Empires: An Introduction Post

One of the constants in the study of the rise and fall of empires that I hope to show is that the power of these nations or blocs of nations is never constant. Their power is always in a state of flux with regard to themselves and that of other areas of the world and competing powers. The economic, military and technological superiority of the powerful nations and empires of the world is always changing during their time on the world's stage. This is largely because of the bumpy stops and starts in the rates of growth of these nations and the technological and organizational discoveries always seem to bring more advantages to one nation or empire than others. In broad terms, when an empire's productive capacity is enlarged it would normally be easier for it to sustain massive military budgets in peacetime and of sustaining and supplying military might in times of war. I think that all empires need a source of wealth to sustain their military power and that this military power is almost always used to acquire more wealth and territory. However, if a particular empire spends too much wealth on its military instead of on ways to create more wealth this leads to long term disadvantages and even the beginning of the end for some empires-perhaps the Soviet empire is just one example of this. Also if an empire overextends itself by constantly waging war and acquiring new territories the potential benefits from such expansion can be weakened or even cause the collapse of the empire if the cost to the empire becomes too great, especially if it is in a period of economic decline or instability-perhaps ancient Rome and a place much closer to home might be examples of this:-).

Some of the interesting things to think about in the way that some of the European empires eclipsed others such as the Ottoman empire, Muscovy and the oriental empires such as Tokugawa Japan and Ming China, are the possible reasons why this happened. The European empires arose in the context of any lack of supreme power and authority. The various kingdoms and city-states were always looking for ways to improve their military might over their neighbors. This caused an enviorment where there were fewer roadblocks to change and with the advances in commerce being thrown into the mix along with the technological advances this created an entrepreneurial atmosphere-one that welcomed constant change and any new invention or commercial strategy that a kingdom or city-state could best its neighbors. This was in contrast to the centralization of power in the aforementioned empires. These empires had a belief in centralization and uniformity of power not only in commercial and military development, but also they had a unified state religion. With fewer obstacles in the way of technological, military and commercial advances European empires became the dominant ones on the globe in the world of the time.

In this series I would like to eventually examine a great many empires and major powers and all along concentrate on some major questions about what leads to an empire's rise and fall. I would also like to concentrate a bit on some of the fascinating people in history who were involved. Some of the major questions I have about empires are 1) What role does the national culture and psychology play in the formation of an empire?
2) Are some empires 'accidental'? By saying this I am thinking about how some city-states and nations preemptively conquered territory to prevent attacks from these territories and then seemed to acquire a 'taste' for acquiring more.
3) What role does banking and finance play in the formation and foundation-perhaps even the collapse of an empire?
4) What part if any does geography have in empire building?
5) How does the need to have certain natural resources relate to questions about empires?
6) What role does technology and new inventions play in building and keeping an empire?
7) How are the various empires I want to talk about the same?-and how are they different?
8) Why do some empires last for very long times and some for extremely short historical periods? I am thinking of the Nazi and maybe even Soviet and others here.
9) Are all empires necessarily evil? I am again thinking a bit of ancient Greece and Rome also with the period of the "Five Good Emperors".

I would like to start with the background of a very particular historical era and the interesting people and events that were involved in this time in history when a republic was changing into an empire. I hope to have the next posts here relatively soon. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!