Culture Crashers: How To Break A Society - In 7 Simple Steps

Cultures are delicate things. They depend on staple foods, political structures and tribal players, social taboos and ancient superstitions. Throughout history cultures have swamped others with varying success. I have to say, the most successful one has been the taking of the New World by various European powers (Chiefly the Spanish, Portuguese, English and French). Think about, around 70 million people on two continents decimated by disease and war in less than a century in its most populated zones. (Mexico, Peru, Southeastern US, the Carribean and Coastal Brazil). Just recently has the Amerindian population recovered to pre-contact levels. Some 500 years later. Their European conquerors thought they'd die out by now but they're still alive and kicking thank God.

Another less well known one but still important is the Bantu Expansion. Following the invention of agriculture in West Africa, that region's population swelled to such a point where migrations were taken to venture down in Central and Southern Africa. Except there was a problem. Central Africa was full of pygmies and Eastern and Southern Africa were full of people who spoke with clicks like the Bushmen. Both groups were hunter-gatherers. Farmers like to have large families and need land to grow crops, especially if they're slash and burn farmers like those in Africa. They had trouble settling in East Africa but Austronesian plants like bananas, asian yams and taro helped them settle pretty well there and in the Great Lakes region. The Khoisan and Pygmy peoples were swamped due to better technology (the Bantus had iron tools), organization, more food and people. The pygmies and Khoisan bushmen who survived had to live in places no Bantu would like the Congo rainforest or the Kalahari desert.

Still, both Native America and Khoisan-Bushmen Southern Africa were conquered. Their societies smashed and the budding conquerer in you can do it too in 7 simple steps.

Step One: Know Who You're Dealing With

The Aztecs got to know their enemies by sending out spies in the guise of traders to gather secrets about their armed forces and society. The British practically did the same in the form of their various companies (Royal Niger Company, East Indian Company etc). Getting to know how a society work makes it a lot easier to topple. For instance, same you realize you need to control the population but the hostile majority tribe or caste is pissed off at you. No problem! Just use the other 15% of the population to run the whole thing and carry out the massacres. It's better that the natives remember their tribal foes living next door than you! Which leads us to the next item on the list.

Step Two: Get Someone To Be Teacher's Pet

If you're in a place, where the climate isn't favourable to your people (tropical Africa or India) getting someone else to do all the work for you, manage the bureaucracy and man the garrisons is crucial. The British used the Sikhs after finding out they were a 'martial race' and were forced to rely on them more after the Indian mutiny. Loyal Sikhs helped recover Central India from the rebellious sepoys. They also used the Iroquois to fight the French in North America when the French and British weren't at it. The Iroquois became the enemy of the French after they killed a few Iroquois chiefs back when Champlain first visited. This hatred culminated in the destruction of the Huron and the ultimate ass-kicking the French received at the Battle of Quebec. Even if you do wind up being teacher's pet, not everything is a benefit. For example the Tamils got shipped to all over the damn world when they were teacher's pet from Guyana to Fiji. Life isn't all the grand for the imperial lapdog, at least you get to survive however.

Step Three: Make Him An Offer He Can't Refuse

It's simple. The ruler you're against is being a bitch. He knows that you're a threat to the power he has on the island. You send down your own Henry Kissinger and he tells it real simple "Listen bud it's like this. Either you give us access to free trade in your tiny tropical hellhole with no other competing partners or we shell your palace, kill your sons, rape your daughters, force your people to be indentured servants and burn the temples and genealogical records of your ancestors". If you were smart, you'd say yes master and give them all they want. If you're smart you become the puppet of some far-off yet greedy Empire. If you're stupid like the former Kings of Burma. You die. The British fought 3 wars with the Burmese for the very reason pseudo Harry Kissinger stated above. Also, the fact that they didn't want an expansive power near British India hence wars with Nepal, Afghanistan, the Sikh Empire etc.

The agreement is a mutual one however. This ruler, chief, rajah keeps your policies and fills your coffers. You make him richer and keep him alive from any potential enemies. A sickening parasitical relationship.

Step Four: Imperial Grunts

Using native auxallaries to conquer territory for you is one of the oldest tricks in the book. From the Romans using German mercenaries, the Byzantines using Norse, Russians and Saxons, Ottomans using Christian boys to create Janassaries etc. There's ways you can go about this. One good example is conquer the most war-like tribe and make a deal with them. Promise them life in exchange for serving Your Majesty. Like the Gurkhas from Nepal. That deal is still going strong despite the crash of the British Empire. The French used the Senegalese when they were running out of healthy 20 year olds on the Western Front. If you're lucky, your settler colony will give away its best and brightest to do the dying like the Anzacs in Anatolia around 1915 in a place called Gallipolli.

The good thing about this is that you're keeping both subject peoples weak. The native soldier's tribe is without its warriors so things are quiet over there despite the casualties their men are taking. While the tribe you're rubbing out is getting massacred. It's better than having your troops do the killing and them remember as opposed to them remembering a Sikh, Malay or Visigoth.

Step Five: Kill Their Gods, Crush Their Spirits

A time tested manner to crush their collective will is to destroy their religion. Introducing a new faith divides the people and makes the elite battle the people in society who converted (usually the lower classes) thus creating a class conflict via religious conflict. Excellent. Seriously, how would you fight if you knew the British blew up your sacred shrine like what happened to the Igbo of Southern Nigeria. Harder, or would you realize the power of your Gods is non-existent and surrender to these superior forces knowing that their One God and his Dead Son reign supreme. In Colonial Africa, this was the norm. Convert to crush them. It always worked unless they were already Muslim.

Step Six: Burning Drowns Out Any Lamentations

If you have a really unruly population which always rebels or is fighting against you. You gotta hit them where it hurts. Especially if they're a rural society. It's harder when they're city-based which makes the case for setting German and Japanese cities aflame during the Second World War. If they're agricultural, the farm is everything. It produces the most important goods - food. It's the center of the home and hearth. Destroying farms is key to victory in total war. The Boers, the White Tribe of Africa were subjected to this to crush their guerrilla campaign after conventional war failed when more troops arrived to the South African veldt. The forces against them outnumbered the two Republics - the Transvaal and Orange Free State so guerrilla tactics became a must but even Lord Kitchener grew tired of the Boers 'running away on their ponies'. A campaign to destroy Boer homesteads and herd them into British concentration camps crushed Boer resistance. Destroying every home, field, animal made sure the Boers would become destitute, depressed and no more a strong nation. The British won the Boer War but lost South Africa as soon as they left.

Step Seven: It's A Whole New World

If you manage to subdue a territory, and reduce its native population to a manageable population the most logical step next is to annex and swamp the place with your people. Making your country more homogenous in the process. This is happening today with Han Chinese in Xianjiang and Tibet. Javanese people flooding Western Papua New Guinea, Sudanese Arabs going into Southern Tribal areas. This process is so succesful, the most powerful nation in the World the United States owes its power to this process. Starting out as a collection of English provinces on the Atlantic Coast it's nearly endless land (a significant portion being arable) allowed millions of immigrants to come to its shore, promoted a large birthrate to fill space in the new country and exploit any resources which were found and plenty were found to fuel this new nation. America was bound to be a new Empire as Washington deemed it because of its land. The same can't be said of Tibet, however it makes the population more loyal to the central government in case rebellion breaks out.

So, there you have it. Seven steps to conquer and break a society. I can't think of any society being re-made in this way since we now have a Global Culture apparently. Except of course in the Middle East. I can't really see Afghanistan becoming Ohio but I can see Iraq resembling an even worse Detroit (if that's even possible)....