On Imperialism - I

The other day, I read an article on the benefits of European imperialism. This article was talking about the colonial period when West European powers (primarily) carved up the world amongst themselves. The most successful of these by far was Britain which at one point ruled an empire about whom it could be said literally that the sun never set on it. I have also earlier read a book by Mr. Niall Ferguson about how the world we live in today was shaped in a major way by the British empire.

Empires have obviously existed since the dawn of history and in fact successive empires have ruled over larger areas than their predecessors. The apogee of this process was reached in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. European imperialism was in many ways unique. All earlier empires ruled over contiguous territories. They did not have the capability to effectively control overseas possessions. Europeans powers did have that capability. Earlier empires also did not make a distinction between a "mother" country and colonial possessions. The colonial powers did. Most earlier empires lacked long term stability. A primary reason for this was that they failed to convince their peoples that they belonged to a community. The two great exceptions to this were Rome and China both of whom endured for very long periods in some form. The European powers developed nationalism which proved to be a very strong force for binding their people together in the "mother" country. At the same time, they were able to resolve the succession problem. This gave the Europeans long term unity and political stability. Almost constant warfare in Europe over 1000 years honed European military industry and military techniques to a much higher degree than other regions of the world. All of this was coupled with the advantages accruing from industrialization and it is no surprise that the rest of the world was unable to mount an effective response to the European challenge.

It is a truism that history is written by the victors. The triumphs of the Western powers in the 19th and early 20th centuries engendered a strong sense of superiority. A feeling that European rule was predestined. Much has been written about the benefits of European rule. However, what about the point of view of the conquered peoples? What was their story like? I come from a former British possession - specifically Pakistan which came into existence as a result of the partition of India. The British story in India can be viewed through multiple angles. The British have a particular view of their history in India. The same events when viewed from the other side can be interpreted in a different fashion. This is true of other parts of the world and of other European possessions. Mr. Ferguson is correct in stating that the British Empire played a major role in forming the world we live in today. However, this did not exist in a vacuum. It affected and was affected by other European and later non-European empires. While Mr. Ferguson talks about the positive impact in his book, there were also negative impacts. The roots of much of the problems of the world today can be traced to the decisions and actions taken by colonial rulers. Also, it should not be imagined that imperialism ended with de-colonization. In important ways, it morphed into new forms and continues to affect the world today. These are areas that are often neglected in histories. In order to truly understand the world we are living in today, we need to take a longer perspective and try and work out what impact decisions taken in the past had on subsequent events and what has been the fallout of those events. These are important and interesting points that I will be exploring in a series of articles on Imperialism and its impact - both positive and negative and how these truly helped to shape the world we are living in today.