From the point of view of wealth and influence, “the world”
of 1900 was Europe and, by grudging concession, the United States. Throughout
the planet, Western imperialism was pursuing among the populations of other
lands what it regarded as its “civilizing mission”. In the words of one
historian, the century’s opening decade appeared to be essentially a
continuation of the “long nineteenth century”, an era whose boundless
self-satisfaction was perhaps best epitomized by the celebration in 1897 of
Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee, a parade that rolled for hours through the
streets of London, with an imperial panoply and display of military power far
surpassing anything attempted in past civilizations.
(From ‘Century of Light’,
a document prepared under the supervision of the Universal House of Justice and
published in 2001)
