There’s nothing new about ISIS

It’s always about politics and power

The rise of ISIS with its brutal methods of expanding their hold on vast piece of land and resources remind people of other brutal conquests like Vikings of Europe and Mongols of Central Asia. The response from Europe is one of fear and nervousness. The source of this nervousness is rooted in the history of Middle East, North Africa and its struggle for dominance with Europe.

Humans have existed for millions of years but we only have a recorded history of 5,000 years. This provides us a glimpse of struggle for power between various distinct cultures. First effort for a world order was initiated by Alexander the Great (circa 325 BCE) when he embarked on a world conquest. He conquered most of North Africa, Middle East, Persia, and Punjab at the border of India. He was a reclusive man and had a keen interest in learning and recording the animals, insects and plants of the places he conquered. The Roman Empire (30 BCE to 475 CE) that emerged after him controlled all of Europe, Turkey, Syria, and North Africa.

The fall of Romans gave rise to many small states that fought each other for land, resources and power. Industrialisation extended the reach of European monarchies which colonised much of Africa, Asia, South America, Australia and New Zealand. Notable of these powers were Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, British, French, and Italian. At one point they controlled all of India and a large part of Eastern China.

In classical era, the Egyptian civilisation controlled large parts of central Africa and demanded allegiance from other monarchies in its periphery. Despite their power Romans could not extend their rule beyond North Africa and had to accommodate an understanding with Egypt for large part of their history. It was near the appearance of Christ that the Roman Empire was able to occupy Egypt. We all are familiar with the love story of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra who carried an illegitimate child of Julius Cesear before he was murdered by his senators. A feature that I want to emphasise here is that Egyptian civilisation never went beyond Africa and remained largely an African power unlike Romans who were international in their reach.

Chinese civilisation, in Asia, emerged as unified country under the Qing dynasty (221-206 BCE) when six warring states were unified through conquest. Qing was followed by Han dynasty that lasted for over 400 years. Since then that has been the trend that a dynasty will rule China for a long time before disintegrating and giving way to the next one. Average tenure of these dynasties was well over 200 years. Current dynasty in China is the Communist Party of China (CPC) which has so far ruled the country for almost 65 years. Throughout its history China has been content with itself and had no desire to colonise any area beyond its borders. It did require allegiance and acceptance of its authority over its periphery that include Laos, Vietnam, Korea, and Thailand. Despite a long shore line China never developed a strong navy as it never felt there was a sea threat to its existence and it was not interested in colonising others in far off places.

Indian civilisation was similar in its behaviour and did not extended its rule over Persia and Central Asia. Ashoka the great (304-232 BCE) was probably the only Indian emperor who made Kabul its capital after renouncing bloodshed and converting to Buddhism. It was during his time that all of India came under one ruler which has rarely been the case except for Mughals and then British colonial rule. The desire to remain focused inwards was part of the Hindu religion which prohibited travelling abroad and considered attachment to ones land as a sacred duty.

At the advent of Islam in 610 CE a new civilisation rose in the Middle East. Islam united the warring tribes of Arabs and converted them into a formidable force. Arabs were traditionally merchants using land and sea routes to carry merchandise from China, India, and Africa to different market places. Within 60 years of appearance of Islam, Arabs controlled all of Middle East, Syria, and North Africa. They continued extending their reach and occupied current day Turkey by defeating the Byzantine empire. From Morocco they crossed the Mediterranean and conquered most of modern day Spain. By the time of the Ottoman Empire (1299-1923 CE), one of the longest running dynasties spanning over 650 years, they were threatening to attach and capture Venice, Austria. Apart from Ottomans, Muslim dynasties appeared in Central Asia, Persia, South Asia, South East Asia, most of them pledging their allegiance to the Ottoman Caliph. Like Romans, empire of Islam was an international entity with colonies spread around the world.

South American civilisations, like Incas, were also limited to their own continent and never aspired to extend their reach. In contemporary times, Russian empire challenged European hegemony but remained limited to its own periphery. Its most extended influence was in the formation of the Soviet Union.

The point that I am trying to make from the above discussion is that there have been only two empires in the recorded history that had international ambitions and influence i.e., the west (Europe and USA) and Islam. That is where the anxiety lies in the rise of ISIS, which is claiming to establish a global caliphate. The presence of European fighters in the ranks of ISIS is raising fears in western capitals that the war is going to knock on their doors soon through non-state actors and suicide bombers, which is the preferred weapon of choice by outfits like ISIS. This is not about religion but politics and power. Europe has to be blamed itself for rise of this phenomenon as it first trained these religiously indoctrinated militants in Afghanistan and later in Syria. Now these militants want to extend their reach and take the war to the forces that wanted to exploit them for their own purposes.

In recorded history, Europe has twice crossed the Mediterranean to enter Middle East and North Africa; first during Roman times and then in the 18^th century to create colonies. Similarly, North Africans and Middle Easterners crossed the Mediterranean twice. First when Hannibal entered Europe from current day Morocco to attack the Roman empire and almost eliminated it. And the second time after the advent of Islam. It seems now ISIS is preparing the ground for the third conquest of Europe from Middle East. And that is what makes the Europeans nervous as they know their history well. They also know it is not a religious war although it might be used as a tool to get recruits and global sympathy from Muslims.

It seems we are entering a new era of wars and conquests. Humans have not evolved in the last 5,000 years. Greed and ambition still drives them crazy.