Imperialism’s spasms, in the past and today
Empires. Who’d have them!?
Asit has been for millenia, most people beyond the political elite remain focused locally, be it village, city, nation. No one really wants to be subject to an Empire of another culture / nation. But many want to have their “own” Empire to express their national “vigour” and because somehow they believe that “they are right” or the righteous.
Empires cause death, destruction, racist / racialist cultures, cults, resistance in the majority of the Imperial territory. Empires provide national pride, jingoism, economic opportunity and political justification for those of the Imperial caste at the centre of Empire. But Empires can also provide opportunity for those who buy into the Imperium from subject nations / people.
The Roman Empire was the primary example, but so was the Chinese and Aztecs, so was the Mongol and Persian. Empires have always existed in some way because opportunities for people exploitation, capital, economic and military imperatives have driven them on.
Empires rarely collapse suddenly — at least not of their own volition. And as they retreat the carnage caused by the power vaccuum sucking in all manner of people and ideas into the space created can be extreme.
The Austro Hungarian Empire was dismembered post WW1, but was seemingly spiraling down prior to the war. The rash of small national entities with their many minority populations crashed about for 20 years before the German and Italian fascist ideologies sought to impose Empire on them again. The Russians / Soviets did the same post WW2, and whilst much more politically and socially benign, so did the US in Western Europe.
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The British and French Empires in the last 2–3 centuries were no different and their retreat created many “false” states drawn by civil servants in the Imperial capitals that has resulted in many wars, civil and international. And they left behind a racially charged history of social and economic exploitation through slavery and disruption of local political traditions.
Today we dislike using the word “Empire” because the negative connotations around exploitation and repression. But Empires still exist.
Russia is an Empire based upon territorial acquisition and racial superiority. The US is an Empire based on economic heft, soft power and their military. China is a rising Empire based upon economic power and Han homogenity. All rely on some Imperial myth to justify their existence.
Few Empires have just “disappeared”. They have all been exposed to some cataclysm which pushes them to collapse. The height of Rome was in the 2nd century, but it still existed in the 4–5th centuries in a very different and ethnically diverse way. Arguably we still eulogise the Rome of the 2nd century (its buildings, its technology, its military performance, despite how blood thirsty it was), but not the 3 centuries after. That c.300 years of change and adaptation before disappearing in the West was not a sudden collapse caused by “barbarian hordes” as is often portrayed, but the reduction of the importance of the Imperial centre to those beyond for their protection, wealth and well being.
Other Empires appeared and disappeared during the time of war — the French European Empire under Napoleon, German Empires in 1917–18 and 1939–45, or have simply run out of cash, energy and people due to war or catastrophe — the Aztec and Mayan’s due to microbes plus Spanish Conquistadors using local tribal competitors to defeat them militarily, or the British and French post-WW2.
Russia is the Empire on everyone’s mind today. The Ukrainian War is a spasm of Empire — an aspiration to recover the supposed glory of Stalin’s post-WW2 Empire. But like those other Empires which aspire to recover their glory after an economic or military shock, this is a false road. The Imperial centre lacks the infrastructure and economic “muscle” to obtain and retain an Empire. Empire’s can repress and exploit populations, but they need an economy which is generating spare cash to invest in the tools of repression — which despite technology still means people (secret police, police etc.). This could be the case when oil & gas captured Europe’s consumers, but Ukraine is too close and memories of Soviet repression too current to allow the cash cow to continue to be milked.
Russia is at war already with Europe because it is at war with the idea of Europe as manifested in the political changes in Ukraine in the 21st century. What has perhaps surprised Russia is the resilience of European people against their initimidation (even if this is sometimes undermined by European politicians). This arm wrestle in Ukraine on the battlefield and Europe in people’s minds shows little evidence of ultimate success. And for Empires, Imperial spasms have to be won to justify the Empire — failure can only lead to extreme repression or revolt.
The Russian Empire could implode Yugoslav-style creating a dangerous civil conflict across 11 timezones (but most likely centred on the Caucasus and Caspian areas) and with the nuclear controls in a state of flux. Russia could lash out further to justify their “gotterdammerung” within a global conspiracy against them — the fear of most European politicians now. Or it could just slowly unwind, much like the Soviet Union, with further spasms of Imperial overreach, but with a centre in Moscow too economically exhausted to maintain the fiction of control through repression. The so-called exit ramp that takes Russia back to the 00’s as part of the G8 etc. has been passed by long ago.
As with dealing with the nascent German, Italian and Japanese Empires in the 20th Century, it is the world at large which will shape the way Russia will change. Since change it will (and must if you are a European) since their Empire is dying through largely self-inflicted wounds of this Imperial spasm. And the consequences will have short and long term implications for many people and countries, given the territorial size of the Russian Empire.
