate the wide spectrum of interpolity relations that existed globally prior to Europeans imposing their own principles, and to comprehend the distinct legal and diplomatic practices of non-European polities in their own contexts. To give this a concrete focus, participants will address three sets of questions about the nature of these relations in their respective regions.(1) What norms and protocols regulated diplomatic interactions between polities? How did polities represent themselves in their dealings with others? (2) What constituted an agreement between polities? What forms did interpolity agreements outlining specific rights and obligations take, besides the written documentation that scholars typically focus on? And (3) What kind of networks did polities create among themselves? What forms of power and hierarchy characterised interpolity systems?
