"History is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again." — George R.R. Martin
But what if the wheel has turned against its maker?
I. Europe’s Zenith: The Colonial Machine
For centuries, Europe positioned itself as the engine of human progress, the birthplace of philosophy, science, and enlightened governance. Yet beneath this veneer of civilization churned a ruthless machine fueled by extraction and subjugation. The Scramble for Africa (1880–1900) epitomized this duality: while European salons debated Kant and Voltaire, their governments carved a continent into fiefdoms with the cold precision of butchers .
The Two Faces of Colonial Domination:
Settler Colonialism: Lands like Algeria and Rhodesia became laboratories for European replication. Indigenous populations were erased or confined to reservations, replaced by farms and towns modeled on Manchester or Marseille. These territories served as demographic safety valves, absorbing "excess" European populations while exporting cultural hegemony .
Exploitation Colonialism: In the Congo Basin and Gold Coast, Europe deployed a vampiric model. King Leopold II of Belgium turned Congo into a rubber-blooded fiefdom, where severed hands became currency for quotas unmet. Infrastructure existed only to expedite resource theft—ivory, rubber, gold—while African societies were deliberately deindustrialized to prevent competition.
Table: The Colonial Extraction Matrix
| Colonial Type | Primary Goal | Tool of Control | Legacy in Post-Colonial States |
|---|---|---|---|
| Settler | Demographic Expansion | Land Dispossession | Ethnic Fragmentation, Economic Inequality |
| Exploitation | Resource Extraction | Forced Labor (e.g., Code de l’Indigénat) | Institutional Weakness, Mono-Resource Economies |
Europe’s ideological alibi was the "civilizing mission"—a toxic blend of social Darwinism and paternalism. International law itself was twisted into a tool of dispossession. As jurist Charles Salomon conceded, African sovereignty was deemed "rudimentary," a patronizing euphemism justifying its erasure . The Berlin Conference (1884–85) wasn’t diplomacy; it was a cartel agreement among thieves, partitioning a continent with rulers and greed .
II. The Unraveling: From Masters to Dependents
Europe’s descent from global overlord to geopolitical dependent unfolded through self-inflicted wounds and shifting tectonic plates:
The Recoil of Violence: Colonial wars bled Europe morally and materially. France’s brutal suppression of Algeria (1954–62) exposed the hypocrisy of "liberté, egalité, fraternité," breeding domestic dissent and international condemnation. The myth of civilizational superiority crumbled alongside colonial statues .
The American Protectorate: After 1945, Europe traded empires for umbrella security. NATO, initially a shield against Stalin, became a cradle of dependency. As U.S. strategist George Friedman notes, Europe’s security architecture relied on Washington’s nuclear guarantee, allowing its nations to prioritize social welfare over military readiness .
Economic Vassalage: The Eurozone and EU enlargement created prosperity but also vulnerability. German industry thrived on Russian gas; French influence in Africa waned as China moved in. Europe became a consumer, not a director, of global energy and trade flows. The 2022 energy crisis laid bare this fragility—Moscow could freeze Berlin with a pipeline closure .
Today, Europe resembles a rentier aristocracy living in a mortgaged castle. Its cultural confidence is replaced by apologetic multiculturalism; its strategic autonomy surrendered to NATO’s command. As one Dutch think tank laments: "The Netherlands now advocates for a tough stance on Russia... yet NATO remains strategically adrift without U.S. leadership" . Europe isn’t a colony in the 19th-century sense—it’s a post-modern satellite, orbiting between Washington’s demands and Beijing’s markets.
III. Russia’s Last Stand: The Rejection of Subjugation
Russia watched Europe’s decline not with pity, but with visceral dread. Having survived the 1990s—a decade of Western-backed "shock therapy" that plunged millions into poverty—it perceives NATO expansion as an existential envelopment. The Kremlin’s actions today are less about rebuilding an empire than preventing Russia from becoming Europe 2.0: a vassalized space stripped of sovereignty.
