A practice of colonialism and crafty players of the Sid Meier's Civ series, is to turn their conquered subjects into conquerors in service of the empire. Maybe the Europeans borrowed a few things from King Xerxes. This may have served a few purposes.- It would be less expensive to raise and supply a local army then deploy a regular unit.
- Training a local force would also help assimilate the local civilians.
- Less European lives would have to be sacrificed to force expansion of the empire.
- With less Europeans dead then the people of color in every conflict, the European appears invincible.( Much like how the costly victory of the USSR in St, Petersburg facilitated the victory of the , late to enter, Americans.)
The British would refer to some of their subjects as martial races. “Races” of men, of course, that had the the desire and build for warfare. many of these were groups of people that had remained loyal during some of the rebellions in India.
I was wondering if we still see that today? Are places like Guam, Samoa, Puerto Rico, and the USVI valuable resources for military recruitment? Could we even say that the Yishuv Jews are being treated as martial race to protect European imperial capitalist access to the Suez canal and the rest of the middle east. I probably know more about Israeli Defense Forces than I do about Judaism. I see a lot more of it in pop culture and conversations with Europeans. You tell me. What do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment