Perversions of Power

Author(s):  
Thomas Waldman

This chapter examines the peculiar trait of an empire and the implications of imperial dominion. The chapter presents broad insights from the Roman Empire and the 19th-century European empires (mainly the largest of these, the British Empire) to shed light on the pressures and possibilities that foreign dominion brings. It also analyzes how states produced a distinct mix of strategic requirements, motivating incentives, emerging opportunities and changing social and cultural patterns, which serve to promote the adoption of vicarious approaches. However, imperial factors are only conditioning rather than determinative in this respect. Deep normative factors such as military and strategic culture may largely preclude a drift toward vicariousness. Ultimately, the chapter argues that these explorations are suggestive, if not determinative, in pointing to issues associated with the contemporary US experience. It provides whispers of warnings about the dangers that might threaten states that follow too closely in similar footsteps.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Rummel

The previously ignored model of Greek colonisation attracted numerous actors from the 19th century British empire: historians, politicians, administrators, military personnel, journalists or anonymous commentators used the ancient paradigm to advocate a global federation exclusively encompassing Great Britain and the settler colonies in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Unlike other historical templates, Greek colonisation could be viewed as innovative and unspent: innovative because of the possibility of combining empire and liberty and unspent due to its very novelty, which did not contain the ‘imperial vice’ the other models had so often shown and which had always led to their political and cultural decline.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-16
Author(s):  
Kawanishi Takao

Abstract John Wesley (1703-91)is known as the founder of Methodism in his time of Oxford University’s Scholar. However, about his Methodical religious theory, he got more spiritual and important influence from other continents not only Oxford in Great Britain but also Europe and America. Through Wesley’s experience and awakening in those continents, Methodism became the new religion with Revival by the spiritual power of “Holy Grail”. By this research using Multidisciplinary approach about the study of Legend of Holy Grail’s Knight, - from King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table in the Medieval Period, and in 18th century Wesley, who went to America in the way on ship where he met the Moravian Church group also called Herrnhut having root of Pietisms, got important impression in his life. After this awakening, he went to meet Herrnhut supervisor Zinzendorf (1700-60) in Germany who had root of a noble house in the Holy Roman Empire, - and to Legend of Holy Grail’s Knight Opera “Parsifal” by Richard Wagner at Bayreuth near Herrnhut’s land in the 19th century, Wesley’s Methodism is able to reach new states with the legend, such as the historical meaning of Christianity not only Protestantism but also Catholicism. I wish to point out Wesley’s Methodism has very close to Legend of Holy Grail’s Knight. In addition, after the circulation in America, in the late 19th century Methodism spread toward Africa, and Asian Continents. Especially in Japan, by Methodist Episcopal Church South, Methodism landed in the Kansai-area such international port city Kobe. Methodist missionary Walter Russel Lambuth (1854-1921) who entered into Japan founded English schools to do his missionary works. Afterward, one of them became Kwansei-Gakuin University in Kobe. Moreover, Lambuth such as Parsifal with Wesley’s theories went around the world to spread Methodism with the Spirit’s the Legend of Holy Grail’s Knight as World Citizen.


Author(s):  
Francesc Morales

Abstract: The palates of the nationalist authors of the 19th century found the common past exemplified by the Roman Empire to be too homogeneous a taste. Although this premise may be valid for all European nationalist movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the discussion here is limited to Spain’s problematic national construction during the 19th century and the group formed by Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Spain and ‘Benelux’ were chosen because they represent complex problems in the construction of a key dynamic of European nationalism: a political contemporary diversity linked to pre-Roman and post-Roman pasts. Despite these political and historical connections, the paths taken by these nationalisms are significantly different.Key words: Rome, Netherlands, Spain, nationalism, EuropeResumen: Un pasado común ejemplificado por el Imperio Romano pasa por ser demasiado homogéneo para el gusto de los autores nacionalistas en el siglo XIX. Esta premisa puede ser válida para todos los movimientos nacionalistas europeos, pero voy a limitarme a la problemática de la construcción nacional en España durante el siglo XIX y al grupo formado por Bélgica, los Países Bajos y Luxemburgo. Ambas regiones representan similares complejidades en la construcción de un nacionalismo europeo: una diversidad política contemporánea enlazada con un pasado prerromano y post-romano. A pesar de tener conexiones políticas e históricas, el camino de estos dos nacionalismos es significativamente diferente.Palabras clave: Roma, Países Bajos, España, nacionalismo, Europa  


2019 ◽  
pp. 296-317
Author(s):  
Kostas Kardamis

The Ionian Islands were at an early stage cut off from the Eastern Roman Empire, experienced the changes that came with the Renaissance, actively participated in the Enlightenment and were in contact with the multifarious ideologies of the 19th century. These factors transformed their art music, which followed the ‘western’ trends. In this context, ‘orientalism’ appeared as an additional creative element in certain indigenous composers’ works. Its use ranged from the stereotypical ‘western’ approach regarding the Orient to the employment of ‘oriental’ elements as media of political (especially during the struggles for the Islands’ annexation to the Greek Kingdom), national (as a conventional ‘Greek characteristic’) and social statements, and as a way for the works’ entrepreneurial promotion to a larger audience. The chapter discusses these changing—and often concurrent and diverging—attitudes through case studies; it stresses that ‘orientalism’ never became a compositional fixation for Ionian Islands composers.


