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Article: Empire & 'civilizing' missions, past & present.(Modern imperialism; empires)
- Article from:
- Daedalus
- Article date:
- March 22, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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'Imperialism' is a frustratingly vague term, but a useful one--and not only for outside observers and protesting subjects. (1) Historically, rulers have often sought to make their empires visible as such by following regional--and in recent centuries, global--standards for acting imperially. Even the past century, in which empires often shunned that designation, is only a partial exception.
Imperialism is also topical. While some compare the contemporary United States to imperial Rome, more analysts see it as the latest of a series of military-mercantile hegemons that set the rules for their eras' global political economies. Depending on where they locate the ...