CHAPTER 3: SECOND WAVE EMPIRES
3) Do you think that these second-wave empires hold “lessons” for the present, or are contemporary
circumstances sufficiently unique as to render the distant past irrelevant?
I am a firm believer in that history repeats itself, and that we must learn from the past in order to prevent horrible things happening in the future. I believe that these "second-wave" empires hold great power to what we as humans do nowadays. What held very meaningful to me, for example, was bringing communism to China in the twentieth century. Chinese leader, Mao Zedong, compared himself to Shihuangdi, and learned from mistakes that were made. Shihuangdi was the unifier of China, but a brutal founder of the Qin Dynasty.
"Also, the Roman Empire that has provided a template for thinking about political life. Many in Great Britain celebrated their own global empire as a modern version of the Roman Empire. If the British had been “civilized” by Roman rule, then surely Africans and Asians would benefit from falling under the control of the “superior” British. Likewise, to the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, his country’s territorial expansion during the 1930s and World War II represented the creation of a new Roman Empire. Most recently, the United States’ dominant role in the world has prompted the question, are the Americans the new Romans, (201)?"
Although, in my eyes, all of these Empires seemed to more do evil than good, I believe that it still holds a strong example of what we can do as a nation to try to improve things that have happened in the past. It may seem silly to learn from mistakes that happened lifetimes ago, we can still use examples of misuse of power, instability, tension, unacceptable conditions, etc to learn from the mistakes. With the world evolving so abruptly, I find the world to be so different with technology, etc, it does seem impossible to compare the two, but I do find history to be a strong starting point to where we can find the importance and relevance to why we do them now.
I am a firm believer in that history repeats itself, and that we must learn from the past in order to prevent horrible things happening in the future. I believe that these "second-wave" empires hold great power to what we as humans do nowadays. What held very meaningful to me, for example, was bringing communism to China in the twentieth century. Chinese leader, Mao Zedong, compared himself to Shihuangdi, and learned from mistakes that were made. Shihuangdi was the unifier of China, but a brutal founder of the Qin Dynasty.
"Also, the Roman Empire that has provided a template for thinking about political life. Many in Great Britain celebrated their own global empire as a modern version of the Roman Empire. If the British had been “civilized” by Roman rule, then surely Africans and Asians would benefit from falling under the control of the “superior” British. Likewise, to the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, his country’s territorial expansion during the 1930s and World War II represented the creation of a new Roman Empire. Most recently, the United States’ dominant role in the world has prompted the question, are the Americans the new Romans, (201)?"
Although, in my eyes, all of these Empires seemed to more do evil than good, I believe that it still holds a strong example of what we can do as a nation to try to improve things that have happened in the past. It may seem silly to learn from mistakes that happened lifetimes ago, we can still use examples of misuse of power, instability, tension, unacceptable conditions, etc to learn from the mistakes. With the world evolving so abruptly, I find the world to be so different with technology, etc, it does seem impossible to compare the two, but I do find history to be a strong starting point to where we can find the importance and relevance to why we do them now.
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