Author(s):  
Christa Dierksheide

During the course of the 19th century, the United States forged an empire on a continental scale and also made significant territorial gains overseas. While it had taken the British Empire a little over two centuries to settle the swath of land stretching between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, the fledgling postcolonial American nation managed to colonize a land mass several times larger in a fraction of the time. But all this expansion came at an enormous human cost, resulting in the death or removal of countless native peoples, the enslavement of millions of African Americans, and sectional tensions that led to the American Civil War. During the latter part of the century, Americans began pursuing an imperial project beyond the continent, waging war or initiating annexation projects in Santo Domingo, Cuba, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. The sources collected here reflect the dynamism, contingency, and tragedy of American colonization efforts between 1776 and 1900.


Author(s):  
Paweł Więckowski

The text describes different philosophical concepts and historically important cultural phenomena that should be considered while rethinking ethical side of business. Broad range of both philosophical (such as the search for the foundations of morality, social contract) and social subjects (such as history of centralized state, individualism) is presented to help the reflections. The background for analysis is the history of culture, especially of primary collective society; contrasted with it is individualism of classical Athens with corresponding reaction of philosophers; development of state and Christianity in Roman Empire; organismic medieval state; Renaissance, reformation and the birth of capitalism; the Enlightenment breakthrough and English capitalism; liberalism and Darwinism of the 19th century; the catastrophe of European culture and success of America of the 20th century.


Istoriya ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6 (104)) ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Elena Kotova

For centuries, the House of Austria (the Habsburgs) maintained its leadership in the Holy Roman Empire, and later in the German Union. But in the middle of the 19th century the situation changed, Austria lost its position in Germany, lost to Prussia in the struggle for hegemony. The article examines what factors influenced such an outcome of the German question, what policy Austria pursued in the 50—60s of the 19th century, what tasks it set for itself. The paper traces the relationship between the domestic and foreign policy of Austria. Economic weakness and political instability prevented the monarchy from pursuing a successful foreign policy. The multinational empire could not resist the challenge of nationalism and prevent the unification of Italy and Germany. Difficult relations with France and Russia, inconsistent policy towards the Middle German states largely determined this outcome. The personal factor was also important. None of the Austrian statesmen could resist such an outstanding politician as Bismarck.


2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-185
Author(s):  
PIM DEN BOER

Homer is considered the father of poetry in European culture, but the written Greek text of the Iliad and the Odyssey was for ages not available in modern Europe, and knowledge of Greek was almost completely lost. Homer entered European classrooms during the 19th century. The popularity of the Iliad and the Odyssey coincided with the creation of modern educational systems in European empires and nation-states. At the end of the 19th century Homer was considered perfect reading material for the formation of the future elite of the British Empire. In the course of the 20th century teachers and pedagogues became increasingly accustomed to perceive Homer and his society as totally different from our times. All reading of Homer is contemporary reading.


2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian F. Hancock

We (wey, whey, way) as relativizer occurs in the English-lexifier creoles on both sides of the Atlantic, and has been assumed to originate in English what (e.g. by Cassidy and Le Page 1967: 459). Instances of this word as a relativizer in English, however, date only from the beginning of the 19th century — too late by over a century to have provided the widespread creole form. This essay examines alternative possibilities for its origin, and concludes that it must be sought in Scottish and/or northern English who. Determining its ultimate origin may shed light upon the age and development of these particular languages.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 187-198
Author(s):  
Annemarie Sorescu-Marinković

By bringing to the readers’ attention an unpublished Ottoman era document in Romanian, issued in 1861 in Rabrovo, a village in the Vidin region, back then under Ottoman rule, the article tries to shed light on the wider historical and sociolinguistic context of the Romanian-speaking population south of the Danube in the 19th century. The document is a donation-adoption act by which a Romanian man gives one of his sons for adoption to his brother, who does not have heirs. The document is handwritten in Romanian, using Cyrillic script, signed by the chorbaji, mayor and eight witnesses, and stamped by the Turkish administrator. Though very short, it reveals several important facts about the Romanian-speaking population in Ottoman Bulgaria and its origin, the language used in communication and writing, family relations, etc. Coming from a family archive, this document of great emotional value for its owner, has also undisputable linguistic and historical significance.


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