Monday, November 23, 2015

Western Civilization: The Nation-State Part Three; Exporting the Westphalian Model

The European powers, back in 1648, decided that they needed to tweak the system. Little did they know that in about two and a half centuries there would be monarchs in name only and the Westphalian system would sweep all the ruling monarchs out of power. Over the intervening centuries the European nations, who had begun colonizing less developed parts of the world, also brought with them the Westphalian system. In most cases, the colonies were considered property of the state, not the property of the monarch. In some instances nations attempted to claim whole continents simply by proclaiming it to be so. A notable example is how Spain and Portugal split the New World between them with the Pope's blessing. Colonialism was not only conducted by the European powers - the Ottoman Empire and the Chinese Empire could be construed as colonizing adjacent territories, but we are mainly focusing on Western civilization.

Starting well before the Peace of Westphalia, the European powers began colonizing portions of North & South America, Africa and parts of Asia. They imposed borders without any regard for pre-existing tribal, religious or "national" affinities, based entirely on their own economic and political needs, and of course what they could reasonably control. Colonial empires weren't fully dismembered until the middle of the twentieth century, after World War II, although the process had started way back in the late 1700's with the United States, but the borders that they drew became enshrined for the most part in international law, causing many, many problems down the road. While the borders that were drawn in the wake of the Peace of Westphalia followed "nations", i.e. ethnic/cultural/language groups in the main (there were exceptions of course - a few multi-national empires still existed: the Russian Empire [which became the USSR in the early 1900's], the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire) the borders in former colonial lands cut across natural divisions. Sometimes nationhood was conferred upon the territory of a favored local monarch or warlord (Kuwait was separated from the rest of Iraq), sometimes dissimilar ethnic groups were thrown together (all over Africa)and other times they were separated by new borders (the Kurds in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran). Some families got to supply rulers to several former colonies (the Hashemite family in Jordon, Iraq and Syria even though they originated in the Arabian Peninsula - which was awarded to the Al-Saud family).

To use the Middle East as an example of what is applicable elsewhere, after the Europeans left their former colonies, in general kings, dictators or military juntas took over. After the United States and its allies deposed Iraq's Saddam Hussein it was evident how fabricated the borders were. The Kurds set up an autonomous zone in the north, threatening the status quo in neighboring Turkey. The Sunnis and Shi'ites, freed from Saddam, remembered just how much they disliked each other, followed by the horror of the so-called Islamic State, which controlled territory spanning the Iraq-Syria border. Countries like Somalia have devolved into chaos with no functioning government.

In summary: what a mess!

Next: is this system the best way to organize nations, maintain international relations and if not, what is the alternative/

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