Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T10:13:56.136Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Remnants of Western Imperialism: A German View

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Alexander Ruestow
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The earliest and most brutal offshoot of Western political absolutism was the colonial imperialism which followed in the wake of Columbus, Magellan, and the other heroes of the Age of Discovery. Characteristically, Western man is wont to regard this epoch as a glorious chapter in his history, as a splendid testimonial to his insatiable quest for knowledge and to his urge to explore the farthest and most remote corners of the planet. But the quest for knowledge and the urge to explore were far from being the only or the most active ingredients in imperialism. Greed, sadism, and lust for power spilled into every corner of the earth whose inhabitants were unable to offer effective resistance to the firearms and cavalry of the new overseers.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , January 1960 , pp. 45 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1960

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

* The present essay is an extended version of a contribution to the symposium edited by DrSchmidhaeuser, Ulrich and entitled Welche Freiheit Meinen Wir? (Stuttgart; 1958)Google Scholar. I am indebted for valuable suggestions to my son, Professor Dankwart A. Ruestow, Princeton University. The translation is by Patrick M. Boarman of the University of Wisconsin (in Milwaukee).

1 Ruestow, Alexander, Ortsbestimmung der Gegenwart, Eine universalgeschichtliche Kulturkritik. Erlenbach-Zurich and Stuttgart; Vol. I. Entstehung der Herrschaft (1950)Google Scholar; Vol. II. Weg der Freiheit (1952); Vol. III. Herrschaft oder Freiheit? (1957).

2 DrWalz, Heinz, “Begegnung in der Wueste,” Die Gegenwart, XIII, no. 3 (08 2, 1958), 60Google Scholar.

3 Sartre, Jean-Paul, “Sieg ueber die Folter,” Die Weltwoche, XXVI, no. 1272 (03 28, 1958), 21Google Scholar. The issue of the Paris weekly l'Express in which the article originally appeared under the title of “Une Victoire,” was seized in characteristic fashion by the French police.

Typical of the disturbing confusion of logic and emotion encountered in this area is the letter received by Die Weltwoche from one of its readers concerning the publication of the Sartre article: “As one of your zealous readers, I was taken completely by surprise by M. Sartre's report of torture. My confidence in the ability of your staff to correctly and objectively report the news has been thoroughly destroyed thereby. Never have I read such one-sided, hateful, atrocity propaganda (the Hitler-Goebbels tirades excepted). It is simply appalling that a European can be so stupid. Sensible Europeans know that Africa is our only large scale source of raw materials (obviously no more “drives to the East” à la Hitler are possible). Algeria is the natural bridge linking the American bastions Morocco and Lybia together, with Spain and Italy supporting the flanks…” (Die Weltwoche, April 11, 1958, p. 2). In short: because Africa is an excellent substitute for Hitler's Eastern plans from the geopolitical point of view, confirmed reports concerning tortures in Algeria are hateful atrocity propaganda and appalling stupidity! When a boil is touched, the patient cries out, and it is perhaps futile to expect logic to proceed from such moaning and groaning. Still, the knife must be used if blood poisoning is to be avoided.

4 Doenhoff, Marion Graefin, Schweizer Monatshefte, XXXVIII (09 1958), 456Google Scholar.

5 Doenhoff, Marion Graefin, “Die verpasste Sternstunde”, Schweizer Monatshefte, XXXVI (12 1956), 703Google Scholar.

6 Mr. Dulles' unfortunate comparison with West Berlin is true only in so far as the Allies committed an incomprehensible military blunder in 1945 by abandoning the middle German area west of Berlin to the Soviet Union, thereby making West Berlin an enclave. I remember clearly the tears of compassion shed in Pravda at such a degree of well-intentioned stupidity. Ernst Reuter (then in Kadikoey) translated the article in question for us from the Russian. Also, a comparison between West Berlin and Quemoy would be valid only if Peking were half in Quemoy.

7 In Chateaubriand's words: “Le crime n'est pas toujours puni dans ce monde; les fautes le sont toujours.” It is precisely on this account that a stupidity (in Talleyrand's notorious witticism) is more portentous than a crime.

8 The apparently honestly intended and courageous offer of De Gaulle in his speech in Brazzaville (August, 1958) to accord to the African colonies full freedom insofar as it was desired will apparently be declined on the same grounds which moved Newfoundland to renounce the independence it had already achieved, namely, the high cost. Only French Guinea voted for independence in the referendum of August 9, 1958, thereby providing De Gaulle with proof of the genuineness of his offer of freedom.

9 A young colleague even complained that I apparently had “no idea that my public condemnation of Western colonial atrocities damaged the Western cause even more than the protests of other German professors against atom bomb experiments, etc.” My reply is that some individuals use the very same arguments in criticizing the disclosure of Nazi crimes which they prefer to have left unmentioned.

10 Raymond Aron showed this courage in truly admirable fashion in La Tragédie Algérienne (Paris, 1957)Google Scholar. This grave and moderately worded declaration, signed by the most eminent French ethinologist, found not a single newspaper which dared to publish it. It was subsequently privately printed and distributed.

