Good Essay On European Hegemony

Hegemony is a form of government that is indirect and is of imperial dominance in which the leader-state also known as the hegemon rules in a geopolitical fashion subordinate states by the implied means of power, which are the threats of force, instead of direct military force. In other words, it denoted a city-states politico-military dominance over other city states. In this case, the leader-state is the one that dictates the societal and the internal politics of the states that subordinate it and that constitute the sphere of dominance of the hegemony. This is done by either an internal government that is sponsored, or by an installed government that is external. Under the hegemonic system, rebellion; social, economic, armed or political is countered by suppression using the military or the police and the hegemony is not directly seen to intervene directly.
There are many factors by which the hegemony can be established. One of this factors is a cultural factor in which a hegemony can be established by the means of a language, the specifically imposed lingua franca of the leader state which is then made he official source of information for people belonging to the societies of the subordinate states. Thus, when selecting the kind of information that is supposed to be passed to the people in the subordinate states, the language of the hegemon limits the amount of information that is passed. This is the kind of communication used by the media and the churches today where the message conveyed by these bodies is determined by the vocabulary in which the information is presented. Thus, how these messages are presented determines whether the value of that information is true or false, reliable or unreliable for the recipient be it a reader, a viewer or a listener. This is how language became very important in the establishment and functioning of hegemony referred to as cultural which greatly influences how people think of the status quo in the society.
Also, geographic areas were crucial to the development of the hegemony. For instance, there was development of hydraulic despotism in the river valleys of Egypt, china and Mesopotamia because they were fertile. Also, in china, when the states were at war with each other, the Qin state resorted to creation of the Chengkou Canal which gave it political advantage over its rival states.
The greatest impact of the European hegemony was the spirit of exploration that it brought among many Europeans which led to the discovery of many areas that the Europeans were never aware of. In search for new areas of trade and nations to bring under their rule, many nations including Portugal and Spain undertook serious sea navigation and came to Africa, and also went forward to India. This discovery of Africa indeed led to a serious disagreement between Portugal and Spain which made them apply to the pope to decide their case which later led to an agreement in which the two nations divided the globe in two among themselves. The harsh effects of this European hegemony are the subsequent colonization of Africa in which the nations battled it out to see who takes the largest share of the continent. They went ahead to participate in one of the most inhuman trades; slave trade. Many families lost their relatives through this trade, many being shipped to America to work in farms while others were being shipped to Europe to work in industries all in the name of increasing the powers of a specific nation. Also, the families that were left behind in Africa were forced to migrate as far away from the traders paths as they could in the hope of evading the imminent danger. This greatly affected their economic activities since they spent much of their time and energy migrating. Also, these European nations prevented by all means the possible development of stable African states because they feared acts of rebellion (just like the ancient hegemony empires feared) and this meant that the people had no say in what happened in their nation even when they were greatly mistreated. The effects of this white governance in Africa are still evident given the low level of development, the high rates of poverty and the generally all high rate of illiteracy.
The reasons why it failed are that those who attempted to establish hegemony used methods that cannot support their wishes. Presently, under the leadership of George bush, the Americans hoped for establishment of an empire. It is generally easy to see the vigor with which America has taken to attacking and silencing nations that attempt to challenge its position as super power. But the question is, will military power alone keep the nations submissive to the apparent leader state. It will be good to remember that in the ancient world, the governing of the subordinate states was indirect. These electronic weapons alone cannot allow the control of other states against the wishes of their people. The older empires depended on acquiescence of the people in the states which were ruled, one thin that the use of electronic war equipment cannot guarantee and hence the hegemony died in the 20th century. The fact that electronic weaponry cannot hold an empire together is one thing that the Britons had grasped in the early fifties and gave up their colonies and left willingly because they knew any attempt of controlling them would be futile.