Empire

An Empire is a sovereign state that extends its dominance over large territories and diverse peoples.

• Context:
  • It can primarily established through conquest and maintained through the centralization of authority and control.
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• Example(s):
  • Akkadian Empire (~2334-2154 BCE) as the first empire in history, known for uniting Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one rule.
  • Roman Empire (~27 BCE to ~476 CE) representing a pivotal phase in ancient history, marked by significant expansion, cultural achievements, and legal innovations.
  • Mongol Empire (~1206 to ~1368) known for creating the largest contiguous land empire in history, facilitating significant cultural and economic exchange across Eurasia.
  • Byzantine Empire (~330 to ~1453) surviving the fall of the Western Roman Empire and preserving Roman and Greek knowledge through the Middle Ages.
  • Ottoman Empire (~1299 to 1922) which spanned across Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa at its zenith, leaving a lasting impact on the region's architecture, culture, and legal systems.
  • British Empire (16th century to 20th century) known for being the largest empire in history and for its role in shaping global trade, politics, and culture through colonization and imperialism.
  • Russian Empire (1721-1917) characterized by rapid expansion across Eurasia, significant influence in European affairs, and major contributions to the arts and sciences.
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• Counter-Example(s):
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• See: Globalization, Metropole, Sovereign State, Emperor, Empress-Regnant, Central African Empire, Anglo-Saxon, Austria-Hungary, Russian Empire, Carthaginian Empire, British Empire, Transnational Corporation, Imperialism, Colonialism.

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References

2024

• (Wikipedia, 2024) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire Retrieved:2024-3-6.
  • An empire is a political unit made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries".The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) exercises political control over the peripheries. Within an empire, different populations have different sets of rights and are governed differently. Narrowly defined, an empire is a sovereign state whose head of state is an emperor or empress; but not all states with aggregate territory under the rule of supreme authorities are called empires or are ruled by an emperor; nor have all self-described empires been accepted as such by contemporaries and historians (the Central African Empire, and some Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in early England being examples). There have been "ancient and modern, centralized and decentralized, ultra-brutal and relatively benign" empires.An important distinction has been between land empires made up solely of contiguous territories, such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the Russian Empire; and those created by sea-power, which include territories that are remote from the 'home' country of the empire, such as the Carthaginian Empire or the British Empire.Aside from the more formal usage, the word empire can also refer colloquially to a large-scale business enterprise (e.g. a transnational corporation), a political organization controlled by a single individual (a political boss), or a group (political bosses). The concept of empire is associated with other such concepts as imperialism, colonialism, and globalization, with imperialism referring to the creation and maintenance of unequal relationships between nations and not necessarily the policy of a state headed by an emperor or empress. Empire is often used as a term to describe overpowering situations causing displeasure.

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