In 27 B.C., Augustus Caesar created the greatest empire of all time: the Roman Empire. At its most expanded form, the Empire stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Euphrates River. The Romans owe their successful expansion efforts to their military techniques. Once the Romans conquered a town or city, they absorbed not only their people, but their beliefs and customs, creating a large and diverse Empire. A conquered people who were still allowed to practice their beliefs were more likely to join a Roman army when an alternative conqueror would most likely take away their individual rights.
Map of the Roman Empire at its greatest extent. Note this encompasses France, Spain and Italy.
In 1945, thousands of years later, Empires were still being created. In his article entitled, “Outline of a Doctrine of French Policy,” French philosopher Alexandre Kojeve asserts that in order to preserve the French identity and simultaneously protect France from being absorbed into another Empire, it should team up with Spain and Italy to create a new Empire, named the Latin Empire. The three countries, who all can trace their languages, religions, and origins to the Romans, would prove similar enough to coexist. With the added military power that Spain and Italy would bring France, France would be militaristically prepared to defend its country had Russia, Germany, or even the Anglo-Saxons decided to take control of it. According to Kojeve, France could achieve creating the Latin Empire by helping Spain overthrow its government and by informing Italy of the benefits absorbing into the Empire would bring it (pg. 27).
The Roman Empire’s greatest downfall was its ambition. Stretched out too far, the Empire had limited resources to provide for an ever growing population. It began to split and downsize until the Empire was just a fraction of the size it used to be. In 1453, the Empire’s current capital, Constantinople fell to the Arabs after being on the constant decline due to their ambitious expansion efforts. The Roman Empire shrunk in size, but never fully recovered the damage it had already set forth.
The proposed Latin Empire would likely repeat history. While Kojeve claims the intention is to create an Empire with the power to preserve neutrality, he contradicts himself when mentioning that Portugal, “would end up joining it sooner or later” (pg 28). Portugal is added as almost an afterthought to show the potential for expansion within the Latin America. Furthermore, Kojeve continues, saying that once the Latin Empire gains power, it could ally itself with Latin America (pg. 28). It would be only a matter of time until the Latin Empire begins to set its eyes on non-traditionally latin countries to expand its influence.
I am in no way a political philosopher like Alexandre Kojeve, but I do believe we can learn from the mistakes of the past. Empires in general do not usually know when to cease expansion to pursue a more successful form of self-sufficiency. I guess France should be thankful the Latin Empire never formed.
I loved that you compared this “Latin Empire” to the Roman Empire. It was interesting to see how this one former Empire and this proposed Empire could have ended in the same fashion. Would the Latin Empire just have caused more harm in Europe because it would eventually collapse ? It was a well crafted blog that I could tell it was well thought out.
Wow–I would’ve never thought about that, great comparison/assessment! You make really good points, and I agree with your logic. It seems pretty logical that the proposed Latin Empire would likely fall victim to the Roman Empire’s shortcoming as well: ambition. Kojeve’s plan, especially in modern day times, seems wild to us, but I wonder how it was received when it was written?
Great post! I really like the comparison here and I like that you highlight the contradiction between remaining neutral and the assumption of adding Portugal. I felt like that was a little odd as well.
I really like your comparison of the Latin Empire to the Roman Empire! To add onto your analysis, I think an interesting difference between the two is that the Roman Empire absorbed “beliefs and customs” of the conquered European towns or cities, but the Latin Empire was focused on the similarity of religion, nationality and culture as key bonds for the Latin empire.
I thought it was interesting that Kojeve believes that in keeping colonial powers, there would arise more agreement between Islam and Catholicism. Especially since part of his argument that the Latin Empire would work is because of the similarity in culture. Why would people want to be under control from another state in the first place?… I feel like this really shows the extent to which Europeans did not understand the cultures and people of their colonial holdings.
That is a really interesting point about the colonial powers. How could controlling other colonies from afar possibly help relations between Catholicism and Islam? I can only see differences arise when the governed do not follow the same religious beliefs as the governors. Especially in the case of the Latin Empire, where the formation of it would rely on the conformity that Catholicism would bring. In my opinion, having these colonies would provide the Empire with more resources, but only aid in convincing the Empire that expanding is essential when the resources run low and the Latin Empire decides to find more colonies to control.
What I like most about this blog post is the history that you brought to light. When discussing the Latin Empire in the class discussion I thought about the previous Roman Empire. This was great and I like the visual map of the expansion of the Roman Empire. I completely agree with your conclusion, Empires don’t know when to stop. They often fail when they try to expand and go too far. My question to the author is why do you think Empires fail when they expand too far? I believe that they are spread too thin militarily and over run, but thats my opinion.
Really interesting comparison! I like the way you pointed out the importance of accepting diversity in order to produce and govern a successful empire. If the Latin empire had formed, how long do you think it would have lasted? How do you think the rest of the world might have accepted or rejected such an empire?