Three Empires

An ancient concept to explain the modern world

Bronze head of an Akkadian ruler, discovered in Nineveh in 1931 by Hans Ollermann - This file has been extracted from another file, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=89234977

The dictionary defines an empire as a political unit made up of different territories and peoples. It is normally divided between a dominant centre and subordinate periphery areas, which have often been conquered. It is difficult to say for certain which was the first empire, but Akkadia has the best claim.

Akkad was a city between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the ancient Middle East. It has never been found. One of its residents, Sargon of Akkad (also known as Sargon the Great), established an empire by conquering Sumerian city-states some 4,300 years ago. The exact timing is disputed.

Sargon was said to be the son of a gardener and possibly a priestess. He became a cupbearer to a local king, who put him in charge of irrigation channels. Scholars think he might have persuaded the workers who dug the channels to take up arms. He became king and conquered a number of territories to turn Mesopotamia (“between the rivers”) into a single unit with a dominant centre and subordinate periphery areas.

There are only a handful of contemporary records about Sargon that have survived. Some scholars think the bronze head above might show his face, but others think that it is more likely to show his grandson.

Although Sargon left only a small dent on the archeological record, the political unit that he pioneered has endured to this day. In fact, I would argue that the best way of understanding the contemporary world is to see it as a clash between three empires.

The Russian empire is probably the most atavistic. Sargon would no doubt have recognized Vladimir Putin’s strategy and approach in Ukraine. After all, when Sargon conquered Kazulla, he turned it into a ruin so there wasn’t even a place left for birds to perch.

The Chinese empire would seem stranger to Sargon. He would struggle to understand the history of the Communist Party or its strategy of modernizing the economy through trade, but he would no doubt recognize the genocide of the Uyghur people in ancient terms.

Sargon would probably find the American empire the most alien of the three. As somone who passed his mantle onto this son, he would struggle to understand the peaceful transition of power, the open society or the eternal battle between red states and blue states. The American history of promoting the end of European empires and replacing them with something else would have seemed very strange to Sargon. He probably would have recognized George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003, while scratching his head at Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2021.

America’s ambivalent role as both a land empire and an anti-imperialist force in Europe can be difficult for hedgehogs to understand. They long for America to be one thing or another. The dynamic tension between imperialism and anti-imperialism at the heart of the American project can be confusing for people who like black-and-white narratives.

Recognizing the endurance of empires provides us with a clue to understand the news. It can also us help understand some of the failures of people who describe themselves as anti-imperialists. In reality, they are just opposed to the American empire. This often leads them to give a free pass to Putin and the Chinese, who they mistakenly see as anti-globalists.

This mistake has deep roots. Karl Marx, the prophet of communism, was predicting the imminent collapse of capitalism as far back as 1848. Of course, by the time he died in 1883, capitalism was still going strong. During the same decade, Prussian leader Otto von Bismark developed the first modern welfare state, an innovation that has allowed a market-based industrial economy to thrive for another 140 years.

Ever since, Marxists have had to deal with intense cognitive dissonance triggered by the survival of capitalism. Different theoretical models have suggested that capitalism only managed to overcome its alleged contradictions by becoming imperialist or fascist. This interpretation makes some leftists unwilling to recognize the anti-imperialist elements of modern capitalism or the imperialism of non-American empires.

Finally, the contradictions within capitalism are often over-emphasized by Marxists and neo-Marxists. A capitalist economy is a little like riding a bike. Theoreticians will tell you that it shouldn’t work, while more practical people will never worry about never being perfectly balanced as long as they are moving forwards and continually adjusting their balance. See you next week!

Further Reading

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