What happens when a culturally irrelevant country gains power?

[Feo Takahari]

This is for a project I won't get to for a while, but there's no harm in asking a few questions now.

The titular society in The Shining City wasn't always so shining--it's only been five decades since the technological revolution that made it prosperous. To explain certain setting elements, I'm thinking of introducing another country, Nahan, that used to be the City's primary source of both trade goods and culture. The rich of the City used to wear Nahanese clothes, buy Nahanese trinkets, watch Nahanese plays, and generally try to be as Nahanese as possible. But how would the equation change now that the City is in a position of economic power over Nahan? To what degree would the City's elite celebrate their own culture, and to what degree would they still follow Nahan's? (I'm particularly interested in real-life societies that parallel this history--I may be able to use them as inspiration. I'm also more interested in the upper classes, since the heroine's the Defense Minister's daughter.)

 

[Jessquoi]

I think some places in Asia would be interesting to compare, where the industrialisation of those countries came later than in the West. You could look at a city like Shanghai, which is a complete mix of Asian and Western production, not for the exact reasons that you state for your story, because China was actually invaded by the West and that's why so many buildings in Shanghai look European. But they've also latched onto a lot of Western products, mainly technology, while still boasting Chinese cultural pride. It's kind of an opposite of what you're describing, but that's the picture I get.

Steampunk society could be a good inspiration for that too!

 

[Telcontar]

Often cultural relevance springs out of more concrete power - ie, economic or military. If this city has had a distinct culture in the past they may very well revert to it once they have influence of their own. Rising native power could result in a sort of nationalist movement, with a backlash against Nahanese culture.

An interesting example of a dominant military power adopting a conquered culture can be found in Alexander of Macedonia (Alexander the Great), who famously adopted the stylings, dress, and many of the customs of Persia after he conquered them. Of course, Persia was far from an 'irrelevant' country, having been arguably the most powerful nation in the world until then.

 

[ThinkerX]

Sounds like the old roman empire and its relationship with greece.

 

[Mindfire]

Often cultural relevance springs out of more concrete power - ie, economic or military. If this city has had a distinct culture in the past they may very well revert to it once they have influence of their own. Rising native power could result in a sort of nationalist movement, with a backlash against Nahanese culture.

An interesting example of a dominant military power adopting a conquered culture can be found in Alexander of Macedonia (Alexander the Great), who famously adopted the stylings, dress, and many of the customs of Persia after he conquered them. Of course, Persia was far from an 'irrelevant' country, having been arguably the most powerful nation in the world until then.

Also, the Romans adopted much of the culture of the conquered Greeks.

Sounds like the old roman empire and its relationship with greece.

DANGIT! I got ninja'd. lol

 

[Devor]

IRL, it tends to be different in every industry. I don't have a good example for you, but most cities are run by certain industries, like steel or small-scale manufacturing. They would be original in those industries and reliant elsewhere on others. NYC, for instance, is driven by fashion, media, publishing and finance.

So most likely, your fantasy city would find some areas where they excelled, either because of their natural resources or their local skill sets, or because the politics of rejecting the other trends demanded it, while continuing to use those old trends in other industries (probably even in denial about how foreign it is).

 

[Saigonnus]

Another possibility is a migration; people of a necessary field for whatever reason move to their "rival" country (maybe due to overtaxation on their goods, political interference in their business, war, famine etc.) and set up shop there with fewer complications to doing business. In the Wheel of Time series; when the war in the north country drove people out, they moved south to the two rivers and set up their trades there, potentially making it a new powerhouse on the world stage. (haven't read books 12 or 13 yet).

 

[The Unseemly]

What happens when an irrelevant country gets power? Well, what happened in the Middle East? Poor Afghanistan...
Basically what happens is that that power gets used. This is usually because "irrelevant" countries (like Afghanistan) get used by "relevant" countries, like America. At such times, the irrelevant country has to simply grind its teeth and do as it is told, less the relevant country decide to show it who's the boss.

And, as you may have guessed from history, people don't like that sort of thing. Would you like it if someone relevant came an kicked you is the arse, saying do such and pay me such, and you'll not have your life made any harder? So when you gain power what's the natural thing for you to do? Kick them back. That's more or less what happened with the Taliban. Why do you think they hate America so much? Because America's done some pretty nasty things to their country. Proved that they are mad enough to suicide-crash aeroplanes into the Twin Towers (and some other places) and think it was a good thing.

And that's the sort of thing I see happening in your Nahan. People live in prosperity (the culture, the trading etc.), even if others find it harder to do so, but then it takes only one megalomaniac with a bright idea (heh... Hitler), and people's views change, and it doesn't get pleasant. Usually, like with Afghanistan, the relevant countries make their pretexts, and start a war to prove who's boss. Of course, no-one of their right political mind would consider the innocent people's feelings about this, now would they?

Anyway, just my historically based ideas.

Good luck!

 

[Sea of Stars]

I would think the new Shining City would try and reinvent itself as having been relevant in the past, dredging up (or inventing) a historical/mythic past that made them much more important than they really were. Probably stealing aspects of the major cultural players for their own purposes.

 

[Queshire]

Hmmm.... This reminds me of the history of Japan. Way in the distant past it heavily based itself off of Imperial China, more recently after it's isolation was broken open it based itself heavily on the west. Nowdays it's a crazy, unique mish-mash of east, west, and its own insanity.

Essentially, there would still be Nahanese elements, but they would be twisted and warped into something uniquely shining-city-ish.