Abstract
"Hegemony" is a term from the vocabulary of classical Greek history which was deliberately revived in the 19th century to describe a modern phenomenon. In its classical context, the clear denotation of hegemony is a military-political hierarchy, not one of wealth or cultural prestige; although both economic and cultural resources could serve to advance military-political hegemony, they were not at all of the essence. Hegemonic relations were conscious, and based upon complex motives and capacities. Individuals, peoples and states could desire, seek, struggle for, get, keep, lose and regain hegemony. Hegemony was sought or exercised over nations, over territories, over the land or the sea, or over tôn holôn, "the whole"; but "territories" turn out to be the states and nations thereon, "the land" and "the sea" actually meant "the mainland states" and "the island states," and tôn holôn was the world system, the whole system of interacting states. Hegemonic power relationships in the classical style are alive and well today; far from being time-bound, place-bound or culture-bound, hegemony in the classical sense is a transhistorical and transcultural fact that merits comparative-civilizational and comparative-world-systems study. While bilateral, alliance, and regional hegemonies are far more frequent both today and in the past, the most useful hegemony for study in a comparative civilizations/world systems context is systemwide hegemony: a unipolar influence structure that falls short of universal empire.
Highlights
Hegemonie, eigentlich Oberbefehl oder Obergewalt, nannte man in Griechenland namentlich die diplomatische und militaerische Fuehrung, die einem einzelnen Staate wegen seiner Machtfuelle, Tapferkeit und Kriegserfahrung seiner Buerger von einer Anzahl anderer Gemeinden eingeraeumt wurde
The Greeks had so many words for or about hegemony that, when we look at the classics, we can hardly avoid the conclusions that hegemony is more than an ancient concept: it is an ancient subject of learning, well developed over centuries, and one which deserves to be examined in its own context in evaluating hegemonic theory in the current context, and in the comparative study of civilizations and world systems
Imposed hegemony could equate to collective slavery: "after enslaving many great peoples which lay between the Thracians and the Egyptians they advanced the empire of the Scythians [tên hêgemonían tôn Skuthôn] on the one side as far as the ocean to the east, and on the other side to the Caspian Sea" (Diodorus, 2.43.5)
Summary
Hegemonie (grch.), eigentlich Oberbefehl oder Obergewalt, nannte man in Griechenland namentlich die diplomatische und militaerische Fuehrung, die einem einzelnen Staate wegen seiner Machtfuelle, Tapferkeit und Kriegserfahrung seiner Buerger von einer Anzahl anderer Gemeinden eingeraeumt wurde. Sparta geriet seit 461 in Konflikt mit dem seemaechtigen Athen, welches selbst seit 476 an der Spitze eines grossen Inselbundes stand, und nun den Spartanern ueberall als ebenbuertige Macht die Spitze bot. After Epaminondas ' death, by reason of the incessant internal strife of the Greeks, King Philip of Macedon, as victor in the battle of Chaeronea (338 BC), seized the Hegemony (Allgemeine deutsche Real-Encyklopaedie fuer die gebildeten Staende, 1824, s.v. Hegemonie). The Greeks had so many words for or about hegemony that, when we look at the classics, we can hardly avoid the conclusions that hegemony is more than an ancient concept: it is an ancient subject of learning, well developed over centuries, and one which deserves to be examined in its own context in evaluating hegemonic theory in the current context, and in the comparative study of civilizations and world systems. The Greeks had a word for hegemon: Ήγεμωv, i.e. hêgemôn
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