The War of the World: History's Age of Hatred by Niall Ferguson Page A

lending all reached levels in relation to global output not seen again until the 1990s. A single monetary system – the gold standard – came to be adopted by nearly every major economy, encouraging later generations to look back on the pre-1914 decades as a literally ‘golden’ age. In economic terms it doubtless was. The world economy grew faster between 1870 and 1913 than in any previous period. It is inconceivable, however, that such high levels of international economic integration would have come about in the absence of empires. We should bear in mind that, taken together, the possessions of all the European empires – the Austrian, Belgian, British, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian – covered more than half of the world’s land surface and governed roughly the same proportion of its population. This was a political globalization unseen before or since. When these empires acted in concert, as they did in Africa from the 1870s and in China from the 1890s, they brooked no opposition.
    The
ultima ratio
of the Western empires was, of course, force. But they would not have lasted as long as they did if they had relied primarily on coercion. Their strongest foundation was their ability to create multiple scale-models of themselves through colonial settlement and collaboration with indigenous peoples, giving rise to a kind of ‘fractal geometry of empire’. It meant that a respectable English traveller could anticipate with some confidence the availability of afternoon tea or a stiff gin at the local gentleman’s club whether he was in Durban, Darwin or Darjeeling. It meant that a late Victorian British official could be relied on to have a working knowledge of the local languages and law whether he was in St Kitts, Sierra Leone or Singapore. To be sure, each territory struck its own distinctive balance between Europeans and local elites, depending first and foremost on the attractiveness of the local climate and resources to European immigrants. But by 1901 a kind of ornate uniformity had emerged, modelled on that elaborate system of social hierarchy which foreigners mistook for a class system, but which the British themselves understood as an elaborate and partially unwritten taxonomy of inherited status and royally conferred rank.
    Table 1.1: Empires in 1913
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Territory (sq. miles)
Population
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Austria
115,882
28,571,934
   Hungary
125,395
20,886,487
Belgium
11,373
7,490,411
   Africa
909,654
15,000,000
France
207,054
39,601,509
   Asia
310,176
16,594,000
   Africa
4,421,934
24,576,850
   America
35,222
397,000
   Oceania
8,744
85,800
Germany
208,780
64,925,993
   Africa
931,460
13,419,500
   Asia
200
168,900
   Pacific
96,160
357,800
Italy
110,550
34,671,377
   Africa
591,230
1,198,120
Netherlands
12,648
6,022,452
   Asia
736,400
38,000,000
Portugal
35,490
5,957,985
   Asia
8,972
895,789
   Africa
793,980
8,243,655
Spain
194,783
19,588,688
   Africa
85,814
235,844
Russia (European)
1,862,524
120,588,000
   Asian Russia
6,294,119
25,664,500
United Kingdom
121,391
45,652,741
   India
1,773,088
315,086,372
   Europe
119
234,972
   Asia
166,835
8,478,700
   Australia & Pacific
3,192,677
6,229,252
   Africa
2,233,478
35,980,913
   Other
4,011,037
9,516,015
United States
2,973,890
91,972,266
   Non-contiguous terr.
597,333
1,429,885
   Philippines
127,853
8,600,000
Turkey (Asian)
429,272
21,000,000
   European Turkey
104,984
8,000,000
Japan
87,426
52,200,679
   Asia
88,114
3,975,041
China
   1,532,420
407,253,080
   Asia
2,744,750
26,299,950
TOTAL WORLD
57,268,900
1,791,000,000
European empires
29,607,169
914,000,000
European empires (%)
52%
51%
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    Note: Population totals rounded as some figures for colonial populations were clearly estimates.
    All the established empires of 1901 sought to make virtues out of their necessities. From the Delhi Durbars of 1877 and 1903 to the parades through Vienna