VOLUME IV, CHAPTER 9
Expansion, the Ultimate Goal of Political Institutions
Last chapter covered why centralized authority works. This chapter goes one layer deeper and asks what all that capacity is finally for, and the answer is one word, expansion. Three sections. The first is that expansion is the ultimate goal of every political institution: every political institution is, at bottom, expanding, and one that does not expand is pushed out. Then it looks at the three forms of expansion, from ancient territorial conquest, to modern colonization with economic plunder as its base color and deep, lasting wounds behind it, to today's multidimensional reach across culture, technology, ideology, and infrastructure. The second section fixes firmly one of the most important techniques in this book: on all expansion, pass no verdict on right and wrong, and yet passing no verdict is not the same as seeing no difference, for different expansions carry different undertones. Then it looks at Chinese civilization's own distinctive samples across history, from the Silk Road to the voyages of Zheng He, trade, culture, and building foremost. The third section is a striking historical contrast: the centralized great state was built in China twenty-two hundred years ago, while Europe was nearly two thousand years late, and the point is that late is not backward, it is a structural difference of geography, culture, and power arrangement, each road with its own costs and its own gains. This chapter shows one thing: expansion is the instinct of every civilization, but the ways of expanding differ enormously, and the verdict is left to the reader.
Chapter contents
Section One. Expansion, from territory to colony to many dimensions
Section Two. Both sides of expansion, different undertones and the Chinese samples
Section Three. Why Europe was late, not backward but structurally different
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.