Review of American Empire and the Fourth World

When the idealists of the Continental congress penned the constitution of the emerging United States of America, Tomas Jefferson inserted a description, which would prove to be indicative of the prevailing social and economic climate of the fledgling republic. It reads, “the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.” With a few simple words, imperialist and racist thought was enshrined within the fundamental principles of the young empire. Or, at least, this is the argument of Dr. Anthony J. Hall.

Dr. Hall presents the reader of his first volume, “American Empire and the Fourth World”, with a grand sweeping narrative of the spreading of one of the most aggressive imperial campaigns in human history. “American Empire” is the first of a two part series entitled, “The Bowl with One Spoon”, written during, and shortly after the events of the twenty first century which have so dramatically shaped the consciousness and debates of mainstream Western thought; September eleventh and the subsequent war in Iraq. As many have noted, the present conflicts seem to be a recent phenomenon, an outgrowth, as Samuel Huntington stated, of the Clash of Civilization. Specifically, the role which globalization has played as a method for the dissemination of information, ideologies and methods of behavior into an increasingly shrinking world has been exposed.

In “American Empire”, Dr. Hall challenges these notions. Globalization, he agrees, is indeed the impetus of change and conflict. However, the beginning, development, implementation and results of globalization reflect a much longer, wider and hostile historical space. And as a reflection of this fact, his work reads like his theory. There is a concrete beginning, to be sure, but this is where the order ends. For Hall, globalization began in 1492; the year Columbus “discovered” the “new world”. In fact, the very phrases “new world” and “discovered” exemplify the Eurocentric bias which has permeated the theories of globalization in all ages, including the present. Hall outlines the systematic movement of westward expansion with a sweeping narrative. From the battles of European Empires, to the growth of the American Empire, globalization and cultural destruction is tracked, categorized and analyzed.

For the casual reader, certain questions will inevitably arise toward the propensity of Hall to generalize the entire history of the interaction and suppression of Aboriginal peoples into a tautology of large globalization forces as a whole. Perhaps one would then be disposed to go further: Does not the pan-Arabian expansion of the seventh and eighth centuries qualify as globalization? Does not the hellenization of the “Orient” in the third century BCE display the “necessary” organic nature of Globalization? For Hall, the answer would be no. Although globalization does indeed have the hallmarks of traditional empires, the concepts epitomized in western imperial theories of globalization go even further. He identifies the impetus of globalization, personified in the “American Empire”, as the “border-piercing quality of developments in technology and economics that compress space and devour the cultural ground of human difference”, or, simply put, “monoculturalism”. This singular culture is understood to be America’s culture of private property and ruthless corporate capitalism.

This globalization is tracked throughout Halls work though a huge collection of examples. At times the narrative seems disjointed and out of place, leaving one period of time and people, and focusing on another, then hurling itself back into the original period. Hall ties the events of the French Indian War, with the present state of treaties in Canadian politics, or the apartheid practices of South Africa with the War of 1812. He weaves the actions of men such as Turner, Pontiac, Tecumseh, Johnson, Jefferson, Mulroney, Chrétien and Mandela together into a tapestry of a singular methodology. Therefore, the narrative is at times difficult to follow, but engaging enough, and poignant enough to capture and maintain the interest of the reader.

However, in order to place some semblance to this review of “American Empire”, I must seek to clarify the two major players on Hall’s stage. “The American Empire and the Fourth World” introduces two competing ideologies at odds with each other. And while it is obvious that one is much more dominant then the other, Hall presents a commanding argument for an honest and concise observation of the other.

The American Empire - the culture of private property and corporate capitalism - is chronicled and explained through the interactions, cultural inheritance and clashes with the old British Imperial culture. As the colonies and her Creole inhabitants moved ever closer towards self-determination and liberty, the opposing British strategies sought to impede and control these movements. As a result, British imperial strategies played aboriginal nations against the developing nation of the United States. Hall goes to great lengths and great pains to cultivate an understanding of the state of the indigenous population of the Americas at this time. Far from being dependent, uncultured savages, subsisting themselves through scavenging from the “cultured” colonists, Hall presents the intelligence, civilization and independence of the aboriginal people. He presents a people united in a desire for self-determination on the international stage. This deeply informed and sophisticated method of exposition strengthens Halls arguments, as it creates a sense of awareness in the reader of their own culturally inherited biased view of history.

Perhaps one of the pivotal moments in North America transpired when rival concepts of imperial governments clashed, with the Royal Proclamation of 1763. The proclamation of 1763 attempted to regulate the flow of the increasingly independently minded colonialists, and centralize the power of governance into the hands of the Imperial rulers. The American creoles, conversely, sought to establish the power of self-determination firmly within their own grasp. And as later involvement of Aboriginal groups on the side of the British Imperial armies in the later conflicts of the American Revolution and the War of 1812 would show, Indigenous groups also saw within this proclamation the opportunity for their own nation.

The Royal Proclamation succeeded in polarizing the competing ideologies. It created a strict dichotomy. The Proclamation widened the ideological gap, causing these factions to divide “along the lines of decentralization and centralization, monoculturalism and multiculturalism.” Interestingly, Hall shows how American foreign policy was shaped by this polarization, to the point of uniting a nation through this decentralization and monoculturalism, and creating an empire continuously using these principles. These practices are seen even today, in the methods used from Grenada to Iraq. America has long sought to decentralize indigenous movements, governments, and politics, in order to implement a system of private property, “under a regime of transnational corporate rule”. Globalization was firmly established as the movement through which modern forms of Imperialism could be managed.

For Dr. Hall, the competing ideology to the “American Empire” is the concept of the “Fourth World”, proposed and popularized by the British Columbian aboriginal, George Manuel. The Fourth World represents an alternative to the monocultural system of the American Empire. Hall claimed that the Fourth World “envisages a pluralistic global village without the tyranny of a universal and homogenous state”. The Fourth World is exemplified best by the struggle for aboriginal and indigenous populations in nations which they are minorities, such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand. However, the principles associated with the Fourth World are applicable and relevant for all nations, peoples and cultures that find themselves under the imperial thumb of pan-Americanism. Hall explores the strengths of indigenous movements in South Africa and Tanzania. He also examines the failure of many nations since their emancipation from colonial and imperial rule.

Tony follows the development of the conception of the Fourth World through the histories of the indigenous peoples of North America. Examining such concepts as the convent chain, the long house councils and the method of the treaties making processes, which transpired early in the relationship between the nations of the Americas and the nations of Europe, he scrutinizes the conceptions of self-determination, pluralism and democracy found within the aboriginal communities. He pays particular attention to three men, of varying background, but of a common goal; Johnson, Tecumseh and Pontiac. Each of these men sought to establish a form in independence and dignity for the indigenous people. This desire often was related to the concept of the “bowl with one spoon”, a conception of a common land in which all had a stake. The Bowl with One Spoon represented a microcosm of the larger theory of the Fourth World: The world is available for all, allowing a diversity of cultures, respect, and above all, the liberty of self-determination.

Through the observations of these two worldviews, the reader of “The American Empire and the Fourth World” is encouraged to exercise their critical abilities beyond what is traditionally expected of them within a western paradigm. And this is exactly what makes this such an important, if not at times difficult, work. Hall’s extensive background in Aboriginal Studies lends itself to a narrative that is both extensively deep and interconnected. The majority of the text centers on the conflict between the westward moving colonial societies of both the American Republic and the Canadian Dominion, on the grand stage of over 400 years of history. Through an exhaustive use of primary documents and interpretation, he brings to life the story of these two competing ideologies, yet focuses on the importance of the enlightenments noblest ideas in the need for a Fourth World.

The quality of this particular work is found it the implication of the theory proposed. The struggle between the American Empires’ theory of private property and corporate monoculture against the relatively subjugated, if not almost completely extinguished, cultural inheritance of sovereign cultures and states is not found solely on the plains of North America. It is seen continued wherever the presence of the American Empire is felt. From the instability of the Middle East, to the political upheaval found in South America, to the struggles in Africa, the theory plays out. When looked at from the perspective of the Fourth World, the actions and upheavals no longer appear to be the mindless actions of an uneducated, savage people, but the resistance of a populace not willing to become the slaves of others. Conversely, one can see relative peace and stability when nations, cultures and peoples subjugate themselves to the Empire of America. Such is the case with the nations of China and India. While not all culture had to be extinguished, the “Globalization” model has transformed China and India.

In “American Empire”, Hall argues for the acceptance of true liberty, democracy and self-determination for all people. The economic injustices of the world, he argues, are the direct result of the strength, power and dominance of the America Empire. The “Fourth World” presents a counter system. Although one work will not change to course of any imperial system, there are benefits from the argument. Global change is found at the most basic grassroots level. “American Empire” presents the reader with a new paradigm with which to gaze at the surrounding world. It opens new avenues of thought when examining the social systems, political theories, and economic practices of the present ideologies. It is exactly such a shift that defines the course of politics. How individual’s deal with one another is directly correlated with the information we have surrounding the perceptions of the “other”. And how individuals deal with each other determines communities, and, hypothetically, nations.

Dr. Hall presents a powerful and extensive theory regarding the impact of the present form of Globalization. Naomi Cline, in her review, stated that such a book could change the world. It is clear, thanks to “American Empire” that the present form of colonialism and imperialism present in the world is not new, but the continuation of a much older struggle. Where Dr. Hall struggles in clarity, he more then makes up with in enlightening and persuasive information.

~ by maffersalmon on October 24, 2007.