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What physically and politically constitutes an empire is variously defined; it might be a State effecting imperial policies, or a political structure, or a State whose ruler assumes the title of “Emperor”, thus re-denominating the State (country) as an “Empire”, despite having no additional territory or hegemony, e.g. the Central African Empire or the Korean Empire (proclaimed in 1897 when Korea, far from gaining new territory, was on the verge of being annexed by Japan). The terrestrial empire’s maritime analogue is the thalassocracy, an empire comprehending islands and coasts to its terrestrial homeland, e.g. the Athenian-dominated Delian League.
What physically and politically constitutes an empire is variously defined; it might be a State effecting imperial policies, or a political structure, or a State whose ruler assumes the title of “Emperor”, thus re-denominating the State (country) as an “Empire”, despite having no additional territory or hegemony, e.g. the Central African Empire or the Korean Empire (proclaimed in 1897 when Korea, far from gaining new territory, was on the verge of being annexed by Japan). The terrestrial empire’s maritime analogue is the thalassocracy, an empire comprehending islands and coasts to its terrestrial homeland, e.g. the Athenian-dominated Delian League.
Unlike an [[homogeneous]] nation-state, an heterogeneous (multi-ethnic) colonial empire usually has no common [[language|tongue]], thus, a lingua franca is most important to governing (administratively, culturally, militarily) to establish imperial unity. To wit, the [[Macedonians]] imposed Greek as their unifying, imperial language, yet most of their subject populations continued speaking [[Aramaic]], the lingua franca of the previous, [[Persian Empire]], overlord. The Romans successfully imposed [[Latin]] upon Western continental Europe, but less successfully in Britain and in Western Asia; in the Middle East, the Arab Empire established politico-cultural unity via language and [[religion]]; the Spanish Empire established Spanish in most all of the American continent, but less so in Paraguay and in the Philippines; the British Empire established itself with English in northern North America; elsewhere, despite Russian not supplanting the indigenous tongues of the Caucasus and Central Asia, the Russians learned the tongues of their imperial subjects.
Unlike an [[homogeneous]] nation-state, an heterogeneous (multi-ethnic) colonial empire usually has no common [[language|tongue]], thus, a lingua franca is most important to governing (administratively, culturally, militarily) to establish imperial unity. To wit, the [[Macedonians]] imposed Greek as their unifying, imperial language, yet most of their subject populations continued speaking [[Aramaic]], the lingua franca of the previous, [[Persian Empire]], overlord. The Romans successfully imposed [[Latin]] upon Western continental Europe, but less successfully in Britain and in Western Asia; in the Middle East, the Arab Empire established politico-cultural unity via language and [[religion]]; the Spanish Empire established Spanish in most all of the American continent, but less so in Paraguay and in the Philippines; the British Empire established itself with English in northern North America; elsewhere, despite Russian not supplanting the indigenous tongues of the Caucasus and Central Asia, the Russians learned the tongues of their imperial subjects.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire]
==References==
# Oxford Dictionary|http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/empire?view=uk Retrieved 11/21/2008
# Ross Hassig, Mexico and the Spanish Conquest (1994), pp. 23–24, ISBN 0-582-06829-0 (pbk)
# The Oxford English Reference Dictionary, Second Edition (2001), p.461, ISBN 0-19-860046-1
==Bibliography==
*Gilpin, Robert War and Change in World Politics pp.110–116
*Johan Galtung (1996) ([dead link] – Scholar search), The Decline and Fall of Empires: A Theory of De-Development, Honolulu, retrieved on 2008-01-06 Written for the United Nations Research Institute on Development, UNRISD, Geneva.
*Lens, Sidney; Zinn, Howard (2003), The Forging of the American Empire: From the Revolution to Vietnam: A History of American Imperialism, Plkuto press, ISBN 0745321003
*Bowden, Brett (2009). The Empire of Civilization: The Evolution of an Imperial Idea. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226068145.
==External links==
*[http://www.worldstatesmen.org/COLONIES.html Index of Colonies and Possessions]
*[http://www.sam.gov.tr/perceptions/volume12/winter/winter-004-PERCEPTION(mehmetakifokur)%5B4%5D.pdf Mehmet Akif Okur, Rethinking Empire After 9/11: Towards A New Ontological Image of World Order, Perceptions, Journal of International Affairs, Volume XII, Winter 2007, pp.61-93]
[[Category: Political Science]]
[[Category: Political Science]]
[[Category: History]]
[[Category: History]]