Eric Hobsbawm The Age Of Empire

[Georgeanna Abson]

THEAGE OF EMPIRE is a book about the strange death of the nineteenth century, the world made by and for liberal middle classes in the name of universal progress and civilisation. It is about hopes realised which turned into fears: an era of unparalleled peace engendering an era of unparalleled war; revolt and revolution emerging on the outskirts of society; a time of profound identity crisis for bourgeois classes, among new and sudden mass labour movements which rejected capitalism and new middle classes which rejected liberalism. It is about world empires built and held with almost contemptuous ease by small bodies of Europeans which were to last barely a human lifetime, and a European domination of world history, which was never more confident than at the moment it was about to disappear for ever. It is about Queen Victoria, Madame Curie and the Kodak Girl, and the novel social world of cloth caps, golf clubs and brassieres, about Nietzsche, Carnegie, William Morris and Dreyfus, about politically ineffective terrorists, one of whom, to his and everyone's surprise, started a world war.

Eric Hobsbawm was a Fellow of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Before retirement he taught at Birkbeck College, University of London, and after retirement at the New School for Social Research in New York. Previous books include AGE OF EXTREMES, THE AGE OF REVOLUTION and THE AGE OF EMPIRE. He died 1st October 2012

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The ancient empires that existed in Antiquity and in the Middle Ages served the interests of each imperial state aiming at its expansion and territorial, cultural and economic dominion over the dominated peoples. In general, empires aimed to dominate and exploit the mineral and natural resources of the conquered region, collect fees and taxes from the colonial population, disseminate and implant the culture or religion of the colonizing country in colonized areas. In general, imperialisms had the same objectives as the old empires, in addition to the purpose of transforming colonies into markets for their products. The acquisition of new consumer markets is pointed out by Eric Hobsbawm [1] as the great factor that pushed the industrialized imperialist nations from the 19th century onwards to occupy new territories. According to Hobsbawm, at that time, it was believed that the overproduction of existing goods would be solved by obtaining new consumer markets. Thus, the occupation of new territories was seen as the solution to guarantee the development of their own economies. From the 19th century onwards, imperialism can also be called neocolonialism, as it was a new process of colonization of Africa, Asia and Oceania, as continuity of the colonialism previously adopted by the Spanish, Portuguese and British empires in the Americas, Africa and Asia.

Imperialism was responsible for the formation of gigantic overseas empires. The historian Eric Hobsbawm points out that during the neocolonialist cycle, about 25% of the planet's lands were occupied by some imperialist power [1]. England increased its territory by 10 million km2, France by 9 million km2, Germany by 2.5 million km2 and Belgium and Italy by around 2 million km2. The ancient empires that existed from antiquity to the 19th century and the imperialisms that existed from the 19th century to the mid-20th century totally changed the organization of the Earth's map because they destroyed the social organizations existing in the occupied territories and their populations were victims of genocide and enslaved or placed under a cruel exploitation of their work. One of the places most affected by imperialism from the 19th century onwards was the African continent as a result of the violence of the European colonial administration on the native populations, especially in the Belgian Congo, whose Belgian colonial administration was responsible for the death of 10 million people, the intense exploitation of the African population that left Africa with severe poverty and, also, the creation of artificial nations that contributed to its political instability after gaining its independence. The most negative legacy of imperialism was that of Germany which unleashed the 1st and 2nd World War which resulted in 100 million deaths, spread the Nazi-fascist murderous ideology and commanded the greatest genocide in history especially against Jews.

After the 2nd World War, the Soviet Union, which played a fundamental role in the defeat of Nazi-fascism, constituted itself as a counterpoint to the power of the United States by constituting the system of socialist countries in Eastern Europe and supporting the anti-imperialist struggles for socialism and of national liberation around the world. This confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States was called the Cold War because both indirectly fought each other. In this period of the Cold War, the imperialist countries united in the military plan to face the Soviet Union and its allies with the constitution of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) in 1949 under the leadership of the United States. In turn, the Soviet Union formed a military alliance with the socialist countries creating the Warsaw Pact. The military alliance against the Soviet Union was the first step taken by the imperialist countries towards the construction of a unified imperialism or global empire. The second step towards building a unified imperialism or global empire took place when all imperialist countries and their allies concluded that it was necessary to integrate global markets and the world economy as a strategy capable of promoting economic growth and increasing global profits of capitalism unleashing the process of contemporary globalization from the 1990s onwards. The third step towards the construction of a unified imperialism or global empire took place from 1990 onwards with the end of the Soviet Union and the socialist system of Eastern Europe, a fact that it further potentiated the process of contemporary globalization with the incorporation into capitalism of the markets of Russia and of the countries that were part of the socialist system of Eastern Europe.

From 1990 onwards, all countries on the planet, with rare exceptions, joined the process of economic globalization with the opening of markets in the countries of the world. Capital investment flows from imperialist countries circulated throughout the planet, especially in those countries where there were low labor costs and governments willing to collaborate with the advancement of the globalization process. China, for example, has become attractive to foreign investors because, in addition to having a gigantic market, it now has a complete industrial production chain, scientific and technological capacity, a highly developed logistics system and abundant low-cost human resources, being one of the countries that most benefited from contemporary globalization. Unified imperialism or global empire came into being in 1975 when it was articulated through the G7, which is the group of the most industrialized countries in the world, composed of Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom with participation , also, of the European Union. Organizations such as the IMF, World Bank, WTO (World Trade Organization) and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) work articulately with the member countries of the G7 aiming at achieving the objectives of unified imperialism or global empire. This articulation became quite clear when the unified imperialism or global empire recently decided to penalize Russia with drastic economic sanctions and its tycoons with the confiscation of their assets in Western countries due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

For the above, the unified imperialism or global empire seeks to make the rulers of the countries be obedient to its dictates. This means that countries that do not obey the dictates of unified global imperialism will suffer the same consequences faced by Russia today. This fact makes it evident that unified imperialism or global empire represents a concrete threat against the sovereignty of all countries in the world because it is a single world power, without borders, above any capitalist power that has imposed a new global order that is in force in the contemporary era. In the past, when imperialisms were national, there was competition between them for the conquest of colonies, markets and world power. Today, national imperialisms have united to form a world empire. In the past, the national liberation struggle of the dominated countries was against the imperialism (German, French, British or North American) that dominated them. At present, the national liberation struggle has become more unequal because all the imperialist countries have joined together to form the unified imperialism or global empire. Faced with this fact, there is no other alternative for countries that wish to free themselves from imperialist domination other than to fight against unified imperialism or global empire by the creation of a new international system that should work on the basis of a Planetary Social Contract (World Constitution) , a democratic world government, a parliament and a world supreme court capable of opposing the global empire. The world Government would be elected by the world Parliament whose members would be democratically elected by the people of their countries. The best jurists in the world would be chosen by the world Parliament to compose the Supreme Court for a fixed term.

The Planetary Social Contract should be drawn up by a World Constituent Assembly to be convened by the UN General Assembly with the participation of representatives elected by all the countries of the world. The Planetary Social Contract should establish the foundations of international relations to be put into practice, contemplating the existence of a world government whose president would be elected with more than 50% of the votes of the world parliament to be also constituted. To ensure democratic practice and governance on planet Earth, world power should be exercised by the world Parliament that, in addition to electing the President of the world government, should draft and approve international laws based on the Planetary Social Contract. The world Parliament should be composed of a determined and equal number of democratically elected representatives of each country for this purpose. The President of the World Government will only exercise the command of the World Government as long as he has the support of the majority of the parliament If, by majority of the parliament, there is a need to replace the President of the World Government this must be done.

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