Empires were always considered as decisive agents of historical development. From
the very beginning of recorded history, Mesopotamian, Roman and Chinese imperial
state formations proved to have long lasting impacts on entire continents. Later, the
founding of empires in the so-called New World by Spain and Portugal marked the
beginning of what European historians labelled the modern era. From the sixteenth
century onwards new empires like the Dutch and the British followed in their footsteps
and along with the Russian, Habsburg, German and also the Ottoman Empires became
key actors of European expansion which until quite recently was regarded by many
historians as nothing less than the driving force of history as such.1
The significance of
this historical idea can be observed even in political debates today. In the last few years
the traces of empire and its effect on contemporary politics came into the picture most
impressively in the United States, as its intervention in Iraq was accompanied by a
public revival of ‘empire talk’ scrutinizing America’s hegemonic role in the world.2
The
persistence of the imperial concept to describe the implications of modern foreign
policy even after the ‘classical’ empires had disappeared from the historical scene is
striking.