Recently, there was published an extraordinary article in the journal, Foreign Affairs, penned by the conservative historian Niall Ferguson of Harvard and Oxford Universities. He surveys the trends that spelled an end to half a score of great empires. His basic thesis is that great and powerful empires can fall with amazing rapidity, often in the space of a lifetime, or even less. Citing the works of historians and scholars, Ferguson notes the Roman, British, French, Ming, Qing, Ottoman and Russian Empires, among others. Many lasted centuries and exercised almost global power. How did they fall? Some fell from economic trouble, often spurred on by military adventures, as the French example.
The French gave money and troops to the fledgling Americans trying to repel their British occupiers, France’s historical enemy. Within two decades, they were virtually broke, and people were gathering in the streets against the Royal House. Within a few brief years, a revolution burned through France, and the King, Louis the 16th, would be decapitated. His point — that empires, even those which seem impregnable, can suffer from a convergence of ills; financial, military, environmental, and otherwise, and crack like an egg. That’s history’s lesson: no empire lasts forever. From death row, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
