The centre will not hold: what happens when empires collide and collapse

At a meeting in Cambridge this week (6 to 8 December), experts in widely differing areas will look at life on the frontiers and peripheries of some of history’s greatest empires with a particular focus on the periods when these empires were imploding.

The conference, which takes place at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, is titled The End of Empire: life on the frontiers of imperial polities. It represents a chance for speakers to challenge perceived thinking of frontiers as impermeable barriers and explore the ways in which the drawing of lines affected and shaped local populations, sometimes with legacies that have proved extraordinarily deep-seated.

The event has been organised by Dr Susanne Hakenbeck from the McDonald Institute, an archaeologist whose own research focuses on the nomads and farmers along the Danube frontier following the demise of the Roman Empire. Recent interpretations of archaeological evidence suggest that interactions between the populations of the Carpathians were complex and led to the development of a hybrid identity along the frontier zone.

“Empires are expansive, swallowing whole populations that stand in their way. But what happens when things fall apart is a fascinating topic,” said Dr Hakenbeck. “We’re bringing together people from a wide range of fields to examine life on the frontier of imperial polities at the point where central power breaks down. It’s at this disjuncture that lots of interesting things happen – including the formation of new nation states.”

The meeting will cover five main aspects of the collapse of empires: the physical frontier, relationships with the centre, the contested frontier, the fluid frontier and frontier zones as sources of identity. In terms of historical span, the speakers will tackle temporal zones that range from the breakup of some of the earliest empires right up to 20^th century with the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989.

Professor Richard Hingley, from the University of Durham, will talk about perceptions of another of the world’s greatest frontiers, Hadrian’s Wall, which swept across the breadth of northern England from the Solway Firth in the west to Segedunum in the River Tyne in the east.  He will argue that, despite its monumental nature, the Wall was inclusive as well as divisive. It incorporated peoples from across a vast empire but also served to control and condition the movement of many. His paper will also address the afterlife of this frontier and its role in the contemporary world.

When powers collide, and borders shift, the consequences are stark. Jumping forward in time to the 20^th century, Barry Turner from Lincoln School of Journalism will provide an insight into the former holiday resort of Varosha on the eastern coast of Cyprus, where the high rise buildings that were briefly some of Europe’s most luxurious hotels now lie derelict and abandoned. Once known as Cyprus’s number one holiday destination, and a playground for the rich and famous, Varosha is the beach-side quarter of the city of Famagusta where in 1974 the Greek and Turkish armies met in combat. When the Turks gained control of Varosha, they cordoned it off and denied access to all but Turkish military and UN personnel. The entire resort has remained fenced off and its buildings gently crumbling ever since, becoming a potent symbol of division within an increasingly free Europe.

Several speakers will discuss their research into the ways in which the making and dismantling of European empires – British, German and Portuguese - have had a lasting impact on African countries as a result of imposing formalised boundaries and administrations on top of the existing free-flowing structures of indigenous groups.

Dr Stefania Merlo from the University of Botswana will draw attention to the reality that colonial empires accorded different status to different territories with the British empire considering some colonies to be central to their interests and others more marginal. She will focus on the ways in which global interests interacted with local structures in the area north of the Molopo River that in 1885 became the British protectorate of Betchuanaland (now the Republic of Botswana).

She said: “Very little work has been undertaken on the more mundane aspects of the relationship of the British colonial empire with the people of the territories beyond the problematic Northern Cape frontier, but it is clear that the modern history of Botswana has been shaped by the power of local actors in this relationship.”

Dr Merlo will offer a fascinating insight into the interweaving of the British administration and local powers as a succession of missionaries, chiefs, explorers, traders and administrators forged their lives in these remote territories. This will provide an opportunity to explore more ambiguous mechanisms of resistance to colonial power.

In a presentation about the ways in which contested frontiers shape personal narratives, Dr Heidi Armbruster from the University of Southampton will illustrate how oral histories, in this case interviews conducted with three-generation families in rural Bavaria and Thuringia, can deepen our historical understanding of life at the periphery of East and West Germany – right from the division of Germany after the Second World War to reunification in 1990, following the unfolding of scenes that have become iconic of the pulling-down of barriers.  Her work reveals how borders can remain vehicles of identity and emotion long after their disappearance as physical monuments.

The wide-ranging inter-disciplinary focus conference, also crossing intellectual boundaries, will address the politics of inclusion, exclusion and resistance along the frontiers of empires, in particular during periods of collapse. It will find new ways of thinking about frontiers, not just as lines on a map, but as nodes in networks and as negotiated spaces.