Empires justify themselves by claiming superiority over prior empires
Evidence
In the nineteenth century, various European nations set up centers for the study of the Orient from which there emerged a huge body of Orientalist scholarship integrally tied to imperialism and colonization. In this chapter, and throughout the book generally, I focus mainly on the Middle East and North Africa, because it was these regions, due to their proximity to Europe, that largely informed the development of an elite Western vocabulary about “Islam.” After World War II, the United States took over from France and England, both literally and metaphorically. It began to exercise its hegemony in the region through the borrowed language of Orientalism, but also through the vocabulary of capitalist modernization, which was better suited to the new form of imperialism initiated by the United States. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 28 (
#exemplifies, via linked claim)
Categorization
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
- XREF: connects to: Imperial governance rests on a vital lie about empire’s noble projects — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1419; US post-war hegemony repurposed Orientalism and modernization theory to justify empire. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 28; Human rights and democracy discourse replaced older imperial justifications for war — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 403 (+4 more)
Related
- US post-war hegemony repurposed Orientalism and modernization theory to justify empire. (similarity 0.88)
- Postwar US empire was legitimated through modernization theory and Orientalism (similarity 0.85)
- European Orientalism was normalized into a coherent US scholarly consensus (similarity 0.84)
- Western scholarship constructed the East as savage to justify imperial conquest. (similarity 0.83)
- Europe achieved hegemony only through mercantile imperialism and capitalism, not inherent superiority (similarity 0.82)
- American Orientalism persists fragmentarily but ideologically coherently (similarity 0.82)
- Muslims were constructed as equals only while their empires could not be dominated (similarity 0.81)
- European hegemony resulted from economic and imperial factors, not inherent Western superiority (similarity 0.81)
- American postwar empire legitimized itself through ‘benevolent supremacy’ rather than old colonialism. (similarity 0.81)
- Oriental studies were reconceived as instruments of national policy toward postcolonial nations (similarity 0.81)
- Orientalism functioned as fuel for colonial conquest before American independence. (similarity 0.81)
- Modernization theory framed imperial intervention as benevolent external uplift (similarity 0.81)
- Western imperial particularism was disguised as universal civilization (similarity 0.81)
- US overseas bases extend an ancient imperial strategy of encircling domination (similarity 0.81)
- Every empire legitimizes itself by denying imperial motives (similarity 0.80)
Broader Connections
- Western scholarship constructed the East as savage to justify imperial conquest.
#exemplifies(0.90) - Colonial officials rationalized domination by claiming trusteeship over the colonized
#exemplifies(0.85) - US post-war hegemony repurposed Orientalism and modernization theory to justify empire.
#exemplifies(0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 28 - Human rights and democracy discourse replaced older imperial justifications for war
#responds-to(0.55) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 403