Unfinished Empires

Many people from the ‘global north’ who are involved in development research or practice are rightly critical of capitalism and globalization. Most do this because we are opposed to the oppression and exploitation that is inherent in the way the capitalist economy operates. But there are many other systems of oppression – especially those related to ideas of ‘empire’, nationalist and ethnic chauvinism. These involve other systems of oppression and exploitation that are not directly related to capitalism, and need to be understood in their own right. Unfortunately, the focus on capitalism as ‘the problem’ leads to confusion around the significance of the nationalism, ethnic conflict and ‘unfinished empires’.

Ignoring or playing down the ‘unfinished empires’ allows despots and oppressors to get away with much of what they like to do, using the cloak of having been oppressed by the West. There is a related problem of a rather crude attitude to ‘race’, with the unspoken assumption that somehow Europeans had a peculiar capacity to conquer, and that other racialised behaviours (i.e. where a group that becomes dominant is able to racialize ‘The Other’ as inferior) are less significant.

Candidates for these ‘unfinished empires’ includes Russia and China of course, but also Ethiopia, Indonesia (where decolonization enabled capture by the Java elite), and Britain (especially relating to Northern Ireland and Scotland). The United States would be relevant in relation to Puerto Rico, Hawaii and other territories, but predominantly because of the ‘internal colonisation’ of its indigenous ‘Indian’, Black and Hispanic peoples. Several other African countries would be candidates where there is a dominant ethnic group that considers itself superior to others (though of course this is awkward in that they all have European-imposed boundaries).

The point of this discussion is to examine the intersections of the normal ‘anti-capitalist’ development discourses to include the many other ways that people are oppressed and exploited in ways that have very little to do with capitalism.