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Domination of the world, the old legend held, was Russian Tsar Peter the Great's last will and testament to his heirs and successors. From the way Russia expanded through the 18th, 19th centuries and the Soviet Union's expansion through the Warsaw Pact, one would think the legend was actual codified law.
The legend of Peter's testament was always in the background of the Great Game.
The Great Game, the rivalry between Russia and Britain in the early to mid 19th century for domination of Muslim Central Asia, was largely a battle for commercial enterprise. The British East India Company trying to open markets and trade routes before the Russians. The British were also fearful the old legend of Peter The Great was true and Russia had designs on India.
The Great Game was played out in countries that are in today's headlines--Georgia, Afghanistan, Iran.
The justifications used by the Russians in the 19th century to engage in military incursians--to free Russian citizens from the Khan of Khiva--mirror the modern justification for invading Georgia--freeing Ossentian Russians from Georgia.
If the Great Game is on again, only the Russian side is playing for keeps.
In the new version of the game, the goal is not access to the bazaars and trading cities of central asia--but the resources of central asia.
A perusal of the Forbes billionaire list shows a strikingly large number of Russians. Moreover, many of the Russian billionaires are in the raw materials industries--they take stuff out of the ground and turn it into a useable commodity.
Below is a list of the modern version of the Great Game countries and their resources as listed in the CIA World Factbook .
Afghanistan--natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones
Armenia--small deposits of gold, copper, molybdenum, zinc, bauxite
Azerbaijan--petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, nonferrous metals, bauxite
Georgia--forests, hydropower, manganese deposits, iron ore, copper, minor coal and oil deposits; coastal climate and soils allow for important tea and citrus growth
Iran--petroleum, natural gas, coal, chromium, copper, iron ore, lead, manganese, zinc, sulfur
Kazakhstan--major deposits of petroleum, natural gas, coal, iron ore, manganese, chrome ore, nickel, cobalt, copper, molybdenum, lead, zinc, bauxite, gold, uranium
Kyrgyzstan--abundant hydropower; significant deposits of gold and rare earth metals; locally exploitable coal, oil, and natural gas; other deposits of nepheline, mercury, bismuth, lead, and zinc
Tajikistan--hydropower, some petroleum, uranium, mercury, brown coal, lead, zinc, antimony, tungsten, silver, gold
Turkmenistan--petroleum, natural gas, sulfur, salt
Ukraine--iron ore, coal, manganese, natural gas, oil, salt, sulfur, graphite, titanium, magnesium, kaolin, nickel, mercury, timber, arable land
Uzbekistan--natural gas, petroleum, coal, gold, uranium, silver, copper, lead and zinc, tungsten, molybdenum
If the new version of the Game is as commercially oriented as the original, then the former Russian dominions above have what the Russian billionaires specialize in--oil, gas, minerals and energy. The countries are also the routes in which it will have to be delivered.
I am not a scholar of the Great Game, but definately a fan. And as a fan, I see the commercial prospects as the driving force now as it was nearly 200-years-ago.
The greatest prize of the game then was India. And it still may be. Not the conquest of India--but the market of India for the raw materials. China is also a market for the raw materials with its manufacturing industry--many of those plastic products are made with petroleum.
Both economies, like all others, are fueled by oil and natural gas.
The legend of the final testament of Peter The Great--for Russia to dominate the world--is probably not true. But even if it was, the way to dominate the modern world is as it always was--a mixture of arms and commerce. In that sense, though the players of the game may termporarily change, the game is always on.
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