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Created page with 'File:lighterstill.jpgright|frame The term '''empire''' derives from the Latin imperium. Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive...'
[[File:lighterstill.jpg]][[File:Empire_city.jpg|right|frame]]
The term '''empire''' derives from the [[Latin]] imperium. [[Politically]], an empire is a geographically extensive [[group]] of states and peoples (ethnic groups) united and ruled either by a [[monarch]] (emperor, empress) or an [[oligarchy]]. Geopolitically, the term empire has denoted very different, territorially-extreme states — at the strong end, the extensive [[Spanish Empire]] (16th c.) and the [[British Empire]] (19th c.), at the weak end, the [[Holy Roman Empire]] (8th c.–19th c.), in its Medieval and early-modern forms, and the [[Byzantine Empire]] (15th c.), that was a direct continuation of the [[Roman Empire]], that, in its final century of existence, was more a city-state than a territorial empire.
[[Etymologically]], the political usage of “empire” denotes a strong, centrally-controlled nation-state, but, in the looser, quotidian, vernacular usage, it denotes a large-scale business enterprise (i.e. a transnational corporation) and a political organisation of either national-, regional-, or city scale, controlled either by a [[person]] (a political boss) or a group authority (political bosses). [1]
An imperial political [[structure]] is established and maintained two ways: (i) as a territorial empire of direct conquest and control with [[force]] (direct, [[physical]] [[action]] to compel the emperor’s goals), and (ii) as a coercive, [[hegemonic]] empire of indirect conquest and control with power (the [[perception]] that the emperor can physically enforce his desired goals). The former provides greater tribute and direct political control, yet limits further expansion, because it absorbs military forces to fixed garrisons. The latter provides less tribute and indirect control, but avails military forces for further expansion. [2] Territorial empires (e.g. the [[Mongol Empire]], the [[Median Empire]]) tended to be contiguous areas. The term on occasion has been applied to maritime empires or thalassocracies, (e.g. the Athenian , the British Empire) with looser structures and more scattered territories.
==Empire defined==
An empire is a [[State]] with politico-military dominion of [[population]]s who are culturally and ethnically distinct from the imperial (ruling) ethnic [[group]] and its [[culture]] [3] — unlike a federation, an extensive State voluntarily composed of autonomous states and peoples. As a State, an empire might be either territorial or a hegemony, wherein the empire’s sphere of influence dominates the lesser state(s) via divide and conquer tactics, i.e. “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, (cf. superpower, hyperpower).
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.
[[Category: Political Science]]
[[Category: History]]
The term '''empire''' derives from the [[Latin]] imperium. [[Politically]], an empire is a geographically extensive [[group]] of states and peoples (ethnic groups) united and ruled either by a [[monarch]] (emperor, empress) or an [[oligarchy]]. Geopolitically, the term empire has denoted very different, territorially-extreme states — at the strong end, the extensive [[Spanish Empire]] (16th c.) and the [[British Empire]] (19th c.), at the weak end, the [[Holy Roman Empire]] (8th c.–19th c.), in its Medieval and early-modern forms, and the [[Byzantine Empire]] (15th c.), that was a direct continuation of the [[Roman Empire]], that, in its final century of existence, was more a city-state than a territorial empire.
[[Etymologically]], the political usage of “empire” denotes a strong, centrally-controlled nation-state, but, in the looser, quotidian, vernacular usage, it denotes a large-scale business enterprise (i.e. a transnational corporation) and a political organisation of either national-, regional-, or city scale, controlled either by a [[person]] (a political boss) or a group authority (political bosses). [1]
An imperial political [[structure]] is established and maintained two ways: (i) as a territorial empire of direct conquest and control with [[force]] (direct, [[physical]] [[action]] to compel the emperor’s goals), and (ii) as a coercive, [[hegemonic]] empire of indirect conquest and control with power (the [[perception]] that the emperor can physically enforce his desired goals). The former provides greater tribute and direct political control, yet limits further expansion, because it absorbs military forces to fixed garrisons. The latter provides less tribute and indirect control, but avails military forces for further expansion. [2] Territorial empires (e.g. the [[Mongol Empire]], the [[Median Empire]]) tended to be contiguous areas. The term on occasion has been applied to maritime empires or thalassocracies, (e.g. the Athenian , the British Empire) with looser structures and more scattered territories.
==Empire defined==
An empire is a [[State]] with politico-military dominion of [[population]]s who are culturally and ethnically distinct from the imperial (ruling) ethnic [[group]] and its [[culture]] [3] — unlike a federation, an extensive State voluntarily composed of autonomous states and peoples. As a State, an empire might be either territorial or a hegemony, wherein the empire’s sphere of influence dominates the lesser state(s) via divide and conquer tactics, i.e. “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, (cf. superpower, hyperpower).
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.
[[Category: Political Science]]
[[Category: History]]