Colonials - europeans - spread their empires all over asia, africa and americas. While in case of americas a point can be made that its because of their technological superiority, its definitely not the case for asia and africa.
Its interesting to find why civilizations of china, india and north africa, being much advanced than europeans, were subdued. Why cannot their technological superiority even combined with their large populations was able to prevent the colonization.The Answer
Its Centralization
The answer I think lies in what made those civilizations advanced and well populated at first place. Its centralization. The very same thing that brought peace hence commerce, hence high population hence high tech, lead to demise.
Capable Kings Leads To Centralization
See kings in east tend to do their job. They, unlike their european counterparts, don't have to divide their kingdom in near-sovereigns. The eastern kings do most of the work of nobles themselves - be it administration, judiciary or generalship - therefore nobles in east were not like nobles in europe.
Nobles in east traditionally and by that I mean over many thousand of years, work very near to how bureaucracy works now. Their power was very limited.
Limiting Powers Of Local Rulers
Ruler of an area generally cannot collect taxes. Treasury department was separate and report directly to center.
The armies kept locally was generally balanced by a centralized army under direct command of king. It was paid-in-cash so had nothing to do with fuedalism.
High Commerce Means High Taxes That Goes Directly To King
In east, most of the hard cash in taxes came from taxes on commerce. Not from fuedal lands. Thats why it was so practical to keep tax collection centralized. It was also why it was so easy for center to keep a large army.
The centralized army, unlike fuedal man-at-arms which I should call militia, was professional. Its in the name really. Center had an army, professional, always available. Fuedals had militia, available only in some times of years.
It all began with bringing peace, which brought commerce. East was blessed with very capable leaders that quickly conquer large swaths of land stopping infightings. The peace that it brought leads to high commerce.
High Commerce Makes Constituents Of Empire Weaker, Than The Links Between Them
The commerce made the constituents of empire relatively weaker than the links between the constituents. The whole became much more than the sum of its parts, not just more which it always is.
This extra, the power of the links as opposed to the power of constituents, was taxed directly by the center. Goes directly to king. The king therefore was able to keep a centralized army, paid-in-cash so it was professional and hence always available. With this power kings generally take the entire tax collection, not just tax collection on commerce, directly in their hands, bypassing fuedals permanently making them weak. Nobility hence became bureaucracy.
This is the general pattern. It was still middle ages. Distances were vast. Fuedals had to keep local armies. Some taxes on farming had to come through fuedals. Especially in countries like india where a very small muslim population was ruling over an ocean of hindu population rebellions were frequent, hence fuedals were stronger than in established countries elsewhere.
What Colonials Exploited
Its this taking of power away from nobles that colonials exploited. They offered the nobles what their own kings weren't offering. Ofcourse most of the nobles fall for it.
In general most of the people, being humans, will fall towards the temptation. It can be guaranteed.
It was, however, not enough to just tempt nobles. The nobles had to have some power to begin with, otherwise they weren't able to do much of anything to support the colonials. It was not that the system of centralization was wrong. It was that it had to be implemented in full. Wherever its weak it makes the whole system existentially vulnerable.
Centralization Has To Be Extraordinarily Just
Centralization takes a lot away from nobles. It has to compensate that elsewhere. If it don't then nobles are not truely loyal. They will break away as soon as center become weak, or outright join hands with enemies of empire as soon as one such appears on scene.
At times of trouble every king needs his nobles badly. He cannot afford to run the system centralized then. He has to quickly change his routine, because troubles come quickly. Troubles may brew slowly but when they strike they strike all of a sudden and usually in multiple. Its very very hard for any government to quickly adapt to changing circumstances.
Very Young Empires Cannot Be Centralized
When empire are very young - i.e. not much land is conquered - the empire is never centralized. It cannot be because its king truely needs his nobles - to conquer new lands, and to administer recently conquered lands which are always hard to rule over.
Only Not-Very-Young And Mature Empires Can be Centralized
When empire has matured if it become centralize then king don't really need nobles, thus give very little power to them i.e. can do the centralization.
Tougher than that, but still can be done, is when empire is young but not very young. When new lands are being conquered but large pieces of land are already conquered. An empire can be centralized in this state.
Empires Tends To Break At Peripheries - Parts That Are Not Centralized
All empires start breaking at peripheries. Its at the peripheries that nobles have to have real power.
