The Cycle of Conflict & Empire

By Richard L. Dixon

Since the dawn of time, conflict has been the bedrock foundation in the rise and fall of

civilization and empires. Probably the most celebrated historical narrative of world-system

analysis is that of Thucydides account of The Peloponnesian War. ” Indeed this was the greatest

movement yet known in history, not only of the Hellenes, but of a large part of the barbarian

world—I had almost said of mankind. For though the events of remote antiquity, and even those

that more immediately preceded the war, could not from lapse of time be clearly ascertained, yet

the evidences which an inquiry carried as far back as was practicable leads me to trust, all point

to the conclusion that there was nothing on a great scale, either in war or in other matters.”

(Thucydides).

In examining Immanuel Wallenstein’s world-analysis construct one must take into account the

clash of civilizations that occurs with the cycles of civilization within the context of the core

area, periphery, and The Semi-Periphery. In the core Dr. Wallerstein assesses that the roots of

capitalism had its true beginnings in England, Holland, & France. “The core regions benefited

the most from the capitalist world economy. For the period under discussion, much of

northwestern Europe (England, France, and Holland) developed as the first core region.

Politically, the states within this part of Europe developed strong central governments, extensive

bureaucracies, and large mercenary armies. This permitted the local bourgeoisie to obtain control

over international commerce and extract capital surpluses from this trade for their own benefit.”

(Modern History Sourcebook).

However, if one is to dig deeper you find that the true core of a capitalist world economy during

that time period were the merchants of the seafaring city state of Venice. The Venetians not the

English or Dutch were the main catalyst for the formation of a capitalistic world economy. The

Venetians become a power because they controlled the seas. At that time sea power was the tool

for empire. Venice as small as it was, utilized the sea for trading, annexation of other territories,

and the expansion of its military power through the use of mercenaries. “In the fifteenth century

Venice was at the height of its glory. Its wealth was enormous, and it had an empire extending in

an unbroken coastline from the islands in the lagoons to Constantinople. Its gold coin, the ducat,

minted since 1284, was valued everywhere for its sound, reliable worth. It was the greatest

trading center in Europe. With a population of about one hundred thousand, it was one of the

largest European cities. The stability and efficiency of its government were the envy of other

states. The trading aristocracy looked after the commercial interests of the city with patriotic

devotion, though not without a strong spirit of suspicion and distrust among themselves. The

masses, though excluded from political life, shared in the general prosperity and were for the

most part content with their lot.” (William Gilbert, 1998).

The Venetians were indeed great merchants, and as such, set the first known institutions for

banking. Capital was a necessary requirement for expansion and empire building. Yet the

Venetians at the height of their power actually caused the financial crisis known to world

civilization at that time and impoverished millions and was a contributing cause of the Black

Death (bubonic plague) which swept across Central Europe and killed millions. “The crash,

which peaked in 1345 A.D. when the world's biggest banks went under, ``led'' by the Bardi and

Peruzzi companies of Florence, Italy, was more than a bank crash -- it was a financial

disintegration…that one of the 1340s was the result of 30-40 years of disastrous financial
practices, by which the banks built up huge fictitious ``financial bubbles,'' parasitizing

production and real trade in goods. These speculative cancers destroyed the real wealth they were

monopolizing, and caused these banks to be effectively bankrupt long before they finally went

under.” (Paul Gallagher, September 4, 1995). It is quite evident that the decline of Europe that

precipitated with the banking financial caused by the Venetians is similar what is happening

around the globe today with the global economic meltdown.

Hence Wallenstein was correct about civilization going through The Periphery stage. “On the

other end of the scale lay the peripheral zones. These areas lacked strong central governments or

were controlled by other states, exported raw materials to the core, and relied on coercive labor

practices. The core expropriated much of the capital surplus generated by the periphery through

unequal trade relations.” (Modern History Sourcebook). At the time, the Italian City States were

involved in all forms of economic enterprises like banking, slavery, financing the crusades, and

providing arms and weapons to the highest bidder. There was no centralized form of a Modern

Nation state that exists today.

