Islands in a sea of fog: a rapid evidence assessment of quantitative research in the pre-1816 period

Abstract

In this manuscript I present a rapid evidence assessment of articles that use quantitative methods to analyze peace and conflict dynamics, and topics relevant to conflict processes, in temporal domains that include periods before 1816. The study of pre-modern international relations using quantitative methods is a minority endeavor in the field. Using a semi-random sample of 54 articles published between 1970-2015 I familiarize scholars with this scholarly corpus. I evaluate what that corpus can tell us about the argument that the pre-1816 period is to different from the post-1816 period for useful cross-period comparison. The findings do not support such an argument of difference.