OCCUPATION: A TYPOLOGY

Successful conquerors, imperialists and sundry would‐be expansionists face a common problem: they take what they can get — but how do they keep what they take? Having wrested lands and possessions from others, how do they contrive to retain them? More particularly, how do they organise and govern territories which are inhospitable and often actively hostile? This is the central concern of this discussion. The range of possibilities that is open to occupying powers in their dealings with conquered peoples is limited. Whatever method or combination of methods is adopted will involve different attitudes to, and applications of, some form of relevant ideology which we may define as a set of beliefs in a preferred social order which enables adherents to interpret their past, explain their present and develop a vision of the future.