Peripheral Society
The society on the outer edge of a civilization — late to adopt the instrument of expansion, but often the agent that conquers and replaces the core
Also known as: peripheral state, peripheral area, peripheral power, semiperipheral state, barbarian periphery
A peripheral society is, in Quigley's framework, any community on the outer fringe of a civilization that adopts the instrument of expansion later than the core does. Because it inherits a mature toolkit without the entrenched interests built up alongside it in the core, the periphery routinely outproduces and ultimately overruns the original homeland — Rome over Greece, Germany over Britain and France, the United States and the Soviet Union over Western Europe (T&H 19-22; EoC 137-141).
Definition
Quigley defines a peripheral society spatially and historically. Spatially it is whatever territory "became part of the civilization only in the period of expansion and later" (T&H 19) — the outer ring of geography swept in once the instrument of expansion had matured in the core. Historically it is the society whose adoption of that instrument lags the core's by decades or centuries. When a still-more-refined version is needed, Quigley distinguishes a semi-periphery between core and periphery — "a third, semiperipheral area between the core area and the fully peripheral area" (T&H 19). The peripheral society is not a vague "barbarian" zone; it is integral to the civilization and a full participant in it, just on a delayed timetable.
Why the Periphery is Dynamic
The peripheral society's defining advantage is that it adopts the instrument of expansion already developed — without inheriting the vested interests that grew up beside it in the core. "By what is essentially a process of geographic circumvention," Quigley writes, peripheral areas "frequently shortcut many of the developments experienced by the core area. As a result, by the latter half of Stage 3, the peripheral areas are tending to become wealthier and more powerful than the core areas" (EoC 137). While the core has begun the instrument-to-institution transition — sclerotic guilds, entrenched landholders, captured ministries — the periphery is still in full Age of Expansion. The core therefore enters the Age of Conflict first; the periphery enters it later or never at all before the civilization is consolidated.
The Periphery Conquers the Core
The core/periphery distinction would be a piece of geography if not for what Quigley shows it does. In civilization after civilization the Universal Empire is forged not from the core but from the periphery, often after the semi-periphery has first conquered the core. "When this occurs the core empire is generally a semiperipheral state, while the Universal Empire is generally a peripheral state. Thus, Mesopotamia's core was conquered by semi-peripheral Babylonia about 1700 B.C., while the whole of Mesopotamian civilization was conquered by more peripheral Assyria about 725 B.C. (replaced by fully peripheral Persia about 525 B.C.). In Classical Civilization the core area was conquered by semiperipheral Macedonia about 336 B.C., while the whole civilization was conquered by peripheral Rome about 146 B.C." (T&H 21). In Mayan civilization the Aztecs of the central Mexican highlands were the peripheral conquerors; in Andean civilization the Incas played the role; in Sinic civilization the Han dynasty rose from the southern periphery (EoC 142).
The Modern Case — Germany, Russia, and America
Quigley applies the framework to the present without flinching. By the late nineteenth century, the original Western core (England, the Low Countries, northern France, northern Italy) was already passing into a third Age of Conflict, while its peripheries — Germany, the United States, Russia, Japan — were still in vigorous expansion. The First and Second World Wars are, on this reading, classic peripheral-state assaults on a sclerotic core. Germany — Quigley's archetypal semi-peripheral state — twice attempted to seize control of the Western core; the United States and the Soviet Union, as fully peripheral powers, emerged from 1945 as the dominant successor states of the civilization, ushering in the Cold War. "Western civilization did not have a full stage lag in its peripheral areas, but the lag was sufficiently prolonged to provide a masking influence on the demarcations of stages" (EoC 356).
Methodological Stakes
The peripheral society concept does political work in Quigley's argument: it dissolves the heroic-nationalist account of why latecomer powers (Rome, Germany, Russia, America) outrun their teachers. The mechanism is not virtue, racial vigor, or providence; it is the structural advantage of inheriting a working instrument of expansion without the rents that accumulated in the place it was forged. The concept also frames Quigley's treatment of cyclical history. If decline were purely internal — a core civilization rotting from within — there would be no successor to take up the role. The periphery supplies the agent, generating the wars of the Age of Conflict and producing whichever state finally consolidates the Universal Empire.
Cited in
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 19 Quigley
An older core area (which had existed as part of the civilization even before the period of expansion) and a newer peripheral area (which became part of the civilization only in the period of expansion and later). If we wish, we can make, as an additional refinement, a third, semiperipheral area between the core area and the fully peripheral area.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 20 Quigley
In the latter part of the Age of Expansion, the peripheral areas of a civilization tend to become wealthier and more powerful than the core area. Another way of saying this is that the core passes from the Age of Expansion to the Age of Conflict before the periphery does.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 21 Quigley
When this occurs the core empire is generally a semiperipheral state, while the Universal Empire is generally a peripheral state. ... In Classical Civilization the core area was conquered by semiperipheral Macedonia about 336 B.C., while the whole civilization was conquered by peripheral Rome about 146 B.C.
- evolution-of-civilizations · p. 137 Quigley
When expansion begins to slow up in the core areas, as a result of the instrument of expansion becoming institutionalized, and the core area becomes increasingly static and legalistic, the peripheral areas continue to expand (by what is essentially a process of geographic circumvention) and frequently shortcut many of the developments experienced by the core area. As a result, by the latter half of Stage 3, the peripheral areas are tending to become wealthier and more powerful than the core areas.
- evolution-of-civilizations · p. 140 Quigley
Just as the core area passes from Stage 3 to Stage 4 earlier than the peripheral area does, so the core area comes to be conquered by a single state before the whole civilization is conquered by the universal empire.
- evolution-of-civilizations · p. 142 Quigley
The whole of Sinic society was then brought into a single universal empire by the Han dynasty from its southern periphery (202 B.C.—A.D. 220).
- evolution-of-civilizations · p. 356 Quigley
Western civilization did not have a full stage lag in its peripheral areas, but the lag was sufficiently prolonged to provide a masking influence on the demarcations of stages.