Lecture 2 Flashcards
What is an empire?
large political units
expansionists
whereas nationstate in contrast is based on the idea of a single people in a single territory unique political community
What varieties of empires are there?
contiguous
vs
colonial empires have a centre, a core/ motherland, and
peripheral colonies that are far removed. Decentralised.
decentralized
vs “core-periphery”
Transformation
from hre to Napoleonic empire
from colonial empires to new imperial breakdown and reconstruction
what was the HRE reputation?
Voltaire: HRE is neither holy, roman nor an empire
Madison: a history of general imbecility confusion and misery
older german historians: HRE was responsible for germans verspatete nation, sonderweg, hitler
revisiontis history- peter wilson provides an alternative trajectory of political organisation, against the teleology of the nation stat
HRE longevity
800- 1806
chinese older- several thousand years
composition and geographical location shifts dramatically through this time
How unified was the HRE/ to what extent was it a unitary?
It is defined as a Roman empire- a follow-up of the actual Roman empire. followed from a fragmented European landscape and the establishment of Charlemagne as the Carolingian king who was crowned in 800.
Stories of the bible were important to understand politics. The here is seen as a follow-up of the Roman Empire due to the book of Daniel’s prophecy that the end of time would arrive after four kingdoms and that this end would come soon. babylonian, merc, roman so here must be the fourth. Unified by secular and church power but inbuilt insecurity as based on two different authorities. Auctoritas and potestas power. emperor seen as protector of christianity
Holy in her was a way of finding legitimate conviction of its holyness
How diverse was the HRE?
- HRE point of gravity shifted across Europe depending on where the political house was
- the social groups
- hierarchies within those social groups
-all of this creates diversity
-hierarchy depends where you are in the empire the relationship between the ranks differed across the HRE - Leaders had different jurisdiction kings have different levels of dependency on the empire and vice versa. all sorts of interdependencies kings are also dependent on vessels.
-kings within this are seen as rulers who are defined as emperors within their own territories
-The king decided conformity within their area, e.g. with religious disagreements in 16c, which conflicted with the responsibility of the empire to protect Christianity. Does he protect catholicism or Protestantism, and can he keep its integrity? What is his legitimacy if he cannot?
How did HRE rule?
rule
electioral- instrument to select leaders (a very small group voted)
Emperor ruled informally. the discussion behind closed doors, informal promises, to see the emperor to talk to him and get things done, they had to be at court and be friends with people of influence there. This is unstable depending on personal relationships. it was complicated with he promises, rights, privileges made. big disagreements. conflicts lead to violence
reforms aimed to civilised the conflicts that rose from the informality. imperial court room established as a legal court to go get your differences ruled over. tax was a reason for conflict there were attempts to regulate. regulations comes alongsideincreasing religious conflict when reformation start
conflicts
religious- reformation
external
internal conflict with north of her. prussia becomes increasingly powerful and integrated in 16th and 17th century. hapsburgs become increasingly independently function. in the end as a result over the Spanish throne the here slowly starts to decintigrate. a conflict that plays out earlth 18th war of Spanish succession parts of hre doesn’t always support the hre
Explain the HRE demise
hre demise- french rev- then napoleon declares himself a new emperor elected 1804 by french senates- 18 months later in the hre a rhine confediration etableshed- 1806 hre comes to the end
Francis II becomes president july 1896 of the rhine and HRE and releases the other kings and princes from their obligations to the hre. an act of liberation by francis II who is emperor of Austria and president of rhine.
Napoleonic empire
unity: revolutionary reforms and imperial style
diversity: national kingdoms republics established swiss etc turned into kingdoms louis bonaparte. same relationship of dependencies that the HRE had he was worried and abolished them. diversity but reform
national kingdoms led to exploration, repression and resistance. people wanted to be liberated for Napoleonic rule eg dutch nation
national liberation
result: national states and multinational empires
1800 Napolinic, Prussia, and Austria empires had more self-aware populations wanting independence from or within an empire, so they had different set-up and views of empires than the HRE. they are more nationalistic, and an alternative of a nation-state arose.
colonial empires
old colonialism- global history larger scope of empires. earliest wave of colony empires is first wave of globalisation ended 1970 lost of angola. core motherland capital eg london and at the periphery from a colonial perspective. firstly trade empires- economic organisation not political- geographical big but limited to trading post so smaller scope than it first appears. So most colonial empires were private eg east indian company. intermediate between commercial and political. a distinction between her which was a mix of religious and political not economy
setterler colonies independent political entities where other people lived so conflicting relationship with locals who are removed, killed, chased away, subjected. locals mobalised against settlers disagreements can become confused as they locals and settlers mix and the settlers resist colonial power as seen in America. its in this step you see the first signs of decolonise power and see the demise of colonies. They eventually become independent not willing to pay a motherland
New imperialism differs from colonising for three reasons:
encompassing more areas
the rule becomes more direct and invasive
this means it has become more violent
for example, British control over India. Indirect rule, but then in the course of the 19th century, it gained stronger control, creating the Indian mutiny, establishing the Indian act direct rule, intermediate powers were removed, and instead of governance of east indian company, London took the whole of Indian territory. queen victoria crowned empress victoria she ahs direct rule. another example is cape colloney you see a growing conflict with Boers who established their own independent states and revoke the response from the brit leading to first and second Boer wars. in NL big support for war as they resist brits. Dutch from 18th c onwards trying to have greater grip on the java islands leading to long extended military campaign only completed in 1905 but in the process military intervention in Java are genocides where most people are slaughtered.
Conference of Berlin- different colonial powers say you can only claim the colonial area if you actually control this territory. This leads to growing competition, especially between France and Britain, for control of African territory. The french moved from west to east, brits attempted to gain north and west, and in the centre, the French were beaten. scramble for Africa leaders to imperial war
European markets saturated they believed they had to expand markets, so push to invest in new colonial territories investment needed protections, so the colonial power at this stage was the power to protect investment. political and econ power gears toward the increase in rule. this conquest involves the idea the the west is superior. ideological thoughts that the west is morally and culturally superior. part of this is formulated in racial terms but there is is biological superiority and inferiority and there is a cultural argument that they are just not as civilised and less developed so the west needs to civilised them. the white mans burden. manifest in depiction of colonies the exhibitions in end of 19th c where people in colonies are presented as their inferior culture. conflicts involved mobalisation of men to fight in these wars and accompany by the fear that nations arent fit to fight theses wars and need to be developed themselves. Jingoiism and chauvinism. schools are then reformed instead of read and writing physical exercise becomes included. increased militarised sphere in Europe. helps to define what national identity is about they are about sacrafise etc
national empire
imperial break derecolonization
four waves
patterns:
Transfer of power
Nationali liberation popular uprising
neoclonomialism transfer of power but maintenance of economic powers
world politics American vs soviet empires
imperial breakdown
-fragmentation of habsburg empire
- retreat ad reform of ottoman empire
-collapse and reconstruction of german and russian empire
shatterzones of empires- undefined areas up for grabs after decline of empires which means war and genocide Arminian genocides between and the holocaust
