Empires, Modern

Empire and Modernity

The list of empires that have existed during the modern period is extensive and varied. It includes older empires, which continued into and were transformed or undermined through modernity (particularly the Chinese, Ottoman, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, British, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and earlier French empires). In contrast are those that arose from within modernity as full-blown imperial projects (the second French, German, Belgian, Italian, Japanese, and others). Some other nations simply adopted the title “empire” in an attempt to secure legitimacy and prestige in an imperial age.

There is no universally agreed temporal definition of modernity. For the sake of an understanding of modern imperialism, it will suffice to say that during the 19th century, certain ideas, practices, and institutions that could be characterized as modern took firm root in Europe and North America and were rapidly disseminating to key metropolitan centers around the globe. One of the most important modern innovations for the fate of empires was the emergence and spread of nationalism and the models of statehood it projected into history. The classic European age of empire occurred at the same time and as an integral part of this rise of nationalist modernity in the West. Older European empires, such as the Spanish and Portuguese, were challenged by these new nationalist currents in the Americas and, early in the 19th century, lost most of their colonies there to independence movements with covert American and British imperial support. As an indication of the power of the idea of empire at the time, two of these breakaway, newly independent states (Mexico and Brazil) initially styled themselves as empires.

The Ottoman Empire is another traditional empire that was undermined by the onset of modernity. Its authority and territory were gradually eroded by pressures from the more effectively organized, modern empires around it, and by the various nationalisms that took root in its subject populations. The Ottomans undertook a series of modernizing reforms of finance, military organization, and administration in the first half of the 19th century under Mahmud II. However, these reforms were not sufficient to hold off the advances of the surrounding empires and the nationalist movements they emboldened. Over a century, the Russian, French, British, and even Italian, empires all gained territory and influence as the Ottomans' authority declined. In contrast with the Ottomans or Spanish, the Dutch modernized their empire to imitate the French and British relatively effectively.

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