Expansionist Tendencies Research Articles

The Origins of the Ethiopian–Egyptian Border Problem in the Nineteenth Century

It is thought that the conquest of the Sudan by Muhammad Ali was motivated primarily by the legendary gold of the Sudan and by the need for manpower for the newly formedNizam-I-Jadid(the new army). Because of Egypt's involvements in Syria and Arabia in the 1830s, the need for more funds and manpower for the army had increased considerably. The most promising areas for minerals, trade, and slave hunting bordered on the Ethiopian plateau. Those areas were inhabited by a mixed Hamitic and Negroid population, many of whom were Muslims and pagans. These people, although in many cases they did not realize it, were considered by some of the Ethiopian border lords to be their subjects, since the Ethiopian concept of a border was not that of a dividing line but of undefined areas stretching into their neighbours' lands.The situation in Ethiopia in the first half of the nineteenth century was generally conducive to an Egyptian conquest. The internal wars which had been gaining momentum ever since the middle of the eighteenth century expedited the fragmentation of the country, weakened most of the important provincial rulers, and exhausted the population. The revival of Islam in the beginning of the nineteenth century had an immediate impact upon Ethiopia. Islam was spread in the interior by the trading caravans monopolized by Muslim merchants, and found many followers among the Galla tribes of Ethiopia. Moreover, the actual rulers of the country were the Galla chiefs who had been the guardians of the puppet emperors in Gondar since the end of the eighteenth century; and as they feared the growing pressure of Tigrean and Amhara Christian lords, they were ready, if necessary, to invite the Egyptians to enter Ethiopia. However, the reappearance of European powers in the Red Sea at the beginning of the nineteenth century not only facilitated the acquisition of quantities of firearms by Tigrean and Amhara lords, but above all curbed the expansionist tendencies of Egypt in the direction of Ethiopia. Thus, until the middle of the nineteenth century Egypt had only limited objectives in Ethiopia, namely to establish its authority over the mineral-rich areas on the slopes of the Ethiopian plateau and to control the caravan routes and the outlets of the seemingly rich Ethiopian trade. Nevertheless, the ground was prepared for the clash between Egypt and Ethiopia in the period of Khedive Ismail.

Burma and China

No international concern has been as important to Burma as her relations with China. Kuomintang China had encouraged the Burmese nationalists, had sponsored Burma's entry into the UN but had also exhibited (in various published maps and otherwise) traditional Chinese expansionist tendencies toward Burma and mainland Southeast Asia. Most of all, after 1950, Kuomintang China endangered Burma's relation with Communist China by her active, irresponsible support for her troops who had escaped via Yunnan into northeast Burma. However much the Burmese may have initially and quietly tolerated the presence of these KMT “escapees,” – a view which has been unofficially hinted in some Burmese and American quarters — expecting that they would either merge into the Burma population or quickly repatriate to Taiwan, at the end of the first year of experience with these troops the Burmese became justifiably alarmed, repeatedly sought but did not receive assistance from the United States for this repatriation and eventually, in 1953, officially took the issue to the United Nations. (It was this issue which brought U.S. prestige and relations with Burma to a postwar low.)

Expansionist and Isolationist Tendencies of Totalitarian Political Systems: A Theoretical Note

Expansionist and Isolationist Tendencies of Totalitarian Political Systems: A Theoretical Note

Expansionist and Isolationist Tendencies of Totalitarian Political Systems: A Theoretical Note

A NUMBER OF EXPLANATIONS have been offered for the expansionist tendencies of large totalitarian powers. Sigmund Neumann, writing of the Third Reich, sees . . unlimited expansion . . . [as] . . . the fourth characteristic of modern totalitarian rule ... Dictatorial regimes are governments at war, originating in war, aiming at war, thriving on war ... [They] ... find in international adventure a safety-valve against internal upheaval. The dictatorship becomes the exploiter of continuous conflict.' This safetyvalve theory of totalitarian expansion has found currency in a variety of applications. There are also other views, emphasizing economic and demographic interests; strategic and military interests; the psychopathology of totalitarian leaders, such as megalomania and paranoia, and psychological maladjustment of the nation as a whole. Nor does this exhaust the list: exuberance of nationalism, power-drive or vagaries of the nation-state system, the presence of aggressive or insecure elites in society and maladjustment of the capitalist system have been singled out as sources of imperialism. The ideologies of totalitarian powers are another source of explanations for these nations' aggressions. The Nazis expounded the mission of the superior race; the Communists, that of world revolution. These explanations have a common limitation; they are concerned with expansion only. They ignore the twin tendency which complements totalitarian expansionism, its equally strong impulse towards isolation. Totalitarian isolationism-that is, its protective Iron Curtain shielding the regime from external influence-is as striking as totalitarian expansion. In the course of this discussion, a set of factors is suggested which can explain both seemingly contradictory tendencies. The two impulses are seen as necessary protective devices without which

Issues in International Oil Policy

O VER the past decade, the economic growth of the indus trialized West has been based in large measure upon a prodigious expansion in sources of energy. Oil has made the largest single contribution to that expansion; and the stepped-up consumption of oil has been especially marked among basic industries engaged in production and transport. In conse quence, Western industry has become increasingly dependent upon an uninterrupted flow of oil. Since the end of World War II, Europe has been drawing more and more heavily upon Middle East oil to meet its requirements. But mounting tensions in the Middle East, arising from aggressive nationalism, the deteriora tion of British political authority and Soviet expansionist tenden cies, put Europe's access to these critical supplies in jeopardy. The Suez crisis has driven these points home as no argument or previous circumstance could.