Traditional Imperial Systems
This process of evolution should not be understood as a unilinear or progressive “improvement” through a series of preordained stages, but in contrast as a non- deterministic series of diverse social evolutionary tracks or paths of cultural, sociopolitical, and economic development: imperial systems arise as they evolve a dynamic equilibrium with their geopolitical, ecological, and sociocultural environment in respect of the prevailing local economic, political, and social relationships around them.
In the pre-modern world, compare the Assyrian with the Roman imperial systems, for example—both good examples of conquest empires, but each evolving a very different strategic response to the existence of subordinate conquered elites, with the Roman solution proving remarkably successful over a relatively long period and with a remarkable territorial reach. Cultural assimilation, including linguistic assimilation, incorporation into the upper echelons of the power-elite, and finally political-cultural integration were key aspects of this process. Empires then thrive for longer or shorter periods, depending on their broader context, before they may fail, to be replaced by other forms as conditions change. Imperial systems which retain a degree of systemic flexibility—good examples are the long-lived Byzantine Empire and its successor the Ottoman Empire—survive longer than those which are organizationally or ideologically more brittle. And with each successive empire that arises in a particular geopolitical niche, a more effective range of solutions to the problems of imperial rule becomes available, albeit constrained by cultural perceptions.[385]As has been noted earlier in this volume, empire as a concept, as well as its embodiment in existing political systems, entails power and dominance, in which one society or segment of a society exercises power over others.
Crucially, empire entails exploitation and the extraction of resources. In another sense, however, since few pre-modern state systems can be described as national states—in which elites and subordinate groups share the same language and (perceived) ethnic identities (such as in ancient Greece, for example, or in ancient Sumeria and in the Indus Valley cultures)—many pre-modern states can be described as “empires” because they entailed the subjection by a small, cohesive dominant group of other less powerful groups (often including groups who were also different linguistically, religiously, or ethnically), and they were politically autonomous, claiming rights over the exploitation of resources. They claimed a monopoly over raising taxes or exacting tribute from their subjects, and they required service from their subjects, whether labor and skills for construction or other purposes, or military. They also—although in very diverse and widely different ways—regulated matters such as the transmission of land and wealth, thus generating or at least employing a legal system of some sort. Political leadership was usually (although not always) dominated by a single homogeneous group, with disproportionate access and control over economic and other benefits of empire. And finally, the elite justified its hegemony in terms of a coherent ideology or set of values.This relationship of dominance is achieved through a variety of means, so that at one end of the spectrum we can find empires founded and maintained through military conquest intended to maximize the extraction of resources to the advantage of the conqueror (so-called predator states), while at the other, equally effective imperial systems can evolve based almost entirely on commercial enterprise combined with a less evident form of coercive power, such as the merchant empires of Venice and Genoa. By the same token, as empires establish themselves, and where they survive over a number of generations, they can also become internalized by the cultures they originally subjugated—so that “empire” in the sense of conquest-state transforms into “state” in which the various conquered cultures, or key elements of them, including their elites, participate at the same level and as fully as the original conquerors.
This is true of many territories within the Roman Empire, for example; it applies equally to some of the lands conquered by the early Arab Islamic Empire; and there are other examples.[386] “Empire” is thus in many respects a constantly shifting concept, describing initially a straightforward process of conquest and domination, but rapidly transforming according to circumstances.The key to the maintenance and survival of any imperial system is the control of sufficient resources to keep the ruler and imperial elite in power, to safeguard territorial integrity, to promote expansion, and to resource the activities of the court, ruler, or government, however configured, in respect of diplomatic activity and conspicuous investment in ritual, ceremonial, and ideological structures necessary to the legitimation of their power and authority. These features represent the political economy of empires, the sets of relationships through which resources are obtained, collected, managed, and consumed and through which the political system—in effect, the distribution of power and authority—is maintained. A number of publications have presented a comparative and descriptive account of “empire,” and have drawn attention to many of the points I want to make here.[387] Much of what I have to say here has in consequence been the subject of prior discussion, so in this chapter I want merely to draw out some of the common structuring features of imperial political economy, features that contribute to the ways in which empires are configured, while at the same time conceding that the almost inexhaustible range of empirical versions or variations on any of these themes prohibits too crude a generalization. Yet while it is important to stress complexity, and show how these fundamental structures are given expression and operate through a wide variety of culturally determined forms, some fundamental determining features of all imperial systems can be picked out.