Imperialism

Imperialism

Fig. 1. “Map of the Roman Empire during 69AD, the Year of the Four Emperors. Coloured areas indicate provinces loyal to one of four warring generals.” Original: User:Steerpike and en:User:Andrei nacu, August 11, 2009, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Nearly all war can be understood in the context of an ongoing competition between elites over territory and the people and resources within those territories, necessary to our present system of social organization due to its continuing need for further expansion, which derives from its inherent unsustainability.^[1]

I oppose imperialism. All imperialism. I organize this by aggressor, then by victim. This list is by no means exhaustive:

• Canada and the United States (successor regimes to the United Kingdom in North America)
  • Indigenous people
    • Residential schools
• Russia (successor regime to the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics)
  • Georgia
  • Ukraine
• United States
  • Vietnam
  • Grenada
  • Panama
  • Afghanistan
  • Iraq
• China
  • Hong Kong
  • Taiwan

It can hardly escape notice that permanent members of the United Nations Security Council figure prominently among the aggressors.

Adam Taylor, “The United States and ICC have an awkward history,” Washington Post, March 16, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/03/16/icc-us-cooperation-international-criminal-court-history/

Ishaan Tharoor, “20 years later, U.S. invasion of Iraq hangs over war in Ukraine,” Washington Post, March 17, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/03/17/iraq-invasion-ukraine-history-shadow/

Ahmed Twaij, “Bush did what Putin’s doing — so why is he getting away?” al Jazeera, March 28, 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/3/28/putin-should-be-punished-so-must-bush

1. ^[1]John H. Bodley, Victims of Progress, 5th ed. (Lanham, MD: AltaMira, 2008).↩