(9) HEGEMONIC EMPIRE

 

An empire that rules more through “soft” power or influence than “hard” power or force – more velvet glove than iron fist.

Although typically a hegemonic empire is capable of both, when the chips are down, even if the essence of a hegemonic empire is to see that the chips stay up – “A hegemonic empire maintains control by making other people want to be part of it”.

But really, it’s another concept that seems as nebulous as colonial empire – in that all empires, or at least all that rule by the most blunt or brute force, have some element of hegemony or hegemonic empire. Certainly, the most successful or enduring empires do, since it is usually the key element in their success or endurance.

As I said in my introduction to my Top 10 Empires (when qualifying my evil empire rankings), almost every empire proclaims itself to be spreading civilisation or bringing some benefit to its subjects- and all but the most destructive have at least some merit in that claim. They were often the only means for any political unity above the tribal level, or indeed peace from inter-tribal warfare, although of course both were typically achieved by an imperial “tribe” or nation subjugating others, usually with great death or destruction, even if it subsequently absorbed or adopted the latter as citizens or soldiers of empire.

All those things can contribute to hegemonic empire or hegemony. Just looking at my top three empires, all of them can be as readily ranked as hegemonic empires as they can be as “evil empires”.

The Roman Empire could be absolutely brutal to those who got on the wrong side of it – and even occasionally those who got on the right side of it – but also had a mastery of hegemonic empire. It’s not for nothing that Pax Romana has echoed down the ages as a positive symbol of imperial “peace”, despite the violence that underlay it. There was also the concept of Romanitas underlying the empire – and the extent to which the empire ‘romanized’ its subjects and client states or vassals.

The Mongol Empire is famed for the death or destruction it wrought – but even it had its Pax Mongolica and hegemonic empire, with positive or even progressive aspects.

There’s a whole publishing industry, both traditional and online, devoted to the British Empire as evil empire, but it exceeds the Roman or Mongol Empires in claims to hegemonic empire. Indeed, we are still living in its hegemony, not least because it was reinforced by being succeeded by a similar Anglophonic world power – that hegemonic empire par excellence to the extent that it is debated as an empire at all, the United States.

However, it is perhaps not surprising that empires have leant more into hegemonic empire in modern history from the European maritime empires onwards. Empires have become more difficult to sustain through military force or hard power in the face of resistance, while the means of hegemonic empire have become more pervasive in scale, scope and transformative force – through modern technology, communications, economics and transportation.