Peripheries are whats conquered but not fully integrated in the rest of the empire yet. Its not run the same way center is run - its not fully integrated. It for example still have strong military presence. Its people are not rich as per whatever resources their land has. Peripheries are places that are not trading, they are being exploited, a one-way taking away of resources is happening on it. Their officers are mostly foreign to them especially as you go high up.
Peripheries are kept that way because they are not trusted. They are not trusted because either they are recently conquered or they are still rebelling - or both.
Since these lands are not fully integrated and hence not run in the same way center is run, they are run with lots of unusual power to their rulers, unusual as in discretionary. A lot of leeway is given and must be given to its rulers and to officers a long line of levels below. Its because its still rebellious or is very likely to rebel (i.e. is conquered recently).
These areas are what the colonials strike first. Nobles are in power so can do something. Nobles are also not in full power. Under colonials they can get that. Not just that but they can also feel sure that colonials will let them keep their power. Colonials are far away and wouldn't waste loyal nobles, locals who can let them fleece the population, and efficiently so.
Decentralization Is How Colonials Rule
As a rule, kings who care about his people tends to take more and more power in their hands. It not makes it right. Basically there are situations where its right to centralize, and situations where its wrong.
Kings like to give as little power as possible to nobles. They tend to avoid giving any power to anybody where they can get away with that, like in their own estates. Its not just kings, anybody who is in any kind of power, in general, don't like to give any power to any officer. Its why those in power always love technology, it eradicates altogether or reduce need to keep nobles and under them officers.
Colonials don't rule that way. Their way of ruling is entirely opposite. They, by definition don't care about masses.They want to exploit and just exploit. They don't even care how inefficient their exploitation is, how much get wasted i.e. goes to no one, how much goes in pockets of nobles and officers. They just want to loot and fast. Fast because in colonization they are not alone, they have competitors, who are just as ruthless and brutal. A colonial power has to loot fast to be rich, to be strong fast, if it don't act fast other colonials will make it their colony.
How Do Decentralization Form Of Government Works
The rules for decentralization are same for king and for colonials.
First rule is to divide, define what is whom. Its the legal part. See my article on Authority if you want to dig deeper.
Second rule is about lawfulness. Decentralized governments give lots of power to nobles, and they if they themselves are decentralizing, to officers. The power that is given is discretionary power. A lot is let undecided unintentionally. The law is deliberately kept overly simple. Within his jurisdiction what exactly can a local ruler do, and what exactly he cannot do, is either not defined at all or is defined in very broad strokes.
Decentralization is created to work precisely in hard times. When the center cannot or do not come to help. Local rulers are intentionally given lot of leeway. They can do a lot to people, good or bad.
Also, their duties to center are very limited in scope, though they can be large in amplitude. For example, a king may grant land to a noble on the only condition to support him (the king) with lets say 500 soldiers whenever he need them for lets say 3 months a year, or send to capital 1,000 tons of wheat per year etc. As long as the noble is doing that the king don't bother to see how he is collecting from people what he is collecting. How oppressive he is.
Colonials rule the same way except they are only concerned about supply of raw materials. Colonies are conquered for just this reason.
The colonials once having secured their supply of raw materials at very low price start building their industry on it. In later years they also need markets to sale having already exhausted the capacity of their own and of other colonials. They still don't press nobles for this. They cannot because people under nobles are poor as they bound to be because they are not allowed to industralize even when countries around theirs have already industralized, and also because their only export, the raw materials are taken very cheaply from them.
The finished goods they (the colonials) sale to their colonies are only to cities, the places where nobles live. This small class do have some money, so do make a little or moderate market, depending on price of raw materials (not all raw materials are force-sold at same price) and how big the country is (india and china, even when repressed, still make a big market given its very high population).
Is Centralization Ever Needed
Centralization is like asteroids. It gives a large and quick boost. Though unlike asteroids its effects don't wear off that fast. Two, even three, generations can pass without seeing any ill-effects. Ill-effects do come, ofcourse, but they come late.
Small States Infight A lot, Therefore They Are Always Poor.The only way to stop infighting is to unify them all in one big empire. Given human nature this cannot be done without a strong leader. The leader is needed not to talk them into unification - they cannot be talked in unification - they can be talked in pretending to be unified keeping almost all their power but not in actually unifying. This is not stable as they will start fighting with each other as soon as the leader is away from scene - die or become incapacitated otherwise. Only when their powers are taking away they can be forced to live in peace. Thats in early years of empire, when the empire is very young.
