(I don't think the American "let's make the world into a giant democracy" has the same kind of politico-religious punch that the eight-corners concept has.)
Maybe that's because we're American, so we don't find the "giant democracy" thing all that earth-shattering -- it's not a significant change for us, since we're already there.
That "make the world" trend/drive is one that's always intrigued me, since studying Native American cultures and the anthro professor noting that the three major impacts on the New World -- Spain, France, and England -- had radically different understandings of what one does with such a resource-rich land.
Spain wanted to strip it of all resources (animal, vegetable, mineral, and human, by way of military only) and ditch the country when done; France saw it as a business deal (send traders to purchase resources, priests to record but not necessarily to convert, and keep families at home). England's policy is best summed up from a throwaway line in an otherwise throwaway movie (Last of the Mohicans) when one of the British officers complains of special allowances granted to settlers that, "I thought Britain's policy was to make the world British."
I've always remembered that line, when anyone mentions the "communism spreads, Vietnam, Cuba, blah blah blah" argument, or the idea of making the world a big honking democracy. Nutshell: "our policy is to make the world us." When this is your socio-cultural motivation, then you're more likely to assume that it's the same for others, much like a dishonest person is more likely to suspect and expect dishonesty from others.
On the face of it (as I understand it) Russia was definitely doing the expansion thing, and China was on guard against it (as it always had been, for danger from that northwestern corner), and so was Japan. Perhaps somewhere in there Japan incorporated this consume/absorb-everything mindset into its own perceptions, which is of curiosity (and outside this post's scope and certainly outside my expertise or even general knowledge!) seeing how for centuries Japan doesn't seem to have really had any significant externally-directed colonization goals outside, perhaps, the capture/control of all its islands. But to stretch forth into Korea, China, and Russia? That's very much a 20th-century thing, it seems.
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Date: 29 Jul 2010 08:46 pm (UTC)Maybe that's because we're American, so we don't find the "giant democracy" thing all that earth-shattering -- it's not a significant change for us, since we're already there.
That "make the world" trend/drive is one that's always intrigued me, since studying Native American cultures and the anthro professor noting that the three major impacts on the New World -- Spain, France, and England -- had radically different understandings of what one does with such a resource-rich land.
Spain wanted to strip it of all resources (animal, vegetable, mineral, and human, by way of military only) and ditch the country when done; France saw it as a business deal (send traders to purchase resources, priests to record but not necessarily to convert, and keep families at home). England's policy is best summed up from a throwaway line in an otherwise throwaway movie (Last of the Mohicans) when one of the British officers complains of special allowances granted to settlers that, "I thought Britain's policy was to make the world British."
I've always remembered that line, when anyone mentions the "communism spreads, Vietnam, Cuba, blah blah blah" argument, or the idea of making the world a big honking democracy. Nutshell: "our policy is to make the world us." When this is your socio-cultural motivation, then you're more likely to assume that it's the same for others, much like a dishonest person is more likely to suspect and expect dishonesty from others.
On the face of it (as I understand it) Russia was definitely doing the expansion thing, and China was on guard against it (as it always had been, for danger from that northwestern corner), and so was Japan. Perhaps somewhere in there Japan incorporated this consume/absorb-everything mindset into its own perceptions, which is of curiosity (and outside this post's scope and certainly outside my expertise or even general knowledge!) seeing how for centuries Japan doesn't seem to have really had any significant externally-directed colonization goals outside, perhaps, the capture/control of all its islands. But to stretch forth into Korea, China, and Russia? That's very much a 20th-century thing, it seems.