Do empires ever benefit areas and people subject to them?
In his article, Edward Said presents the notion that in the case of empires what occurs is a state of cultural imposition wherein cultural predilection, values, behaviors even methods of speaking are imposed on a local populace resulting in a deterioration of the local culture. He presents this view by utilizing various authors and their accounts of different cultures and shows the effects of cultural imposition and cultural influences on local populations as a result of the subjugation of empires. Of particular interest is his focus on the concept of “the White Man” and how the white culture had in effect superimposed itself on various cultures resulting in a strange blending of the two. Various examples of such a trend can be seen throughout history with the most notable being the Spanish subjugation of the Philippines for 333 years resulting in the assimilation of the Filipino people into the Spanish culture and religion effectively wiping out any traces of their past religion and cultural practices.
Taking this into consideration it can be seen that subjugation can be likened to the near-death experience of a particular culture wherein through imposition and subsequent assimilation old cultural behaviors, values, and various aspects unique to that particular culture are in effect repressed or removed in favor of the ideas, notions and cultural styling of the empire. Based on this, it is at times questioned whether empires truly benefit the areas and subjects that they in effect conquer. One way of looking at this issue is to take another look at the case of the Philippine and see the apparently “beneficial” effects of subjugation.
From a certain perspective, it can be seen that through cultural subjugation empires in effect help cultures become more “in line” with the global perspective of how the world chooses to view them. Not only that, but there is also the issue of advances in architecture and technology transfer that also occur as a result of subjugation. On the other hand, the sheer cultural decay that at times occur doesn’t seem to be quite as worth it as history has made it out to be. It is based on this that it can be seen that there are benefits accrued as a result of subjugation by an empire but such benefits are often clouded by the adverse cultural effects that empires have on local areas and people.