As time passes and the generations that have seen days of sovereignty fade away, the formerly independent and hostile-to-each-other states start having commonalities. In very long - hundreds of years - scale they even get same language. In smaller - decades long - scale they get same general law, same general education, lots of travellings and lots of commerce. They get unified culturally, to significant enough extent to identify themselves as inhabitants of same region whatever the current political boundary of their country is.
They then become part of center, as opposed to part of peripheries which they formerly were. Being part of center they are considerably rich.
Thats the only path to massive richness. Unify, culturally.
To Unify Culturally
There is a path to cultural unification. Political conquest will come first. Then administration in first few decades. Only after these two phases can cultural unification start.
Political conquest can be made by one great conqueror, who in his life expand his rule to an entire country. It may also come through a group - lead by one person ofcourse - members being close friends. In both cases decentralization is must. Even if the land is lucky enough to give birth to a great conqueror he still needs his generals. He cannot be at all places at all times. Someone has to watch his back especially in capital, someone has to guard those border he is not fighting at, and someone has to do the war preparations to send supplies and reinforcements.
The second phase - administration in first few decades - is bound to be a decentralized phase as well, to succeed. If a king try to concentrate power in his hands in this phase then the entire project fails. One has to give power to his nobles when they are ruling over newly conquered land, for a generation or two. There is no escaping that.
The third phase is not at all like the first two phases in department of decentralization. It has to be exact opposite. It has to be fully centralized. Only through centralization common law can be enforced, common education can be given, sufficient in both safety and volume travelling can happen.
When Centralization Is Harmful
King need generals, truely, when he is conquering a country. When conquered he still need them for real, because of rebellions. Newly conquered lands tend to have many rebellions in first few decades. Life time of the conquering general, even his first off-spring may be spent in this.
Even after many decades passed, the lands are not fully integrated in empire. It takes centuries for that. Its during this time that a king truely need administrators. Its age of administrators as they have real power in this era. They have to have real power in this era because without it they cannot administer areas which are not fully integrated in empire.
To Control Wild:
To control wild you need discretionary power, as much as the thing is wild. At start everything is extremely wild, so you need extra ordinary discretionary power. All things remain somewhat wild so you always need some discretionary power. Human administrators cannot be run like robots.
Young Empires Can Handle Incompetent Kings
Young means growing. Mature means grown as it could.
An empire grows when it conquer new lands.
In young empires nobles - generals and administrators - have power. The system thus didn't have a single point of failure. It didn't matter for young empires that king is very competent or not. The king not do a lot, cannot do a lot. Almost all the work is being done by nobles. Since king cannot do a lot he cannot do a lot of damage if he is incompetent.
The balance between power of king and power of nobles can stay for a long, long time. It may take centuries for enough peace and integration to happen to have high commerce. King would depend on his nobles for money in absence of high commerce.If Run Centralized All Mature Empires Rot And All Young Empires Go Bad
Even young empires start going bad when run centralized. They not rot - go through permanent decline - yet, because they are still growing. Its not the additional resources being added to empire that keep it from getting rot. Its the small bit of decentralization, at peripheries only but present nevertheless, that keeps it fresh.
A young empire start going bad when its king becomes greedy. The greed is not necessarily for personal gains, it can be for empire. The greed is to centralize. This desire of quick growth in economy is always bad. Centralization always crash the whole system and very soon. Everything become fast when centralized. Since you are already on the wrong path you fall and fall soon.
When To Centralize When Not
Consider this as the gist of this article.
When to centralize and when to decentralize both depends on which state your empire is in.
Four Stages of Empire
Like in everything there is bifurcation at top in this too. So, there are two main stages of empire, not four. The two branches made at top itself bifurcate. So, taken together it can be said that there are four main branches, even though in strict terms there are only two.
An empire is either young or mature. Its young when its growing in territory. Its mature when it has conquered whatever land it could conquer and is not expanding to any new territory.
Empires grow by conquering new territories. An empire is a geographical entity existentially. If an entity has all its laws, culture, history but has nothing in geographical department then its not an empire.
So, young or mature, bifurcation at top. Cannot be both. Can be only one at a time.
Now, consider the young phase. An empire is either very-young or just-young.
Clear Matching Between Need To Centralize and Whatever Stage The Empire Is In
Its clear because there is no ambiguity. You can choose one variable and it will always lead to one unique value of the other variable.
Its not one-to-one matching. Same value of second variable can be reached through multiple values of first variable.
Its still clear because its not like a graph (a particular data structure in computer science). Same value of first variable cannot be reached through multiple values of second variable. Its one-to-many relationship. If it was many-to-many relationship it would be ambiguous.
