Imperial Amnesia
Creating a healthy future requires more honest and inclusive accounts of our past.
The past few centuries have seen incredible global changes. In a short period called the Great Divergence, a small number of Western European nations became extraordinarily dominant. This transformation was described by victorious empires in positive terms, including the rational enlightenment, the age of exploration, and civilising missions.
The reality was often far more complex, and also violent. The violence and inequality also had deeper context within Europe itself. It is useful to adopt new concepts to frame this period. The isiZulu term mfecane (difaqane in isiXhosa) could be expanded to capture this period of crushing, and destructive transformation.
One of the less obvious consequences has been a focus on 'developed' economies as a role model for other countries to follow, and the new normality to aspire to. This obscures the origins of their wealth, but it also makes an exemplar of situations which were historically extraordinary. Specifically, such countries could build expensive infrastructure and systems, with resources unavailable to others.
We must remember how rapid population growth and urban overcrowding caused the first Malthusian fears, economic desperation, and enormous emigration. Even when Britain was the workshop of the world, there weren't enough jobs for all.
This period glamourised the Imperial metropole – nascent megacities, with huge demands for people and resources – and developed infrastructure to feed them.