Imperialism and World Politics, Part 2 of 4

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Moon’s Iᴍᴘᴇʀɪᴀʟɪsᴍ ᴀɴᴅ Wᴏʀʟᴅ Pᴏʟɪᴛɪᴄs is perhaps the best-known work of the Columbia University professor and political scientist; It was published in 1926 and did not go out-of-print until at least 1940. “What convenient volume,” he asks, exists as a “general account of the greater imperialism of our own times?” A question which was suitably answered by the publication of this sweeping survey of the field. Written in what would prove to be the gathering twilight of European imperialism, and with the inclination towards reflection that only the aftermath of a great catastrophe like the First World War can evoke, this work spans the globe and follows behind Great Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Germany, Japan and the United States as they shaped world politics to their own ends—imposing their will on states, economies and peoples. Moon writes of his work that, “It can make no claim to finality.” Indeed, this is surely not the last word on the subject. Not in the past. Not even, truly, in the present. And yet, Moon’s work does possess a greater degree of finality then he at the time, perhaps, might have credited. THIS IS PART TWO OF FOUR. In this part, Moon starts by briefly covering the Anglo-German contention over East Africa, French designs on the island of Madagascar and Italy’s foray into the Horn of Africa to establish the colony of ‘Somaliland’. His telling then reaches “a natural sequel… to events which have unfolded themselves in preceding chapters.” The jealous contest over Abyssinia and Sudan. For “nowhere did visions of empire struggle for mastery with a greater intensity of conflict or a more colourful wealth of spectacular incident.” As Moon tellingly remarks, “Imperialism is rarely active against a formidable foe.” Britain conquered an Egypt riven by civil war in 1882—just in time to be sucked into the budding jihad in Sudan waged in defence of the Arab slave trade and in rejection of khedival rule. The British response to the Mahdists went from feckless to quite feeble. Unwilling to act themselves after a string of embarrassing disasters, Britain sought simply – for a decade-and-a-half – to play Italian ambitions off against French designs. This precipitated the dramatic events of the First Italo-Abyssinian War, and French largess in training and munitions conferred upon Menelik’s forces helped to tip the scales—toward a decisive Italian defeat. Moon next profiles Cecil Rhodes and takes us into South Africa. Next into the violence and cunning which abided in Europe’s near abroad, the “smiling and temperate coastlands” of North Africa, where France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Britain squabble over pounds of Ottoman, Algerian and Moroccan flesh. Finally, this part concludes with a survey of Near Eastern ‘Questions’ and, also, an exploration of the anxiety that Russia’s creeping southward expansion exercised on the British halls of power, and its effects on India’s periphery. - Summary by Alister