Modern World HistoryModern World History

Introduction: What is Imperialism?

“Your father’s lightsaber. This isthe weapon of a Jedi Knight. Notas clumsy or random as a blaster;an elegant weapon for a morecivilized age. For over a thousandgenerations, the Jedi Knightswere the guardians of peace andjustice in the Old Republic.Before the dark times... beforethe Empire.”

—From Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope.

In the Star Wars movies, theEmpire continually seeks toexpand its control from thecapital planet Coruscant tooutlying regions in the universe. Hyperdrive-equipped starships allow planets light years apartto easily interact. This advanced technology provides the foundation for the Galactic Empire toincrease its wealth and extend its reach by controlling and taxing interplanetary trade. To keepproduction costs down, Imperial companies compete to find the cheapest workers, often settlingon droid robots or slave labor. The Empire directs its engineers to create the latest in militarytechnology, such as Galaxy Guns, turbolasers, and planetary shields. To dominate trade andhigh-tech innovation, the Empire makes sure to control key natural resources, such as Tibannagas and precious crystals (especially those needed for making lasers and lightsabers). Exploitingthe wealth of the galaxy also means conquering and terrorizing the population, even blowing upentire planets. Inevitably, rebels, such as Luke Skywalker, resist the brutal occupation of theEmpire (Wookieepedia).

Though Star Wars takes place “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” many earthly empireshave not been that different from the fictitious Galactic Empire. In all empires, a group of peopleexpands its rule over others. Empires typically enrich themselves through the control of naturalresources, labor and trade.

The core territory of an empire usually consists of a dominant nation or kingdom with a shared language andreligion—such as ancient Rome during the Roman Empire or the United Kingdom during the British Empire.This core group typically conquers and then exploits weaker territories on the periphery of the empire bydemanding unequal trade, taxes, tribute, or plunder. Some of the most famous empires started when adictator or emperor overthrew a democratic government. For example, Nazi Germany overthrew the WeimarRepublic. The French Revolution led to Napoleon’s French Empire. And, Imperial Rome overthrew theRoman Republic just as the Galactic Empire that Jedi Knight Obi-Wan fought against overthrew the OldRepublic.

Throughout world history, kingdoms and nations have competed to expand their territories andpower at the expense of others. The largest empires began small and expanded to rule overethnically and religiously diverse groups of people, often with the aid of a technologicaladvantage. For a time, they would appear unstoppable, like the Empire in Star Wars. Forexample, in the 13 century, in less than 100 years, the Mongols used lightning-fast archers onhorseback to expand their empire over 6,000 miles from northern China to Eastern Europe.

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But just when the empire was at its peak, it split up into four smaller kingdoms. Other empiresrose and fell even more quickly. In just three years (1939-1942), Nazi Germany used the speed ofnew modern aircraft and tanks to conquer most of Europe before losing it all two years later.Both the Mongols and the Nazis used new lightning-quick military technology to dominate areasaround them. Both rapidly expanded their territories.

Neither empire could sustain its prime area of conquest. No empire ever does.

Historians divide imperialism into two types, formal and informal. With formal imperialism,one country establishes direct political control over a territory, often as a colony or protectorate.Good examples of this type of control include British rule of the colonies in America before 1776,India (1858 – 1947), Hong Kong (1842 – 1997), and Kenya (1920 – 1963). Informalimperialism uses indirect means, usually economic but often with a lurking military threat, tocontrol a nation or territory. Informal rule is generally less expensive than formally taking over aterritory. It spreads control more subtly through technological superiority, large loans (debt)that cannot be repaid, ownership of land or private industry, or forcing countries to agree touneven trade agreements. For example, the British Empire defeated China militarily in 1842 andforced the Chinese government to sign a treaty granting favorable trade and access to Chinesemarkets. But the British did not occupy the country or seize direct control of its government. InGuatemala in the 1950s, American banana companies owned 70 percent of the arable land in thecountry (Koeppel 125). When a democratically elected Guatemalan president, Jacobo Arbenz,tried to force the companies to sell back 6 percent of their uncultivated land, the Americangovernment—through its Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA)—helped the Guatemalan militaryto overthrow Arbenz and install a dictator sympathetic to the American companies. Thesemaneuvers required little effort or expense on the part of the U.S. government. In the end, the

big American banana companies kept their land and their economic control of the country. TheUnited States government succeeded in controlling Guatemala economically without having toconquer, occupy, or administer a country directly (123-131).

Why Study Imperialism?Even though empires don’t last forever, they often leave behind a lasting legacy of changes in theforms of political, economic, and cultural influences. We study empires, then, to help usunderstand why the modern world is the way it is. For example, hundreds of millions of LatinAmericans today speak Spanish and Portuguese because, five hundred years ago, their ancestorswere conquered by Spain and Portugal. The Islamic Empire spread its religion from Arabia toMorroco to India. Even though this imperial expansion occurred over one thousand years ago,the empire’s religious influence lives on. Despite Islam’s origins on the Arabian Peninsula 4,500miles away, Indonesia, in Southeast Asia, has the largest Muslim population today. These far-reaching and long-lasting influences make sense when we understand the history of empires.And, remarkably, in the modern era, England, a small island nation on the periphery of Eurasia,came to rule over the most impressive empire of all.

The fact that England became a dominant world power through its rule of the British Empire,the largest empire in the history of the world, baffles us even today. How did a small islandcountry (about the size of Oregon) on the far edge of the Eurasian continent come to rule overone-quarter of the world’s land mass and population? It must have had some unusualadvantages over every other country.

Certainly, the wealth and technological advances emerging from the Industrial Revolutioncontributed a great deal to the success of the British Empire, especially in the nineteenthcentury, when England first industrialized. However, the first European colonial empires, andtheir increasing control of global trade, began before the Industrial Revolution, so the answermust be more complex. When and why did European imperial dominance take form? And whydidn’t powerful Asian countries such as China or India conquer Europe instead of the other wayaround?

Studying modern empires also helps us to learn about the origins of the uneven distribution ofwealth and technology in the world today. In 2010, Europe and the United States—oftenreferred to as “the West”—made up only 15 percent of the world’s population yet controlled 53percent of the world’s wealth (“Global distribution of Wealth”). As we learned in the IndustrialRevolution chapter, it’s no coincidence that these same countries have been at the fore oftechnological revolutions that occurred in the last two centuries. In 2010, English was thedominant language of the Internet and computer programming. Despite the relatively smallnumber of native English speakers in the world compared to Chinese or other languages, thereare more English language websites than any other language (“Internet World Users”). Why areEurope and the United States today so wealthy in contrast to the rest of the world? We will findthat competition, innovation, greed and luck had much to do with ”Western” dominance.

Finally, we study the rise and fall of modern empires so that we might learn from the mistakes ofthe past. The United States is, thus far, the dominant global power of the 21st century, soAmericans in particular would do well to understand the history of modern empires. Although

the United States has rarely taken over countries to govern them formally as colonies, Americanmilitary and economic influence may be the most far-reaching in world history. In 2011, forexample, the United States spent 42.8 percent of the military expenditures of all countries in theworld (“World Military Expenditures”); that’s just over 700 billion dollars in one year of U.S.military spending—more than the next 14 biggest military spenders combined and almost 400percent more than the next-largest spender, China (“List of Countries by MilitaryExpenditures”). Perhaps most surprising of all, the United States maintains soldiers in over 150countries. Why is American military spending so high in contrast to the rest of the world? Whatpolitical, economic, cultural, and moral lessons can Americans learn from the history of modernempires? And, has imperialism made the world a better place? Can it ever?

Content by Vern Cleary Design by Stephen Pinkerton