Imperial Rule

Introduction: Imperial Rule

Introduction: Imperial Rule The present volume is the product of a project on the comparative history of empires launched in 2001at the Central European University.1 The individual contributions were originally presented in 2003 at an international conference in Moscow and revised in light of commentary and discussion during and after the conference. The project was designed as a contribution to the history of state building that has recently signaled a significant shift away from nationalism to a study of empires. In part the changing emphasis may be due to theoretical exhaustion following a period of richly diverse interpretations of the formation, development and crisis of the nation state. No doubt, too, it also reflects current interest in multi-unit formations such as the European Union and the appearance of transnational organizations, corporations and NGOs, and the emergence of new forms of imperial domination exemplified by the recent expansion of military, political and economic outreach by the United States. But there is also a growing recognition among historians, some of whom are represented in this book, that nationalism studies have exhibited a tendency to fall into an implicit teleology, or at least to overemphasize the linear progression of the nation state often in alliance with the concept of modernization, another paradigmatic teleology. To be sure, there have been recent attempts to pluralize these phenomena—nationalisms and modernizations (or multiple modernities)—in order to take into account different contexts and asymmetrical chronologies. But the underlying assumptions remain unshaken. The present volume does not propose, however, a conceptual revolution , a radical paradigm shift, tempting as that may be, by claiming that nation narratives mask imperial aspirations, or more provocatively that all the major and some minor modern nation states were imperial enterprises.2 Instead these essays argue for the need to complement rather than replace the national narratives. They represent one of several attempts to restore the balance in the history of state building by giving prominence to a phenomenon that we would prefer to call imperial rule instead of the traditional terms of empire and imperialism. Imperial rule as a term has the advantage of being both broader and more flexible and embraces different examples of the unequal relationship between the imperial center and peripheral IMPERIAL RULE polities, whether by direct or indirect rule and with or without formal inclusion into an imperial structure. The selection of the papers for publication reflects a twofold comparative perspective: first, to focus on four contiguous empires—Habsburg, Hohenzollern, Ottoman and Romanov to give them, not without purpose, their dynastic names; and second to introduce into the comparative analysis on an ad hoc basis additional continental and maritime empires. Regarding the first perspective, the interaction and mutual dependence of the four neighboring continental empires suggested the importance of treating them not only as distinctive units of comparison but also as a macrosystem . The specific characteristics of their entangled histories distinguish them from the competitive relationships of other continental and overseas empires. Regarding the second perspective, comparing them with other continental empires (Iranian and Chinese) and maritime empires (Spanish, French, Portuguese and British) on specific issues like frontiers, economic growth, state and nation building can yield fresh insights into those processes. While each of the following papers retains its own analytical rationale, collectively they illuminate a set of complex interactions that constitute the theoretical armature of the book and could serve as the framework for further comparative study of imperial rule. They may be summarized as follows : interaction of ideological, national, religious, population and frontier policies among empires; interaction of imperial and national ideologies within empires; interaction of different forms of legitimacy (translatio imperii ); interaction of pragmatic and dogmatic methods of rule; interaction of core and periphery within and between empires. In the four coterminous continental empires nationality policies were bound to have a reciprocal effect whereas they would have no effect at all upon maritime rivals. If Great Britain, for example, supported the struggle of mountain tribes in the Caucasus against the Romanov Empire, the decision would not influence its policy in the Northwest border province of India. There was no possibility for Russia to stir up Algerian nationalism versus the French in retaliation for French support for Polish independence . But if the Habsburg Empire sought to encourage the Polish or Ukrainian movement in the Russian Empire, then it would be obliged to adjust its policies toward its own Poles and Ukrainians. The unification of Germany by Prussia had profound effects on Russian policy in...