Superpowers through the ages

The Roman Empire was one of the great empires in history. It extended from Europe to Asia and included hundreds of nations and tribes as its subjects. To maintain its greatness, it continuously fought bloody battles, suppressed rebellions with brutality, enslaved the vanquished people and plundered the wealth of the defeated nations. Historians still admire the generalship of Pompey, Julius Caesar and Augustus who conquered new lands and pushed the borders of the empire ahead. The books of history still depict the fascinating scenes when the victors returned from the battlefield along with war booty and slaves that were given to the kings and princesses and paraded in the city of Rome as war trophies. By watching this spectacle, people applauded their war heroes and welcomed them back enthusiastically.
The grandeur and its heritage inspired the later ruling generations of Europe who time and again made attempt to revive its political institutions and its past glory. In 9th century, Charlemagne built the Carolingian empire on the same basis. He was crowned by the Pope which transformed him as the Holy Roman Emperor. This institution continued even after losing its power and became in Voltaire’s words neither Holy nor Roman, and not Emperor. It was finally ended by Napoleon in 1812.
When Napoleon conducted a coup in 1799 against the Revolutionary Directory of France, he called himself the first council on the model of Roman Republic. His ambitions were to follow the great Roman generals and found a great empire. In the 20th century, Benito Mussolini raised the slogan to revive the Roman Empire and its greatness. Though Hitler did not make such claims but the show and pageantry of Nazi rule reflected the power and grandeur of the Romans.
When the British started the process of colonisation, its administrators and army officers studied Roman history and emulated the great Roman heroes in their efforts to colonise new territories and make their country like the great Roman Empire. The American Founding Fathers were also impressed by the Roman history and its political institutions. The coming American generations are still trying to make their country a great superpower like the Roman Empire.
The problem is that all those who made efforts to follow in the footsteps of the Romans have studied only its success and triumphs and not its downfall and disintegration. The Roman Empire became so vast that it became impossible to manage. In the later period, a new system was introduced that instead of one there were four emperors to control the rebellions of the colonised nations. It failed. Finally, it was defeated and humiliated by the Germanic tribes who conquered the city of Rome in the 5th century and ended the empire. Gibbon in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire points out the causes of its downfall. One of them was the civil wars among its generals for power which exhausted its energy and its armies no longer remained in a position to confront the rebellions. Secondly, conversion to Christianity weakened its military power because a large number of people abandoned worldly affairs and concentrated on the salvation of their souls. Pirenne, the Belgian historian, in his book Muhammad (pbuh) and Charlemagne argues that the conquest of North Africa and domination on the Mediterranean by the Arabs blocked the trade routes of the Romans which created an economic crisis leading to its fall.
Historians also point out the policy of enslavement of the defeated people as one of the reasons of its decline. As a result of this policy, the population of the slaves increased and the nobles evicted the peasants from their land and employed the slaves to cultivate it. The evicted and unemployed peasants left their homes and came to the cities for work. It produced an unemployed and disgruntled population which was ready to disestablish the system. Historians call them ‘the internal barbarians’ who caused the downfall of the Empire. The nobles, fearing the wrath of crowd, left the cities and retired to their villas in the countryside. When the Germanic tribes besieged the city of Rome, there was nobody to defend it.
One finds some similarities in the decline of other great empires. The first and foremost reason was the rise of nationalist sentiments among the subject nations. They rebelled against the imperial powers and made it difficult for them to manage them and control their power. All European imperial powers faced the same situation when the colonised nations challenged their rule and forced them to withdraw. Once they were involved in warfare, they exhausted their financial resources which affected their societies. The economic crisis from within and outside compelled them to return to their original borders.
At present, the Americans are facing the same problems. The stretch of their ‘empire’ is sucking their resources and talents. Their presence is not liked by the people who are under their political and cultural domination. As a result of this, there are resistant movements. Though, like all imperial powers, they rely on the cooperation of local collaborators, but increasingly, it is becoming difficult to trust them as they are discredited by the people.
This is a dilemma for the Americans: how to react. The problem is that the very concept of being a superpower is intoxicating. It creates arrogance which makes its rulers blind to the ground realities and blinkers their understanding. Consequently, the fall comes with humiliation.
Those imperial powers that adapted the model of the Roman Empire and observed its military glory and ignored its decline did not learn from history and committed the same mistakes and suffered ignoble defeat.

The writer is one of the pioneers of alternate history in the country.