FROM the archives:
Roughly 250 years ago, the United States and Great Britain partnered to become the dominant center of power on Earth. It started ironically enough, when one declared independence from the other, but since then their mutual interests have never seriously been in doubt.
Over the ensuing years, rivals have come and gone with the same narrative, striving to at least break free from Anglo-American dominance, or possibly even replacing them as the new world power.
To many people, current events in the Pacific region, from island-building in the South China Sea to the One Belt-One Road Initiative, to Australia’s identity crisis, may seem bewildering. To a historian, however, recent events are part and parcel of a long-standing tradition. It has been a centuries-long struggle to cope with or throw off the Anglo-American world power.
• Napoleonic Wars, 1795-1815. A coalition of nations led by Napoleon Bonaparte was the first serious contender for world power. Catching the Anglo-American team at its youngest and therefore weakest, Napoleon hoped to promote France from a continental power to a global one. His armies marched here and there across the face of Europe, even invading North Africa and scheming in North and South America. Only at sea could the British and Americans contain the might of France. Over time, Napoleon grew restless and make mistakes, his forces dwindled, and his allies abandoned him until his bid for supremacy ended in untold death and destruction for millions. Napoleon’s attempt to replace the Anglo-American world power failed.
•World Wars, 1914-1945. A century later, Germany rose to challenge the established order. In the First World War, Kaiser Wilhelm led a collation of nations who wanted to replace Anglo-American power with their own. Germany, the strongest nation in Europe in terms of population, industry and military might, believed it was the natural successor to the over-extended British and the lazy Americans. Like Napoleon’s, the German army was the best in the world. Like France, Germany possessed strong leaders with focused vision. But like so many other contenders throughout history, Germany could win battles but could not win the war. After four miserable years of conflict, an exhausted Germany succumbed to the combined might of Great Britain, the United States and their allies.
Twenty years later, Germany once again launched a bid for world power, this time under the charismatic leadership of Adolph Hitler and the determined Nazis. With a similar narrative and many of the same participants, the Second World War resembled the First in many ways. Although more successful than Kaiser Wilhelm in striving for his objective, Hitler ultimately lost the war and failed to replace the Anglo-American world power. The established order had been protected against another mortal threat.
• Cold War, 1945-1991. With fascism thrown onto the trash heap of history, the next challenger to Anglo-American world power was another ideologically driven one, the Soviet Union. Born from the ashes of the First World War, Soviet Russia stood alongside the British and Americans during the war against Hitler, but the friendship soon faded as it became clear that communism and democracy were not good bed fellows. The Cold War, so-called because the rivalry between the two superpowers often took the form of propaganda, a war of words and indirect activities rather than open warfare, consumed the world’s attention and resources for the better part of forty-five years. The Cold War brought humanity closer to extinction than was ever possible before as both sides amassed thousands of nuclear weapons and armed themselves for a potential third world war, which fortunately never occurred. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 under the weight of its own contradictions, leaving a bitter and very deadly Russia in its wake, scheming and dreaming of a time when it might challenge Anglo-American world power again.
• China, 2015-? At the close of the Cold War, no serious challenger emerged to threaten the world order. Stirrings in the Middle East came and went, but it wasn’t until the Chinese developed global ambitions that the Anglo-Americans felt a real threat to their power. Over the last eight years, China has offered itself as an alternative leader. Many countries are alienated by Anglo-American hubris, and many wonder if a divided America is ripe for a downfall. While the Anglo-Americans fight among themselves along racial, political, and economic lines, contenders are once again organizing, once again preparing for a challenge. So far, the conflict between the Anglo-Americans and their latest rival has all the characteristics of another cold war, but will it remain that way?
BC Cook, PhD lived on Saipan and has taught history for 20 years. He currently resides on the mainland U.S.
BC Cook
