Anthony Pagden and David Armitage have maintained that the influences of the ancient Roman Empire provided valuable lessons to early modern state builders. Medieval Europe was a feudal period of expansion of territory and consolidation of power. Once the powerful monarchs of Spain, England, and France had secured their supremacy, they competed amongst each other to be the undisputed Lord of All the World. Their imperial ambitions made America the proving ground in a competitive political contest. Pagden, in Lords of All the World: Ideologies of Empire in Spain, Britain and France c.1500-c.1800, argues that ancient imperial examples were directly related to the various imperial policies of the competing super powers since all deployed conquest at some point and in differing levels as the principle tool of acquiring territory and resources. Armitage, in Ideological Origins of the British Empire counters that Roman influences were more indirect since ancient methods were first employed in European state building, a process that actually created empires in Europe before transatlantic expansion. He also challenges Pagden’s traditional assumptions that maritime naval power and Protestantism were the primary cohesive elements that united the emerging British Empire into what would become “the empire on which the sun never sets.”
Anthony Pagden’s is not alone in his perspective that religion and maritime naval power were central cohesive factors in the stability of the Atlantic British Empire. Prior to his 1995 book Lords of All the World: Ideologies of Empire in Spain, Britain and France c.1500-c.1800, Linda Colley, in Britons: Forging the Nation, put forth a similar perspective. Updating Colley, Pagden compares Britain’s Atlantic...
... middle of paper ...
... peripheries and the metropolis were cooperative actors driving trade and expansion. Here it is clear that forming the British Empire could not have been classically inspired since Roman history places complete emphasis on Rome at the center of everything, the proverbial light that burns at the heart of civilization. In the British Empire, civitas was multi-cultural and multi directional where influence expanded from multiple locations. It is here that Armitage’s reintegration converges again on common agreement since modern scholarship firmly sites metropolitan policy on the eve of revolution as a major catalyst of the American Revolution. London metropolitan efforts to sway, what had been to that point, a cooperative relationship towards a traditional imperial relationship in their favor backfired against them thus terminating that version of the British Empire.
In the essay, “Boston and New York in the Eighteenth Century” by author Pauline Maier describes the duties and personalities to the American colonial cities and what made New York and Boston so exclusive and distinctive from one another by the point of the eighteenth century. Maier comes to an end of the cities that are being observed and concentrated functions of the Boston and New York were the local capitals and important to the cultural centers of newspapers and pamphlets being advertised, deliberated, and delivered. In the seventeenth century, the Boston merchants had encountered with their colony’s Puritan leaders to separate Massachusetts from the Old World contamination to verify the demands of commerce. New York and Boston have their differences not only in the people or legislation, but the feelings and character that surrounded culture. They did a request of the characteristics of how they establish and continue over the time also their effects in the American history.
Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1998. Cook, Don. The Long Fuse: How England Lost the American Colonies, 1760-1785. New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995. Cummings, William P., and Hugh Rankin.
The European monarchs and rulers of the 17th and 18th centuries wanted to increase their power both domestically and globally by adding to their territories and populations. Both in merging their power internally and expanding their power externally, they employed three features of state-building: control, extraction, and integration. In the late 1700s, both the Industrial revolution and French revolution of 1789 strengthened the idea that Europeans were different from the rest of the world. It also strengthened that Europeans were “succeeding” promptly while the rest of the world seemed to be declining, that Europeans were somehow extraordinary and better than the rest.” (Robert Marks page 10).
Wenzlhuemer, Roland J. "Empire, British." Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450 Vol. 1. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007
During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was the dominant force in Western civilization. As the Dark Ages came to a close, the monarchies of Europe began to consolidate power; providing an alternative power base. With the Protestant Reformation came another blow to the influence of the Church. Spain, the forerunner in the Age of Discovery, was a fervently Catholic country. During the 16th century, the monarchy combined the forces of "cross and crown" in its imperial policy; much to the dismay and ultimate destruction of the indigenous peoples of the New World. Through an examination of Aztec polytheism and the Catholicism of the conquistadors, comes the central role of religion in the successful conquest of New Spain.