“From the 1320s onwards there was a massive flight of silver to Venice's maritime empire in the

Middle East and Byzantium, which upset the equilibrium of Europe in the mid-fourteenth

century. Venetian exports of silver from Europe from 1325 to 1350 equalled perhaps 25% of all

the silver mined in Europe at that time. Standard silver coin had been the stable currency of the

Holy Roman Empire in Europe, since Charlemagne's time. This massive export from Venice to

the east created chronic balance of payment problems as far away as England and Flanders.

Thus production of the most vital commodities in Europe were severely reduced and the trade

and circulation of its money completely disrupted over the decades before the 1340s crash by

Italian banks which appeared to be making usurious rates of profits. The Florentine super
Companies resembled very closely in their operations the huge international grain companies of

to-day such as Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland. They used loans to monarchs to dominate

and control trade in certain vital commodities especially grain and later wool and cloth whilst

their dominance and speculation progressively reduced the production of these commodities.”

(The Financial Collapse Rigged by Venice in 1345)

Therefore, the Hallmark of the Periphery stage during the Dark Ages that Wallerstein defined so

well was the 100 years war between England & France. “The Hundred Years War began in 1337

and lasted until 1453. The fighting, however, was not continual. Instead it was a cycle of battles,

peace treaties, and breaches of these peace treaties. At the start of the war in 1337, though

serfdom was still in practice, England had already been largely successful in establishing a

capable, central monarchy“. (Rit Nosotro).

The Clash of Civilizations scenario that Samuel Huntington that has defined as a precursor of

the Modern World, was in actuality the series of violent events which stagnated the development

of Europe during the Periphery stage. “First, differences among civilizations are not only real;

they are basic. Civilizations are differentiated from each other by history, language, culture,

tradition and, most important, religion. The people of different civilizations have different views

on the relations between God and man, the individual and the group, the citizen and the state,

parents and children, husband and wife, as well as differing views of the relative importance of

rights and responsibilities, liberty and authority, equality and hierarchy. These differences are the

product of centuries. They will not soon disappear. They are far more fundamental than

differences among political ideologies and political regimes. Differences do not necessarily mean

conflict, and conflict does not necessarily mean violence. Over the centuries, however,

differences among civilizations have generated the most prolonged and the most violent
conflicts.” (Samuel P. Huntington, Summer 1993).

There were two important significant events that defined and molded European Society to what it

is today, The Renaissance and the Treaty of Westphalia. If there was one good thing that the

Venetians established in Europe that had a lasting value in Europe even to this day, it was the

advent of the Renaissance. “The term Renaissance, literally means "rebirth" and is the period in

European civilization immediately following the Middle Ages, conventionally held to have been

characterized by a surge of interest in classical learning and values. The Renaissance also

witnessed the discovery and exploration of new continents, the substitution of the Copernican for

the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the decline of the feudal system and the growth of

commerce, and the invention or application of such potentially powerful innovations as paper,

printing, the mariner's compass, and gunpowder. To the scholars and thinkers of the day,

however, it was primarily a time of the revival of classical learning and wisdom after a long

period of cultural decline and stagnation.” (R.A. Guisepi).

The Treaty of Westphalia culminated with the end of the thirty years war. The Great German

Poet Friedrich Schiller detailed the devastation and destruction to the European countryside that

occurred because of the 30 years war. “Fearful indeed, and destructive, was the first movement in

which this general political sympathy announced itself; a desolating war of thirty years, which,

from the interior of Bohemia to the mouth of the Scheldt, and from the banks of the Po to the

coasts of the Baltic, devastated whole countries, destroyed harvests, and reduced towns and

villages to ashes; which opened a grave for many thousand combatants, and for half a century

smothered the glimmering sparks of civilization in Germany, and threw back the improving

manners of the country into their pristine barbarity and wildness.” (Frederich Schiller). Yet even

Schiller saw a greater good that was coming out this terrible conflict and that was the
establishment of the sovereign nation-state. “Out of this fearful war Europe came forth free and

independent. In it she first learned to recognize herself as a community of nations; and this

intercommunion of states, which originated in the thirty years' war, may alone be sufficient to

reconcile the philosopher to its horrors. The hand of industry has slowly but gradually effaced

the traces of its ravages, while its beneficent influence still survives; and this general sympathy

among the states of Europe, which grew out of the troubles in Bohemia, is our guarantee for the

continuance of that peace which was the result of the war.” (Frederich Schiller).

