CHAPTER 2 Imperial showdown (1898–1914)

Imperial showdown (1898–1914)

Having considered the structure of the inheritance, we turn to the great

conjuncture of conception. C ertainly, we should not car ry our basic metaphor too

far, and we would not extract much enlightenment from speculating about

parentage, even though serious scholars have discussed the femininity of Russia

and the masculinity of the USA.1 In any case, in Chapter 1 we have given a

considerable amount of attention to the manner in which Europe made a

contribution to the political, economic and cultural development of both the USA

and Russia. And so, we would be better off noting simply that it was during the

period 1898–1921 that the ideological foundations of superpower, Wilsonism and

Leninism, were laid against a background of war and revolution.

The First World War and proletarian revolution

(1914–21)                                               

The well-known observation of Karl von Clausewitz that ‘War is nothing more

than the continuation of politics by other means’ gained unprecedented

justification from the events of 1914–21, the years of the First World War, the

Russian Revolution and the consequent Civil War.

Imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism?

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the world’s population amounted to

something over 1600 millions, scarcely more than a quarter of some recent

estimates for the end of the century, with the last decades seeing the steepest rise.

In 1900, more than half of humankind was to be found in Asia, a formidable

‘Yellow Peril’ for those who saw ‘Orientals’ as people apart.

The spread of liberalism

In 1913, James Bryce, author of The American Commonwealth and many other

books, set out a global liberal vision. He observed that the whole world was

governed by active minorities who originated ideas and compelled the attention

of the multitude.

Challenges to liberalism

War and revolution made a tremendous impact in cultural life as in political and

economic life. In the USA, the minimum of governmental control over individual

enterprise, which had been an important tradition, was at least temporarily

overthrown, while advertisement on a grand scale was used for governmental

propaganda.