Before the American Revolution, the trends of colonial history remained rather consistent. The European superpowers continued to expand, reaping exponential benefits from the nations in which they colonized. Thomas Bender argues that the American Revolution was not just a revolution for the people of the continental United States, but was rather the starting point of a continuous global revolution that inspired social change and governmental autonomy for the colonized people. Bender examines global trends in Central and South America, as well as Europe before America’s Declaration of Independence to demonstrate that prior to the American Revolution, the great powers of Europe ruled with minimal backlash, exploiting weaker nations for increased
From western expansion to foreign imperialism the United States has always been an expansionist country. Early America’s focus was to conquer the natives and obtain western land within North America, but in the latter of America’s history, specifically in the nineteenth and twentieth century, foreign imperialism became the new focus. America’s activity in foreign imperialism was a continuation and departure of the United States’ early expansionism. It was a continuation in terms of manifest destiny, the spread of Christianity, and by the concept of “the city on a hill” and a departure in terms of foreign involvement.
Canny, Nicholas: The Oxford History of the British Empire,vol I, TheOrigins of the Empire (New York 1998)
In the course of approximately four hundred years, Western European colonists and prominent historical figures were particularly known for exploiting and devastating distant cultures and civilizations around the world. This included groups ranging from the Aboriginals and the Aztecs in the remote “New World”, to groups in East Asia such as the Chinese and the Mughals. However, historians today debate whether or not these prevailing and prospering Western European nations were as successful at influencing the cultures of nearer empires such as the Ottoman Empire. It is questionable as to whether or not the Ottoman Empire should be compared to other cultures devastated through their interactions with the West, largely due to the Ottomans’ vast success in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and eventual internal problems. However, the Ottoman Empire’s inability to remain as successful as its adjacent Western neighbours indicates that they too, were a victim of Western dominance. As the Ottomans began its descent, much of the West continued its prevalence. Therefore, it is fair to say that the Ottoman Empire’s considerable interaction with the West led to the demise and alteration of its culture. The Western powers’ economic supremacy, exploitation of the Ottomans’ internal failures and influence on its religious state each significantly contributed.
Traditionally, historians have felt that Catholicism was hopelessly fractured at the time of James’s accession to the English throne. Whig historians felt the Elizabethan settlement had set the fate of English Catholicism and Catholicism would soon dwindle away . However, this preliminary evaluation is flawed because the role of English Catholi...
In the British missionary letters England’s foreign power is once again made apparent. The missionaries are urging the Queen to annex the South Sea Islands because if they don’t the French will. And, Lord have mercy if the French annex the islands instead of England. “The sympathy of the New Herbrides natives are all with Great Britain, hence they long for British protection, while th...
Close your eyes and sit back in your recliner. Let the cool breeze refresh you as you relax in your hardwood floored den and sip your English tea. Now picture London. What kind of an image comes to mind? Perhaps the sophisticated languages of its inhabitants or just the aura of properness that encompasses typical visions of the great city of London. I am not writing to deny the eloquence of London, I am instead writing to challenge the notion of sophistication that many of us hold true to London. Could a city of such brilliance and royalty ever fester with the day to day problems that we witness daily in our own country? I argue, yes.
Rome was a major power because it always made certain its own military prowess was preeminent. There have been many ideas presented as to the fall of the Roman Empire. Many believe that Rome declined morally and the violence and decadence of the societal norms led to the demise. Gibbons has been credited with the theory of the influence and transference of Christianity over the Roman system of Gods and Goddesses that perpetrated the fall. Another theory lays the blame at the feet of the Emperor, that the happiness of the people and the functioning of the government was directly correlated with the personal merit and management skills of the reigning authority. This 10 page paper argues that the imperialistic tendencies of Rome over time and the pre-eminence of military expansionism in the latter stages, was the deciding feature of the "fall". Bibliography lists 7 sources.
“While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand; When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall; And when Rome falls - the World.” Lord Byron. This essay will discuss the similarities of military, economics and systems of government between the Roman Empire of the 6th century BCE and the United States of America of the 20th century. History has revealed that all superpowers fall eventually, although much time has passed since the glory days of Rome we see in 2015 the largest superpower in charge, the United States. There are many similarities that can be drawn between the American superpower and the Roman Empire such as the same founding of government and both dominated in military, as well as economic similarities. This leads to the conclusion that because the rise to power between the two powers was so similar, the downfall will be equally parallel.
Prior to the British Colonies declaring their independence from the British rule, the English colonization was more or less an extension of the “European’ nation to expand markets and trade. The British Empire in America was at first a small and weak society however, the civilization of the colonist had transformed into a “large complex society.” A very distinct society had developed in the colonies, they had begun to grow apart from the British Empire. The colonist had engaged in colonial self-rule: governed themselves. However, one contributing factor t...