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A CLASSIFICATION SCHEME: FIVE PHASES

Relations between European and non-European peoples over the past five centuries were marked by certain broad patterns. Several phases may be identified during which the predominant trend was imperial expansion or contraction.

(An exception, noted below, is the period from 1914 to 1939.) These phases alternated, periods of expansion being notably lengthier than those of contraction. Cycles of expansion and contraction tended to concentrate in certain parts of the world. The initial cycle—comprising phases 1 and 2—occurred principally in the New World of the Americas. The subsequent cycle—comprising phases 3 through 5—was mainly in the Old World of Asia, Africa, the Near East, and Oceania (table 2.1).

TABLE 2.1.

IMPERIAL PHASES

Phase Duration Direction Territorial Focus
1 1415-1773 Expansion New World
2 1775-1824 Contraction New World
3 1824-1912 Expansion Old World
4 1914-39 Unstable equilibrium Old World
5 1940-80 Contraction Old World

Phase 4 was a period of equilibrium in two senses. First, metropoles experi­enced territorial gains and losses between 1914 and 1939, with limited net change in their overall position. Second, events and trends in this quarter century had contra­dictory effects. On the one hand, Europeans consolidated administrative control and extended economic and cultural influence within colonies. On the other hand, World War I and global economic depression undermined European power and authority. The cumulative effect of phase 4’5 crises was felt in phase 5, itself ushered in by another global crisis, World War II. Equilibrium in phase 4 was dynamic and unstable, a brief and only apparently stable outcome of multiple forces pressing in divergent directions.

Each phase is assigned a chapter in part 2. Given special attention are events that can be read as starting and ending points and hence set a phase apart from the others (table 2.2).

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Source: Abernethy David B.. The Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires, 1415-1980. Yale University Press,2002. — 524 p.. 2002

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