The Russian Gambit:
The Multipolar Crusade: Putin frames the Ukraine invasion as a revolt against U.S. unipolarity. His 2023 Foreign Policy Concept demands an end to the "imposition of rules... drawn up without equal participation" . Africa becomes a critical theater in this struggle, where Wagner mercenaries prop up juntas in Mali or Burkina Faso, trading security for UN votes and sanction-busting gold mines.
Asymmetric Colonization: Unlike Europe’s heavy-footprint colonialism, Russia practices transactional hegemony. It offers African junta leaders what the West cannot: no lectures on democracy, just guns and diplomatic cover. In return, it gains diplomatic allies, resource access, and a rear base to harass Western interests. This is colonialism stripped of pretense—a pragmatic, cynical co-option .
Deterrence Through Terror: Russia’s nuclear brinkmanship isn’t madness—it’s calculated nihilism. By threatening escalation (e.g., stationing nukes in Belarus), Moscow signals it would rather trigger apocalypse than endure Ukraine-style encirclement. As one analysis notes: "Russian deterrence is not only preventive, but reactive and offensive... using nuclear threat as containment" .
Table: Europe’s Colonial Legacy vs. Russia’s Neo-Imperialism
| European Colonialism (19th C.) | Russian Neo-Imperialism (21st C.) | |
|---|---|---|
| Economic Model | Plantations/Mines (State/Company-Run) | Resource Concessions (Oligarch/Wagner Control) |
| Military Tool | Colonial Armies (e.g., Force Publique) | PMCs (Private Military Companies) |
| Ideology | "Civilizing Mission" / Social Darwinism | "Sovereign Multipolarity" / Anti-Westernism |
| Vulnerability | Nationalist Revolts / Cost of Occupation | Sanctions / Overextension |
IV. The Gathering Storm: A Continent’s Fate in the Balance
Europe now faces a triple reckoning:
Military Irrelevance: Without U.S. might, NATO’s eastern flank is alarmingly thin. Russia may not invade Poland tomorrow, but a lightning strike on Narva, Estonia—a city with 95% Russian speakers—could fracture NATO’s resolve .
Resource Subservience: Having abandoned nuclear energy and bet on Russian gas, Europe scrambled when the taps closed. Now it begs Qatar for LNG and Congo for cobalt, swapping one master for others.
Spiritual Exhaustion: Europe struggles to articulate why it should resist Russia beyond platitudes about "rules." Its post-heroic societies prioritize comfort over sacrifice—a luxury Russia exploits .
Russia, meanwhile, fights with the desperation of a cornered predator. It knows its economy (smaller than Italy’s) cannot sustain an indefinite conflict. Yet it also knows Europe’s weakness: fractured will. As the Clingendael Institute warns: "Misrepresenting the threat Russia poses undermines societal trust... vital for increased defence expenditure" . Putin bets that Western democracies lack the stomach for long wars.
V. Conclusion: The Wheel Turns
Europe’s descent from colonizer to colonized is a parable of hubris. It built a world order on extraction, only to be outmaneuvered by its own creation—a U.S.-led system that reduced it to a junior partner. Now, Russia wages a metaphysical war against that very order, seeing in Ukraine not just territory, but the front line of a civilization it fears will consume it.
The tragedy is this: Europe’s fate need not be Russia’s. But Moscow, scarred by the 1990s and NATO’s eastward march, views compromise as suicide. It will fight—with cyberattacks, gas blackmail, even nuclear threats—not for glory, but for survival. As one Russian strategist chillingly framed it: "For Moscow, Ukraine is the symbolic battlefield to reaffirm its status as a great power" .
The wheel of history grinds forward. No cradle remains unbroken forever.
Cover Image: Ruins of the Roman Forum, Rome—once the heart of an empire, now a monument to transience (Credit: Unsplash).