The peace that Frederich Schiller alludes to in The Treaty of Westphalia laid the foundation for

the notion of the concept of the nation-state. “The Treaty of Westphalia of 1648, bringing an end

to the Thirty Years' War, which had drowned Europe in blood in battles over religion, defined the

principles of sovereignty and equality in numerous sub-contracts and in this way became the

constitution of the new system of states in Europe.” (Pierre Beaudry, May 2003).

If the Treaty of Westphalia was the brick and mortal of the modern nation-state then France’s

Louis XI was its principal architect It was Louis XI who redefined the principles of mutual

peace, brotherhood, forgiveness, and concern for one’s fellow man (as illustrated in the tenets of

the Treaty of Westphalia) to its highest level in that of the Commonwealth or the General

Welfare. “That there shall be on the one side and the other a perpetual Oblivion, Amnesty, or

Pardon of all that has been committed since the beginning of these Troubles, in what place, or

what manner soever the Hostilitys have been practis'd, in such a manner, that no body, under any

pretext whatsoever, shall practice any Acts of Hostility, entertain any Enmity, or cause any

Trouble to each other; neither as to Persons, Effects and Securitys, neither of themselves or by

others, neither privately nor openly, neither directly nor indirectly, neither under the colour of

Right, nor by the way of Deed, either within or without the extent of the Empire, notwithstanding
all Covenants made before to the contrary: That they shall not act, or permit to be acted, any

wrong or injury to any whatsoever; but that all that has pass'd on the one side, and the other, as

well before as during the War, in Words, Writings, and Outrageous Actions, in Violences,

Hostilitys, Damages and Expences, without any respect to Persons or Things, shall be entirely

abolish'd in such a manner that all that might be demanded of, or pretended to, by each other on

that behalf, shall be bury'd in eternal Oblivion.“ (The Avalon Project at Yale Law School).

It was the noble ideal of the commonwealth by King Louis XI that led to the development and

uplifting of his citizens through the building of roads, canals, bridges, and waterways. “Louis's

development of France was based on the idea of the commonwealth, government on behalf of the

physical and cultural enrichment of the people and the nation-state--the common good--as

opposed to the territorial looting of an empire. Such a commonwealth could only be achieved by

means of improving the productive powers of labor of that population. In this fashion, the nation-

state must be ruled in a dirigistic fashion from a centralized government which commits itself to

fostering man's ability to reflect this general purpose through breakthroughs in art and science. In

turn, the elevated individual soul will ennoble the nation-state by making a contribution to its

advancement and progress.

From this sentiment of uplifting the individual, the nation-state should promote and defend the

fundamental right of every human being to develop his mental powers of reason in the image of

God, and to perfect himself in order to get closer to the principle of composition of divine

reason, the underlying principle of the Good that generates the changing relationships of all

things in harmony with natural law.” (Pierre Beaudry, July 3, 1995).

In looking at the context and development of the nation-state it is now possible to say that the

third movement or The Semi Periphery in Wallerstein’s theory of world-system analysis readily
applies. “Between the two extremes lie the semi-peripheries. These areas represented either core

regions in decline or peripheries attempting to improve their relative position in the world

economic system. They often also served as buffers between the core and the peripheries.”

(Modern History Sourcebook). European civilization in its development has experienced both

extremes of the semi-periphery. I have attempted to show a European civilization in decline as

witnessed by economic chaos, perpetual warfare, and disease. On the flip side, I have

demonstrated European civilization on the rise as characterized by the advent of both the

Renaissance period and evolution of the modern nation-state.

The Global community that we live in today is experiencing the same type of upheavals such as

pandemics, perpetual warfare, ethnic conflict, Global Warming, and economic meltdown that

were common in the Middle Ages of Europe. There are sweeping movements and changes that

will heighten the livelihood of mankind or begin the start of our possible demise and ascension

into another Dark Ages that will take centuries to recover. One of the biggest movements is the

rejection of neoliberalism or Globalization. “Throughout the history of the modern world-

system, projects of globalization promoted by world elites have been met with resistance from

people on the g round whose livelihoods have often been threatened. As the geographic scale of

global capitalism has expanded, and its penetration into daily life has deepened, the scale and

intensity of resistance to this system has grown as well. Local efforts to protect traditional ways

of life, for instance, have evolved into national campaigns for union protections and then into

international movements for stronger labor, human rights, and environmental protections.”

(Bruce Podobnik and Thomas Ehrlich Reifer, Winter 2004). The anti-globalization movement is

a rejection of the new world mentality that is thoroughly embedded in the culture and psyche of

TNC (Transnational Corporations), free trade fanatics, and neo-liberalism economic policies.
At the heart of this Global movement are the desires of people to have an identity with their

nation or local community. That is why the European is having a difficult time totally integrating.

The rejection of the Treaty of Lisbon by the Irish Government was a prime example of that.

Hence, this Global Movements displays different phases of Wallerstein’s World System Theory.

Even in the era of the Global economy, the notion and concept of the Nation-state bears even

more importance in the cultural identity of its people.

 Endnotes

1. Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War. Book I, Chapter I. Translated by Richard

Crawley.

2. Modern History Sourcebook, “The Development of a World Economic System,” A Summary

of Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of

the European World Economy in the Sixteenth Century (New York: Academic Press, 1974)

E:\IRLS500 I001 Win 09\Modern History Sourcebook Wallerstein on World Systems.mht

(accessed September 7, 2009)

3. William Gilbert, Renaissance & Reformation, Chapter 3 the Italian City States of The

Renaissance (Lawrence, KS: Carrie, 1998)

http://vlib.iue.it/carrie/texts/carrie_books/gilbert/03.html (accessed February 12, 2009).

4. Paul Gallagher, “How Venice Rigged the First, and Worst Global Financial Crash,” Readings

from the American Almanac, (September 4, 1995)

http://american_almanac.tripod.com/pbgbardi.htm (accessed February 12, 2009)

5. Modern History Sourcebook.

6. “The Financial Collapse Rigged by Venice In 1345,” http://www.doeda.com/collapse.html

(accessed September 7, 2009).

7. Rit Nosotro, “The Effects of the Hundred Years War,”

http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/comp/cw07war100kings.htm (accessed September 7,

2009).

8. Samuel P. Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations,” Foreign Affairs (Summer 1993)

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19930601faessay5188/samuel-p-huntington/the-clash-of-
civilizations.html (accessed September 7, 2009).

9. R. A. Guisepi, ed., “The Renaissance, Beginning and Progress of the Renaissance,” World

History Center a Project of World History International, http://history-world.org/renaissance.htm

(accessed September 7, 2009).

10. Frederich Schiller, The Thirty Years War. Vol 1, HISTORY OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR

IN GERMANY. Produced by David Widger. 5 Volumes (World eBook Library PGCC

Collection: Posted January 4, 2003) http://d.scribd.com/docs/1y8haj4wises2qn70coz.pdf

(accessed September 7, 2009), 7

11. Ibid., 7.

12. Pierre Beaudry, “The Treaty of Westphalia, 1648, the Benefit of the Other. The Economic

Policy That Made the Peace of Westphalia,” The Schiller Institute (May 2003)

http://www.schillerinstitute.org/strategic/treaty_of_westphalia.html (accessed September 7,

2009).

13. “Treaty of Westphalia:” Peace Treaty between the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of

France and Their Respective Allies,” The Avalon Project at Yale Law School, the Lillian

Goldman Law Library. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/westphal.asp (accessed

September 7, 2009).

14. Pierre Beaudry, “The Commonwealth of France's Louis XI: Foundations of the Nation State,”

Readings from the American Almanac (July 3, 1995)

http://members.tripod.com/american_almanac/louisxi.htm (accessed September 7, 2009).

15. Modern History Sourcebook.

16. Bruce Podobnik and Thomas Ehrlich Reifer, “The Globalization Protest Movement in

Comparative Perspective,” Journal of World Systems Research,” Volume 10, no. 1 (Winter

2004), 3.