We have two values of one variable. The variable is centralization. It has only two values because either an empire is centralized or is decentralized. We are not going deeper than that in this article.
We have four values of the other variable. The variable is stage of empire. The values are: very-young, just-young, just-matured, very-mature. An empire is very-young when its so small and is growing so fast - because it has so many threats that if it don't grow it will die or for any other reason - that it cannot be centralized. Its king is bound to delegate power to his nobles. An empire is just-young i.e. young but not very-young when its growing but has considerable size already so it can be centralized. An empire has just-matured when its not growing at all but has reached that phase recently i.e. within few past decades, and therefore is in the process of cultural unification. An empire is very-mature when its culturally unified i.e. has achieved that final unification stage.
As told already various times in this article, a very-young empire cannot be centralized because it will break it. No king in his right mind will try to do that, even an incompetent king must have rare even among incompetent kings that level of idiotness to do that.
A just-young empire can be centralized. It shouldn't because it will reverse the administration-of-newly-conquered phase and if done for long even the political phase. In other words centralizing a just-young empire is asking for massive disobedience if not rebellions. Many young empires die in this phase because its king gets greedy.
A just-matured empire must be centralized. Its because without it cultural unification cannot happen. Without cultural unification enough commerce cannot happen to both industralize and to achieve high technology. Without industralization and high commerce empire will remain weak and so can be easily conquered from outside and even before that stay in poverty.
A very-mature empire must be decentralized. A centuries old empire that has achieved common language must be decentralized. Even if it has not achieved common language if it has to a high degree common culture then it is very-mature. Such empires are large, both in area and in population. They are also high in both commerce and technology. They are as a result very complicated to be ruled. They therefore must not be fully ruled from one place. Complicated systems are inherently vulnerable to shocks, as lot that a unit needs comes from other units. Any shock to system first cut off its links, as much as it can. Its stupid to add another vulnerability to system by creating one point of failure by creating a strong center that try to rule all over the place in detail.
In general, in life, things are very hard to do are not worth doing. There are exceptions ofcourse but the rule stays. If you are creating more problems doing something than you are solving then in general you are not solving something that worth enough to compensate the damages the problems are making.
Ruling a very-mature empire is complicated. So don't do it, as in don't rule the entire empire yourself in all its functions that government should be concerned with. Make your nobles powerful enough to handle local problems locally, just have a lot of them. See next (and last section of this article) below to know what must be done in this stage of empire.
How To Ward Off Colonials
Don't be poor. No need to suffer just to be free. There are other better ways to remain free.
Don't be divided into small kingdoms. Ofcourse colonials can eat you easily but also even in absence of colonials you will be miserable because of inevitable infightings that never end.
Colonials in general wouldn't bother to colonize you if you are not culturally unified yet. You haven't achieved high commerce so you are'nt rich. Your infrastructure is not well developed so its too hard for them to loot your raw materials. Remember they do need people in their colonies, to do the hard work of extracting the raw materials from natural environment. They just don't want to pay fairly for them.
Colonials are not interested in conquest. If they were they wouldn't be keeping local nobles. They would be awarding lands to their own nobles.
So, colonials only come when you are done achieving cultural unification. At that point you don't need centralization anyway. So ditch centralization and become decentralized. Don't give reason, even an immoral one, to your nobles to betray you. Within a locality give immense power to your nobles. Don't try to puppet them. They will remain happy and being contend they will take lots of the burden of government from you.
Ofcourse there is problem of controlling them. If they are that much powerful why don't they become independent anyway. The key to control them, to control anything is balance. You have to balance their power with something. Infact you need to have more than one balances to balance the balance. You don't need more than two. Let me show how.
First, what do you need to have to balance the power of nobles. Its already established that within their domain you should give them immense power. To balance this, keep a lot of nobles. Don't have large provinces. Have no provinces if you can get away with that. If you must have provinces then have small ones. Smaller your units are less likely they are to rebel. Remember, two people don't really agree on everything. More the number of people are more they will differ from each other. At a point - at a certain number that is - they are guaranteed to never join forces in sufficient number to rebel successfully.
Whats that number? Its 300 at the very least. 500 is safe. More is better. Try to keep it around 1,000. You can go upto 4,000 but over 1,000 they will be too many, they will get on your nerves.
Now, the last of the last part, how to balance the balance. You balance the power of nobles by having a lot of nobles so they are individually tiny and in groups small. They still, combinely have lot of power. To balance that keep a central army.
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