Entire Volume 17 issue 1 - Journal of World-Systems Research ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

EXTERNALITY AND INCORPORATION 190 permanent capital at Addis Ababa in 1893 which developed into a true urban center (Pankhurst 1961). Menelik more than doubled the size of Ethiopia through conquest to the south, though European colonial powers continued to show interest in northern territory along the Red Sea coast. Complete recognition of Ethiopia as a power sovereign from Europe came in 1895, when Menelik’s army defeated Italian forces that had invaded the northern province of Tigray (Stevens 1981:23-24; Marcus 1994:91-103). INCORPORATION, CONTEST PERIPHERIES AND ‘PROTOGLOBALIZATION’: SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS At the beginning of the Scramble for Africa in 1885, 17 Ethiopia was already part of the international community and a functioning element in the world-system. But this did not mean that it was immune to the territorial predations of European nations. Rather, it merely meant that it had a better position from which to withstand them. Much in the same manner that the Ottoman Empire would be carved up, Ethiopia found itself being eaten away along the edges of its territory. This is likely to be evidence of being a contest periphery: gradual and incremental territory loss. Historically stretching to the Red Sea coast, Ethiopia was effectively landlocked by the turn of the twentieth century. For an empire whose socio-political history was based on its ability to exploit trade to and from the Red Sea ports, this was especially troubling. It was precisely because Ethiopia was effectively cut off from outside arms supplies in 1935, when Britain and France were cowed into refusing Ethiopia transport of arms across their colonial frontiers, that Mussolini was finally able to invade Ethiopia and realize the long-held Italian colonial aspirations. Improved firearms available to Italy but not Ethiopia, as well as the advent of new weapons of warfare such as the tank, the airplane, and poison gas made the outcome rather predictable (Pankhurst 1965:20). So what type of preliminary conclusions can we come to regarding the sequencing of Abyssinian incorporation? To begin to answer this, let us turn to a modified typography of incorporation for Abyssinia. In many ways the case of Abyssinia becoming incorporated is much more complex than other cases of basic incorporation (cf., Hollis 2005, Carlson 2002). Abyssinia is less isolated, not as “pristine”, and more closely tied to historic trading systems and ‘global’ forces. As such, this is an added challenge when dealing with contest peripheries – the layers of interaction are longer and more overwritten. Thus, the image of a palimpsest is fitting: the region was continuously being renegotiated, pulsating in and out of contending systems, and gaining and losing territory. Abyssinia’s relationship with the Red Sea trade – and by extension the larger network of the Indian Ocean – is a defining characteristic. The health of the governing polity, from the time of Axum to Menelik II, was directly tied to an ability to exploit these systemic interactions. In this sense, Ethiopian incorporation is best conceived as contextually dependent on the Red Sea trade: the Red Sea trading network is the grooming process for incorporation. This is evident in the rise of the Golden Age of the Solomonic Dynasty up to 1500, not to mention the preceding rise and 17 As Pankhurst (1965:30) reminds us, the Scramble – as far as this part of the continent was concerned – “may be said to have begun on February 5, 1885, when the Italians occupied the port of Massawa. Five years later the Italian colony of Eritrea was proclaimed in what had hitherto been Northern Ethiopia.”
191 JOURNAL OF WORLD-SYSTEMS RESEARCH fall of Axum. Only when the Indian Ocean-Red Sea complex is disrupted with the arrival of the Portuguese and their subsequent blocking of the Red Sea does the region go into decline. This is not coincidental. Once trade begins to be stimulated again with the encroachment of European powers and Muslim activity out of Egypt, political transformation begins to occur. By the turn of the nineteenth century, the region is well known to Europe, though consolidation and expansion continues through mid-century, with the Zamana Masafent coming to an end by 1855. With unification in 1877, Ethiopia was effectively incorporated and beginning to be peripheralized. Thus, much of the conflict that ultimately results in Italy’s defeat in 1895 is actually peripheral competition and jockeying for favorable position within the European system. Figure 7: Abyssinian Incorporation. Typography of Abyssinian Incorporation, adapted from Carlson (1999:30, 2001:249, 2002:431). ****************************************************************************** I. Process: Grooming Incorporation Peripheralization (Overlays I-----------------------I I---------------------------------I I-------------------------------I transitions in temporal � Red Sea Trade � � European Colonial Expansion � condition) II. State of {Zone of � {External Arena} � {Nominal � {Effective � {Periphery} � Being: Ignorance} Incorp.} Incorp.} III. Signaling 1. Solomonic Dynasty Events (to 1500) � 2. Decline (to 1769) � {Unification 1877} 3. Tranformation/Zamana Masafent {Italy defeat � (to 1855) 1895} It is also difficult to precisely determine when Abyssinia passes through a particular state of being or transitions into a given network of interaction. However, this is to be expected. Why? Because we are examining an established trading system and a developed polity. The very antiquity of the region and the interaction of the primary actors mean that we are concerned with the integration of systems, not just an individual polity. Accordingly, the transition between states of being – and the transition from various networks of interaction (ZI, IN, PGN, PMN, BGN) are all likely to be temporally compressed. Because these networks are already nested in an “exterior” system, once a trade-based relationship begins the other ‘membranes’ of that system are quickly breached. The ‘natural’ evolution of trade and information exchanges is effectively jump-started. This is one area – the interaction of systems on one another – that is seriously under-theorized in most world-systems literature.
Page 1 and 2:
Journal of World-Systems Research V
Page 3 and 4:
James Rice—New Mexico State Unive
Page 5 and 6:
BOOK REVIEW ESSAY 236 Review Essay:
Page 7 and 8:
INTRODUCTION: THE WORLD-HISTORICAL
Page 9 and 10:
3 JOURNAL OF WORLD-SYSTEMS RESEARCH
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
11 JOURNAL OF WORLD-SYSTEMS RESEARC
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
THE LONG TWENTIETH CENTURY & THE CU
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
CUTTING THE GORDIAN KNOT OF WORLD H
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
101 JOURNAL OF WORLD-SYSTEMS RESEAR
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
ECOLOGY, CAPITAL, AND THE NATURE OF
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146: 139 JOURNAL OF WORLD-SYSTEMS RESEAR
Page 153 and 154: Richard York Department of Sociolog
Page 171 and 172: EXTERNALITY AND INCORPORATION IN TH
Page 195: 189 JOURNAL OF WORLD-SYSTEMS RESEAR
Page 205 and 206: FIVE CENTURIES OF REGIONAL DEVELOPM
Page 247 and 248:
Page 249 and 250:
Page 251 and 252:
Page 253 and 254:
Page 255 and 256:
Page 257 and 258:
Page 259 and 260:
Page 261 and 262:
Page 263 and 264:
Page 265 and 266:
Page 267 and 268:
Page 269 and 270:
Page 271 and 272:
Page 273 and 274:
Page 275 and 276:
Page 277 and 278:
Page 279 and 280:
Page 281 and 282:
Page 283 and 284:
show all

Entire Volume 17 issue 1 - Journal of World-Systems Research ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?