Daily Archives: October 20, 2026

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of Empire & Imperialism (Special Mention) (14) Neo-Imperialism

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Book by Kwame Nkrumah, who coined the concept of neo-colonialism (with cover art from his iconic portrait photograph) (fair use)

 

 

 

(14) NEO-IMPERIALISM

 

In contemporary history or politics, imperialism is usually asserted to be neo-imperialism – informal rather than formal empire.

That is, former imperial powers (usually Western) are asserted to have maintained their imperialism beyond the end of their formal empires by simply substituting neo-colonialism or neo-imperialism, which leverages other forms of power or influence, typically economic power, rather than military force, into an informal empire, or means of control other than formal annexation or rule – and newer imperial powers just tend to start that way, skipping formal empire altogether.

Of course, neo-imperialism may still involve military force when it needs to, but generally neo-imperialism by definition proposes more subtle or indirect means of coercion or influence.

And of course, neo-imperialism can be a nebulous and vague concept, as virtually anything can be said to be neo-imperialism – or taken to extremes, where nations (and corporations) can’t do anything right, even between polar opposite policies or courses of action.

Damned (as neo-imperialist) if they do and damned (also at neo-imperialist) if they don’t, as it were.

 

 

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Empires (Special Mention: Revisited) (14) Teutonic Knights

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Map of the Teutonic Order around 1300 by Marco Zanoli for Wikipedia “Military order (religious society)” licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

 

(14) TEUTONIC KNIGHTS 

 

It’s time to splash out with some wilder entries, as I usually do in my special mentions – although this entry is not as wild as you might think.

Yes – it’s pretty wild to think of a religious order, even one founded as a military society during the Crusades, as an empire. The Teutonic Knights or Teutonic Order was founded as the Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem.

But perhaps not that wild – after all, the Crusaders and their states or military orders served as precursors of European imperialism, as for example with the Reconquista leading directly into the Spanish Conquest of the Americas.

And the Teutonic Knights were arguably the most imperial of military orders, even carving out their own state – the State of the Teutonic Order – in the Baltic during the Northern Crusades. Although let’s not get too much in the past tense as the Teutonic Order still exists, albeit purely religious since 1810 after the military order was disbanded by Napoleon.

Also, I’m on a roll with German imperialism – I’ve managed to include all three German empires (from First to Third Reich) in my special mentions, so this is a bonus round for the imperialism of this definitively German military order, reflected in its very name. That’s pretty much it for German imperialism, except for a few weird African or American colonial ventures by German states prior to modern Germany (Brandenburg-Prussia, Augsburg, and so on).

Anyway, “after Christian forces were defeated in the Middle East”, the Order moved to Transylvania, where it got the taste for blood as an empire (heh) – attempting to build their own state before the Pope and the King of Hungary intervened to boot them out.

If at first you don’t succeed – try, try again. Which the Order did in Prussia as well as the present-day Baltic states, creating the aforementioned State of the Teutonic Order during the Northern Crusades (merging with the Livonian Brothers of the Sword)

From there, the Teutonic Knights “initiated numerous campaigns against its Christian neighbours, the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Novgorod Republic…and they also became a naval power in the Baltic Sea” but waned in power after being decisively defeated by a Polish-Lithuanian army at the Battle of Grunwald.

 

 

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Mythology Horror (7) Odyssey

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Arguably the most horrific scene of the 2026 Nolan film from the promotional trailer, evoking Goya’s painting Saturn Devouring HIs Son (fair use)

 

 

 

(7) ODYSSEY

 

Let’s face it – the Odyssey is essentially monstrous survival horror.

And divine survival horror – or slasher horror, with Poseidon as the slasher and Odysseus as the final girl.

As some observed upon watching Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey film, some of its scenes – particularly the Cyclops and Circe, although I think that overlooks the underworld – evoked horror, prompting speculation of Nolan’s untapped potential as a director of horror.

Certainly, however, the original epic evokes much of the same horror as elsewhere in classical mythology, not to mention that it is the literal epic template for horror fiction, as it is for all Western literature.

It prompts to mind the interpretation of Robert Graves that the Odyssey is one underworld scene after another, including the actual descent into the underworld. For that matter, that descent into the underworld – or katabasis – is reminiscent enough of horror, what with setting out the blood for the dead to feed and all. Who are these coming to the sacrifice, indeed…?