Empire of Men

In order to understand why some countries are rich while others are “poor” (even though they’re obviously rich in natural resources), and to get a grip on global injustices, including the climate crisis, which mostly affects people and places who did not contribute to the emissions which are warming the planet – the participants at DRH Lindersvold study history. Colonialism. Imperialism. Globalisation.

This speech is called “Empire of Men” and was written by a participant in our International Development Volunteer programme.

Empire of Men

An empire is a multi-ethnic or multinational state with political and/or military dominion of populations who are culturally and ethnically distinct from the imperial (ruling) ethnic group and its culture. This is in contrast to a federation, which is an extensive state voluntarily composed of autonomous states and peoples. An empire is a large polity which rules over territories outside of its original borders. This is the theory.

Most cultures of our common past have fallen prey to armies of merciless empires. After being forgotten those same cultures were also part of some previous empires. So we could say that almost all people today descendants of an empire. 

We have many examples of Empires in History. And it has shown us that there is no justice in imperialism: The Roman Empire had thousands of slaves from everywhere. The French Empire in Africa was established and defended by Senegalese. The Spanish Empire plundered and massacre the Incan Empire. The British Museum in London gather thousands of archaeological items stolen from their colonies. The German Empire, well, we do certainly know what that story was all about.

Empires are characterized by their hunger for territorial and economic growth and flexible boundaries. 

How do we think about imperialism then?

We have all this notion that an empire is a good thing, that the empire must prevail, they build roads, and aqueducts, we have all seen movies about how big and great the emperors were. Do not be fooled. An empire is a bunch of thieves, murderers, and plunderers. 

Today, most of the world is under the influence of an Empire we are well familiar with. Back at the beginning of the creation of the US, Jefferson and Washington talked about how to create an American Empire and certainly, they succeeded.

The Empire today 

The USA is the major force power in the world. They say that they have the best schools, the strongest economy, the most influential tech companies, the best universities or I might say the most expensive ones – they do great movies and the ones that sell the most. Their army has no rival, with foreign bases in 800 different locations in 70 countries, they even went to the moon. Their exports are the biggest in number, their currency holds its value everywhere. They are the best even at rigging their democratic elections. And yes, they use their power to police us all.  

Many Americans nowadays maintain that their government has a moral imperative to bring Third World countries the benefits of democracy and human rights, even if these goods are delivered by bomb squads, missiles, and atomic weapons. Let us never forget that the only empire in the history of humankind that has killed the biggest amount of people in the less time has been the US empire under Truman, and it all happened just after the Second World War was already won. Only to send a message of superiority that we shall never forget. 

At What Cost?

Building and maintaining an empire usually requires the vicious slaughter of large populations and the brutal oppression of anyone who is left alive. The standard US imperial toolkit includes wars, enslavement, deportation, genocide, sabotage, destroying whole countries, undermining independence, using misguided intervention policies, leaving populations with no open future, and all because of Gold, Glory, and God. Any excuse valid for the sake of the Empire. 

And then we blame the puppets they use as presidents, like Bush and his successors, Reagan, Clinton, Obama, and the biggest of them all – the one that sits on the Empire throne right at this time. The sillier the president, the easier it is to control at any time. Presidents with very little executive power that only serve as the team mascot of the most powerful and biggest war machine the world has ever known.

We learned how the creation of an Empire is not a one man’s job, it is the product of corporate greed that affects not only people on foreign soil but its own people. Benefiting only powerful families and entities not because they were chosen to lead but because they never have enough.

Elites created subjugating the less privileged.