1
The spread of
Buddhism into Bactria, during the second half of the first century AD,
coincided with a period of major changes in Buddhist art. Hence this Bodhisattva
deriving from Gandhara with the distinctively Central Asian, acanthus leaves
originating in the west. Enter:
As we have seen
in P.3 of our introductory
overview at the start of this website, the long decline of the Ottoman
Empire opened the door for the rising force of Europe to push its way into
the Middle East. To begin with the pressure was almost surreptitious; it
was hard to recognize and it was not part of a strategy for weakening the
Empire but for gaining a tiny share of its fabulous wealth. In the 16th
century, special trading rights and tariff concessions granted to foreign
governments - known as 'capitulations' - were initially an indication of
Ottoman power. The poorer West came to the Sultan to seek special permission
to trade. But the system meant that profitable trade increasingly fell
into Western hands and by the 19th century, the capitulations were both
a cause and a symptom of the Empire's economic weakness and its inability
to modernize in the face of the European challenge. Increasingly during
the 19th century, European trading and financial strength was not simply
overwhelming the Ottoman grip on its peripheral regions, but weakening
its economic core. After trade came raw power. Suleiman the Magnificent
had been baulked outside Vienna in the 1530s. A later Caliph was defeated
150 years later in the same place and the Empire's European dominions began
to contract. A further century later, a French force landed in Egypt as
an outgrowth of a western European war and batted aside a much larger Egyptian
force, bringing to an end six centuries of power held by the Mamluks, who
controlled Egypt but were subject to the Ottomans. Napoleon Bonaparte's
Egyptian victory was tarnished by the arrival of a British fleet that destroyed
his supply system and cut short his Middle East venture. Were it not for
that, the consequences of Bonaparte's victory might have been more lasting.
As it was, Bonaparte not only brushed aside the Mamluks but smashed the
image of Ottoman superiority. This was a decisive blow to Ottoman self-confidence
and capacity to exercise far-flung power - and by the same token, a fillip
to western European self-confidence and ability to win local allies.
On the back
of trade and military superiority came - selectively at first, more or
less comprehensively in the end - the urge to influence, control and rule.
Through a combination of treaty agreements with local elites and military
presence, the web of European influence and control spread. Algeria was
the first major territory to come under direct European occupation, but
further to the east the British were already nibbling at the fringes of
Ottoman territory in the Arabian pensinsula. That reflected a basic geostrategic
pattern of European colonial expansion. The British einphasis was in the
eastern half of the region, the French in the west. Not until after World
War I - when France's rights as an ally were hard even for the British
government to deny -
World
Journal: What
Next With US Hegemony?
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