“American states desire to establish brotherly union between the nations”.
Ilia Chavchavadze, 25 February 1889
Patriots Alliance representative Vazha Otarashvili made incorrect interpretation of Ilia Chavchavadze’s words about America on Obiektivi TV. More specifically, he said:
“For Georgians and for the world Christianity, Orthodox Christianity is the best democracy.I want to address John Kerry and tell him that Georgians had great “father of the nation” Ilia Chavchavadze,who in 1889 wrote a brilliant article – “Europe and United States of America” and maybe you Mr. John Kerry should read this article, it is translated, maybe American embassy and provide it. This Ilia Chavchavadze’s great prophecy, when no great father of yours, nor any European thinker could imagine that USA would become the world hegemon and would dominate with the line of development that Ilia Chavchavadze formulated in this article so profoundly. I am saying this because it was Ilia Chavchavadze who explained what Georgian Christian means.” – Obiektivi, 15 October.
In fact, this is about Ilia Chavchavadze’s article Europe’s Militarism and America’s Future, which cannot be used as an example of opposition of the 19th century Georgian national movement members’ opposition to the West, due to the following facts:
In this article, dated 25 February 1889, Ilia Chavchavadze discusses military expenditure of the European powers of the period. It is well-known, that during that period of industrial revolution, economic success and technological progress European powers spend great resources on armaments and modernization of their military forces. The author does not consider this negative impact of militarism on economy justified. “Europe has in arms 1/8 of all working force.”
After the European countries Ilia Chavchavadze discusses United States of America.He approves of America because of its small military forces and because its resources are used for the nation’s economic development. “The national wealth and prosperity of the American States is so much better than that of Europe that they are more successful than Europe in all things related to trade and industry”.Ilia believes that militarism of the European powers will cause their economic bankruptcy, while United States will in the future have economic influence on Europe. “The States will economically subdue all of Europe, which will undoubtedly become bankrupt”.
Besides economic success, Ilia Chavchavadze notes peacefulness of United States.While”in Europe bitterness and hate between nations get stronger and stronger”, America provides a totally different picture. “American states desire to establish brotherly union between the nations, with which purpose there will be a congress held in New York. The congress will discuss how states of America can unite, so that no American nation is oppressed. The congress will also decide that nations must decide all quarrels and disputes by negotiation and peacefully. There is no doubt, that since American nations will reach brotherly agreement, this will further hinder Europe, which is beset with militarism, and will help America in gaining the world leadership “, – wrote Chavchavadze.
The whole version of the article can be viewed in the following link