11 Behrendt, Richard F., “Soziologische Aspekte der Aussenpolitik materiell unterentwickelter Laender”, Schweizer Monatshefte, XXXVIII (11 1958), 614 ffGoogle Scholar.

12 Cf. Krueger, Hans Juergen, “Zukunftsplaene in Zentralafrika; Schwarze Politiker propagieren einen ‘Staatenbund der Freiheit,’” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 11 20, 1958Google Scholar.

13 Behrendt, Richard F., op. cit., 618Google Scholar.

14 Welter, Erich, “Kapitalhilfe fuer die Sozialisierung der Entwicklungslaender,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 10 4, 1958, p. 5Google Scholar.

15 von Schmoller, Gustav: Handels- und Machtpolitik, Vol. I (Stuttgart, 1900), 35Google Scholar.

16 Erich Welter, op. cit.

17 Ibid.

18 The importance of the direction which India takes in future can hardly be overemphasized. Recognizing clearly the seriousness of the problem, Adlai Stevenson declared (in the Bulletin of the Indian Embassy, Bonn, 1954, p. 5): “It is much more important that India establish its young democracy on a firm foundation than that its foreign policy favor us. For a healthy democracy, even in a neutral India, is a much securer bastion against Communism in Asia, than a weak vacillating political entity, no matter how emphatically its leaders would be for America and against Communism.”

The same thought was expressed by Pietro Quaroni, the Italian Ambassador in Bonn, on October 21, 1958, in a superb speech on “Soviet Foreign Policy and the Underdeveloped Countries”: “If Nehru succeeds in solving India's problems with his laboriste policies, then we have the proof that economic independence and industrial development can be achieved by means other than Communism, and we shall win the cold war in these countries. But if Nehru does not succeed, then we have the proof that the problems of these countries can be solved only by Communism. Then we shall have lost the cold war.”

19 A project along these lines undertaken recently with modest means but with vigorous Swiss initiative and energy deserves mention: The Swiss Association for Assistance to Extra-European Areas, founded by L. Groschupf, Director of Lloyd A. G., Basel, and now presided over by Attorney Dr. Peter Gloor. Two progress reports have been issued. Cf. Gloor, Peter, Der Schweizerische Beitrag zur Foederung der Wirtschaft der aufstrebenden Laender (Basler Handelskammer, 1958Google Scholar).

In the Federal Republic, a Committee for Cooperation with Underdeveloped Countries was founded in 1957. Fifty million marks have been allocated in the Federal Budget for the financing of its activities.

20 “Dictatorship on a democratic foundation” was the antidote which I recommended for the growing menace of National Socialism in lectures at the Berlin Hochschule fuer Politik in 1929 and 1932. The constructive use of a “vote of no confidence” to overthrow the Nazis was one of the proposals considered in this context.

21 Cf. Behrendt, Richard F. in Schweizer Monatshefte (1958), pp. 621 ffGoogle Scholar. See the following works by the same author: Das Problem der “unentwickelten” Laender (Essen, 1956), No. 2, p. 24Google Scholar; “Eine freiheitliche Entwicklungspolitik fuer materiell zurueckgebliebene Gebiete,” ORDO, Jahrbuch fuer die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, VIII (Duesseldorf, 1956), 67–122Google Scholar. In these and other publications, my colleague Behrendt develops a line of thought with which I agree without reservation.

22 DrKemper, Werner (Rio de Janeiro), “Die besonderen Probleme einer psychischen Hygiene in Brasilien,” Geistige Hygiene, Forschung und Praxis (Basel, 1955), pp. 298–299.Google Scholar

23 Father Placide Tempels, O.F.M., Bantu-Philosophie (Heidelberg, 1956)Google Scholar.

24 DrWilbrandt, Hans, “Zum Aufstieg von Entwicklungslaenders, Vorbild und Warnung des Beispiels Tuerkei,” Gegenwartsprobleme der Agrar-Oekenomie, Festschrift fuer Fritz Baade zum 65. Geburtstag (1958), pp. 423–457Google Scholar.

25 Even Southern Italy must be considered an underdeveloped and agrarianfeudal country. Opinion is divided as to whether the government will be successful with the reform measures it has introduced in this area.

26 DrStucki, Lorenz, “Tschiang und Chinas Zukunft,” Die Weltwoche (Zurich), 12 9, 1958Google Scholar.

27 Colonel DrBeer, Ysrael, “Der Kalte Krieg im Nahen Osten geht weiter,” Wehrkunde VII (11 1958), 597–601Google Scholar.

28 This is based on a colonial policy of the Belgian government which might be called wise as well as clever. From both angles, a discouragement of white settlement in the area is desirable. The practice of “slow progress” being continued, certainly not with the intention of bringing about an easy transition to complete freedom, but in order to maintain colonial domination as long as possible.

29 Cf.Hat der West en eine Idee? Addresses Delivered at the Seventh Conference of the Aktionsgemeinschaft Soziale Marktwirtschaft (Ludwigsburg, 1957)Google Scholar.