 |
|
What people are saying - Write a reviewEditorial Review - Cahners Business Information (c) 2000 Stanford political scientist Abernethy explains the rise, nature and collapse of European imperialism during a period of more than 500 years. How is it, he asks, that eight European nations, covering 1.4% of the earth's surface, came to control literally most of the rest of the world? Abernethy's analysis of this odd and momentous occurrence combines rich, detailed history with a keen ability to bring meaning to this history. Briefly, he finds that these European nations developed a unique set of institutionsDa strong state, expansionist economies and proselytizing religionDthat could be put to the work of imperial expansion. Together, these institutions would launch assaults not only on indigenous governing elites but also on the economies, cultures and values of the vanquished peoples. No empires before had so thoroughly penetrated the territories they conquered, writes Abernethy. Yet interstate rivalries and, ironically, the growth of Western-influenced nationalism within the colonies would finally bring the European colonial era to an end. The legacy of this era remains, however, and Abernethy spends a great deal of time delineating it as well as pondering the the important question of the morality of European colonialism. Although the text is at times rough going, and Abernethy does not avoid the penchant of social scientists to define terms in the most minute detail, attentive readers with an interest in world history and international affairs will learn much here. As globalization proceeds apace and developed and developing nations both cooperate and collide, an understanding of the origins of this modern global arena is an invaluable lesson, one Abernethy ably provides in a volume that, despite its dry title, will appeal to students of European and world history. (Jan.) Foreign Affairs - Book Review - The Dynamics of Global Dominance ...Editorial Review - foreignaffairs.orgThe Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires, 1415-1980 . David Abernethy . New Haven Yale University Press , 2001 , 544 $35.00. ... Read full review Editorial Review - Cahners Business Information (c) 2000 All 3 reviews »Stanford political scientist Abernethy explains the rise, nature and collapse of European imperialism during a period of more than 500 years. How is it, he asks, that eight European nations, covering 1.4% of the earth's surface, came to control literally most of the rest of the world? Abernethy's analysis of this odd and momentous occurrence combines rich, detailed history with a keen ability to bring meaning to this history. Briefly, he finds that these European nations developed a unique set of institutionsDa strong state, expansionist economies and proselytizing religionDthat could be put to the work of imperial expansion. Together, these institutions would launch assaults not only on indigenous governing elites but also on the economies, cultures and values of the vanquished peoples. No empires before had so thoroughly penetrated the territories they conquered, writes Abernethy. Yet interstate rivalries and, ironically, the growth of Western-influenced nationalism within the colonies would finally bring the European colonial era to an end. The legacy of this era remains, however, and Abernethy spends a great deal of time delineating it as well as pondering the the important question of the morality of European colonialism. Although the text is at times rough going, and Abernethy does not avoid the penchant of social scientists to define terms in the most minute detail, attentive readers with an interest in world history and international affairs will learn much here. As globalization proceeds apace and developed and developing nations both cooperate and collide, an understanding of the origins of this modern global arena is an invaluable lesson, one Abernethy ably provides in a volume that, despite its dry title, will appeal to students of European and world history. (Jan.) Related books
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrasesactivities administrators Algeria America Amerindians Angola Arab areas Asia Asian autonomy became Britain British capacity capital century Ceuta chaps chapter Chinese Christian claims colonial colonial rule conquest countries cultural decolonization dominance Dutch Dutch East Indies early East India economic effect elites enclaves Euro Europe's European rule expansion export factors forces foreign France French gain global goal groups Haiti impact imperial independence India Indian Ocean indigenous Indonesia industrial initiatives islands Kenya labor land leaders Malacca merchants metropole metropole's metropolitan military mission missionaries mobilization movements Muslim nationalist Nations Nigeria non-European officials Old World Ottoman overseas empires patterns pean phase plantation political population Portugal Portuguese private profit sector public sector racial region religious sector Revolution role rulers Saint Domingue sectoral institutions settlers slave social societies soldiers South Africa Spain Spanish status territory tion took trade United West Africa west European western Europe Popular passagesPage 171 - Charter, shall be: a. to further international peace and security; b. to promote the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the trust territories, and their progressive development towards self-government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned, and as may be provided by the terms of each trusteeship agreement; c. Page 339 - I have become a queer mixture of the East and West, out of place everywhere, at home nowhere. Perhaps my thoughts and approach to life are more akin to what is called Western than Eastern, but India clings to me as she does to all her children, in innumerable ways; and behind me lie, somewhere in the subconscious, racial memories of a hundred . . . generations of Brahmins. Page 412 - Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia Fiji, Finland, France Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany... Page 144 - Second, they desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned ; Third, they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them... Page 402 - But when you have once introduced machinery into the locomotion of a country which possesses iron and coals, you are unable to withhold it from its fabrication. You cannot maintain a net of railways over an immense country without introducing all those industrial processes necessary to meet the immediate and current... Page 402 - ... we must not forget that these idyllic village communities, inoffensive though they may appear, had always been the solid foundation of Oriental despotism, that they restrained the human mind within the smallest possible compass, making it the unresisting tool of superstition, enslaving it beneath traditional rules, depriving it of all grandeur and historical energies. Page 406 - Foreign conquerors have treated the natives with violence, and often with great cruelty, but none has treated them with so much scorn as we ; none have stigmatized the whole people as unworthy of trust, as incapable of honesty, and as fit to be employed only where we cannot do without them. It seems to be not only ungenerous, but impolitic, to debase the character of a people fallen under our dominion... Page 402 - England, it is true, in causing a social revolution in Hindustan, was actuated only by the vilest interests, and was stupid in her manner of enforcing them. But that is not the question. The question is, can mankind fulfil its destiny without a fundamental revolution in the social state of Asia ? If not, whatever may have been the crimes of England she was the unconscious tool of history in bringing about that revolution. Page 393 - Indian society has no history at all, at least no known history. What we call its history, is but the history of the successive intruders who founded their empires on the passive basis of that unresisting and unchanging society. References to this bookFrom other books
From Google ScholarInstitutional carriers: reviewing modes of transporting ideas over ...W Richard Scott - Industrial and Corporate Change The Legacy of Western Overseas Colonialism on Democratic SurvivalMichael Bernhard, Christopher Reenock, Timothy Nordstrom - 2004 - International Studies Quarterly Colonialism and Development: A Comparative Analysis of Spanish and ...Matthew Lange, James Mahoney, Matthias vom Hau - 2006 - American Journal of Sociology References from web pagesThe Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires 1415-1980 JSTOR: The Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires ... The Dynamics of Global Dominance -- European Overseas Empires ... Week 10 - Abernethy The Dynamics of Global Dominance: European overseas empires, 1415 ... The Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires, 1415-1980 The Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires 1415 ... The Dynamics of Global Dominance - Abernethy, David B. - Yale ... bookcelebration2000-2001.html THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO Department of Political Science ... Bibliographic information
|
