Rethinking Modernity through Empire: Coloniality, Borders and the Politics of Power

This paper challenges the concept of modernity as a construct that overlooks the impact of power and imperialism on the global order. While modernity has been idealised as a path to progress, rationality and development, this vision obscures its entanglement with, and often facilitation by, imperialism, especially colonialism. The global expansion of modernity was a violent process that created the material and ideological conditions for the global flourishing of modernity. This paper has two central tasks. First, it revisits the phases of modernity, arguing imperial projects, colonialism and imperialism, allowed modernity to spread and take root, giving rise to old-fashioned and colonial theories of modernisation. Inspired by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s Empire (2000), the paper argues that modernity can be understood through imperialism – a system that exported Western norms and institutions globally through economic exploitation, cultural domination and the militarised control of colonised territories. Second, these lenses allow us to rethink the coloniality of modernity, while keeping in sight how colonialism and imperialism remain relevant to the contemporary global order. If there is a strengthening of the nation-state at the same time as transnational capitalism increases the mobility of finance and labour across the globe, we need to rethink our conceptual tools.

Empirical examples support our argument. By examining migration routes and border tensions – particularly between Africa and Europe – the paper illustrates how borders are sites where imperial/colonial power dynamics continue to manifest themselves. By framing modernity itself as permeated by imperialism, the paper argues that empire – whether colonial, postcolonial or neo-colonial – provides a more fertile ground for understanding ongoing global power struggles. it becomes clearer how colonialism and imperialism – while distinct – are intimately linked in shaping the global economy, migration patterns and border politics.