Nature of The Beast: Hegemonic America And Its Historical Parallels

Bill Quick’s recent post on the Bush Doctrine’s strike first policy, along with an article from Reason and an op-ed in the UK Guardian have got me going on a topic I think a lot about: The nature of America’s current dominance in world affairs. Bill’s right in stating that we are not Rome, but I’ve always found Roman history is a rich metaphor for America’s progression through history. I read way too much Yeats as a teenager, so I guess I’m a cyclicalist at heart.

However, when comparing the Pax Romana with the coming (or even current) American Hegemony, many people are all too eager to see the decadence and tyranny of the later empire, while ignoring many of the more benign aspects of the Republican-era. According to Roman tradition, the Roman Republic was founded in 509 BC*, and lasted until the mid 1st century BC, when the Republic collapsed due to corruption and dictatorial power grabs, becoming the Empire. That’s nearly five centuries of world-shaping history.

Rome had already reached Hyperpower status by the end of the Second Punic War in 202 BC. Carthage, which had long rivaled and often excelled Rome in power over the Mediterranean, had been defanged and contained. The civilized and rich Greek kingdoms were a potential competitor, but divisions among the Hellenistic city states allowed the Romans to form alliances that would eventually tie the Greeks to the Roman state for more than a thousand years.

For the next several centuries, the main threats to the Roman State did not come from the armies of large rival kingdoms. They came instead from internal strife (civil wars, slave rebellions, etc), and from the incursions of barbarians and small petty kingdoms more interested in looting Roman Territory than conquering it. These were one and all beaten back by the overwhelming power of the Roman Citizen-Armies, who used superior weapons, tactics, and, most importantly, training to vanquish their opponents. And the growing network of quality roads gave the Romans an amazing “Power Projection” capability.

The expansion of Roman power during this era was not simply military, though. Rome had come to dominate the economy of the Mediterranean. While conquests of Barbarian territory were occurring, Roman forces were as likely as not to be in an area at the request of local populations. Sometimes this troop placement was a part of a cunning Roman strategy of subtle conquest, but their primary focus was on defending the frontier and maintaining the trade routes.

The Romans were big into assimilation. Part of their success was their ability to take the influx of disparate peoples and unify them under the Roman system. Rome’s pantheon was full of the gods of the conquered. Rome’s culture was also infectious. There’s a reason why French is a Romance language and not some kind of Gaelic offshoot. When the Romans arrived, people stopped speaking the old languages in favor of Latin. You can’t force that kind of change on an area as large as that occupied by the Romans. The Balkans were occupied for centuries by the Turks, but Greek, Serbian, and all the other small languages of the regions have survived.

There was much about Republican Rome that modern American’s would find distasteful at the least. There was slavery, violent political scheming, an aristocratic class and political system, and a criminal system that was brutal and biased against the lower classes. Oh, and the state would occasionally conquer and enslave smaller kingdoms just for the hell of it.

But there was also much to be admired about the ancient Romans, especially when comparing them to the tyrannical democracies of the Greeks, and the petty despots which ruled the rest of the world back then. While autocratic, the various internal revolts and rebellions had given the masses a voice in the form of the Tribunes. Citizens had certain rights that were codified in written laws that were consulted by government employed magistrates. Plus there was upward mobility, both socially and economically. The children of slaves could become citizens, and through hard work, luck, and patronage, become a part of the ruling order.

While my Northern European ancestors were still putzing around in their late bronze-age tribal filth, the Romans were running the world’s first modern nation-state, with an educational system, laws, taxes, government bureaucracy, tens of millions in population, and all that good stuff. In relation to the rest of the world, they were a beacon of enlightened thought. Roman civilization remained unmatched in almost all respects until the 17th century.

Comparisons with Rome at the end of the Second Punic War and America in the post-Cold War era are easy to point out. Of course, direct historical comparisons won’t work, but the larger power relationship between the nation and its place within its world have a great many similarities. We are not Rome, but we are in the same strategic position Rome was in the 2nd century BC.

While our economic and military power is overwhelming at this point, the rest of the world could join together and probably defeat us, (or at least end up annihilating both sides). Like the ancient Greeks, the Europeans are comparable to us in terms of our cultural and economic capabilities, but are militarily weak and introverted. It’s far easier and more profitable for them to seek the shelter of our protection and gain access to our markets for trade, rather than seek conflict. And like the Rome-Greece relationship, America still seems to have some kind of cultural inferiority complex in relation with Europe.

Like the Romans of that era, our threats in the foreseeable future come from smaller actors intent not on conquering us, but on hurting us and weakening our power. The attacks on New York and Washington were the modern day equivalent of a barbarian raid. And, like the Romans, we will respond by using our military power to destroy them and conquer those who support them.

If we do not respond in this manner, we risk the fate of the Romans of hundreds of years later, when a collapsing power structure and ineffectual, half-barbarian leaders allowed the frontiers of their empire to be pushed back until ruins (and a universal church) were all that was left.

We do not need to directly govern the world, as our power shadows every government on earth, and every year our culture attracts more young people around the world to our way of life. Nor do we want to crush the rest of the world. In fact, quite the opposite. Contrary to what hard leftists and anti-Globalists would have you believe, most Americans want everyone to live in a society as free and prosperous as our own. And the world is gradually becoming American, not because we are forcing it, but because the rest of the world is lining up for lunch at McDonalds, consumer electronics, and Britney Spears videos, which we’re more than happy to provide.

Like the pre-imperial Romans, our ability to absorb and assimilate new cultures, while retaining a small set of core values, has been, and will continue to be, one of our greatest tools. We will defeat our enemies, and afterwards our influence over the rest of the world will be truly unprecedented. And don’t let talk of “Amerika” or Buchananinte rhetoric fool you, we are still a republic, and not an empire.

How long will the Hyperpower Republic last? Who knows? As a pessimist, I think collectivist forces and the eating away of traditional constitutional values will slowly lead to a more and more dictatorial political system, much as happened in Rome. But if that happens we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Global hegemony is unavoidable at this point, lest we wish to surrender our civilization, and all of its accomplishments, to those who would destroy it. However, empire is an entirely different beast from hegemony, and the choice between the two is in our hands. We must use force against those who threaten us, while helping those who seek our friendship to build vibrant and prosperous societies.

The vast swath of underdeveloped nations today should not look at American power as an oppressive threat, but as a beacon of guidance and hope. We are at a crossroads in history, and our dominance can easily lead to new golden age, or to chaos and disaster on a global scale. These next few years will determine the course of centuries worth of future history. Such is the challenge of the Hegemon.

*Micro-Rant On Dating: Use of the politically correct Before Common Era (BCE) instead of the traditional Before Christ (BC) is retarded. Even if you don’t mention that Christ fellow, you’re still using the dating system based on his mythological year of birth. Calling it something else doesn’t change its religious origins. It’s 5762 according to the Jews, and 1423 according to the Muslims (and I guess it would be the 2,755th year of the city according to the old Romans I’m writing about), but it’s 2002 according to the secular majority here in America. The Common Era, due to thousands of years of western intellectual tradition, is based on the Gregorian (Christian) Calendar. Deal.

 

Posted by Captain Mojo at September 22, 2002 05:40 AM | TrackBack