One
When the word empire is mentioned, it literally means a country ruled by the emperor, and if it is according to this statement, then all dynasties since the establishment of the Qin Dynasty have been empires.
But if this is the case, then the Third Reich established by the Führer is not a feudal dynasty, and there is not even an emperor, so how can it be called an empire.
Of course, in fact, the empire is certainly not so simple in the literal sense, because the empire is actually a translation of the English word Empire, if according to the Western standards of empire, then only the Qin and Han dynasties, Sui and Tang, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties in the ancient Central Plains meet the requirements.
Two
In the Western context, empire is the counterpart of the traditional kingdom.
The traditional kingdoms of the West were hereditary by large feudal lords, limited in size, and generally composed of a single ethnic group.
Empires, on the other hand, are often composed of many kingdoms, with a large land area, and are composed of many ethnic groups and cultures.
Three
In Western history books, the first empire to appear was Persia. At its peak, the Persian Empire was the undisputed overlord of land, spanning Asia, Africa and Europe. Moreover, the territory under the jurisdiction of the Persian Empire contained many ethnic groups and cultures, from Greece to Canaan, from Babylon to Egypt, and almost included the mainstream civilization of the West at that time.
This was followed by the Macedonian Empire, which not only covered the Persian Empire, but also reached India eastward. But the Macedonian Empire was short-lived and soon split into several large pieces.
Then came the Roman Empire, which took over the Mediterranean in one fell swoop, with Latins, Germans, Slavs, Celts, Semites, Greeks, Persians, and so on.
Four
But the Roman Empire eventually broke up, with the Western Roman Empire falling and the Eastern Roman Empire continuing to dominate Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, and North Africa.
Several empires then emerged in Europe that inherited the mantle of Western Rome, while the territory of the Eastern Roman Empire was eventually replaced by the Ottoman Empire, and the culture was passed on by the Russian Empire.
These empires, without exception, were multi-ethnic states.
Five
Among these European countries that inherited the legal system of the Western Roman Empire, there was one that was not recognized by the world, and was even called a joke, and that was the Holy Roman Empire.
Another characteristic of empires is reflected here, that is, a strong centralization.
The Holy Roman Empire was in fact a loose alliance, with the famous Seven Electors, intriguing internally and scattered externally.
Six
The empire embodied a strong centralization, which was clearly demonstrated in the formation of the Roman Empire.
During the Roman Republic, the power was shared by the slave-owning aristocracy of the Senate, and then Caesar, who had a high reputation for military prominence, wanted to centralize power, and was assassinated by the Senate en masse.
Later, Caesar's successor, Augustus, purged the Senate, achieved centralization, and established the Roman Empire in the true sense of the word, and Caesar became another title for the head of the empire.
Seven
The above has said so much, in fact, it is mainly to introduce the Western definition of empire is actually not the same as the understanding of the Chinese people, the Chinese people equate the Great Unification Central Plains Dynasty with the empire, and in fact, the most consistent with the definition of Western empire in all dynasties is the Han Dynasty after Zhang Qiantong Western Regions, and the Tang Dynasty before the Anshi Rebellion.
In modern times, new empires have emerged in the West.
The Spanish Empire, with territories on all continents, once took over almost all of the Americas.
The Ottoman Empire, whose territory spanned Europe, Asia and Africa.
The Russian Empire, whose territory spanned Eurasia.
The German Empire and the Austrian Empire had Polish, Czech, Lithuanian, Hungarian and other nationalities within their borders.
Of course, there is also the British Empire, whose territory also includes all continents, known as the empire on which the sun never sets.
Eight
These empires of the West, because of their vast territory and numerous nationalities, were very active in trade, as the British Empire at its peak declared,
The same was true of the Chinese Empire during the Han and Tang dynasties, because of the opening of the Silk Road, the financial resources were extensive and the national strength increased greatly. The Anshi Rebellion hit the Tang Dynasty so hard that it was unable to maintain the Silk Road and was cut off, and the Tang Dynasty's finances soon dried up, and it was no longer able to maintain the operation of the huge empire and collapsed.
But in general, the expansion of the Central Plains Dynasty in history eventually took the territory into the bag, and the Qing Dynasty did not realize this because it encountered strong enemies from all sides. And those empires of the West, without exception, fell apart.
At its peak, the British Empire included India, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Ireland, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Burma, Singapore, Hong Kong, Egypt, Nigeria, etc., and now only the mainland and some overseas islands remain.
At present, there is one Western empire that still exists in the world, and that is the American empire.
Nine
The U.S. empire did not exercise direct occupation and colonization like the British Empire, but ruled invisibly through political manipulation, garrisoning, and economic control. Control of Europe through NATO, control of the Asia-Pacific region through AUKUS, control of economies through finance, influence of governments through NGOs, and pervasive cultural exports.
But just like these empires in history, a huge empire has huge benefits, but the expenses are also huge, and if it can't make ends meet, then the empire is at risk of collapsing.
The crisis of the empire always began with a financial crisis, and the Roman Empire collapsed financially, so the barbarian mercenaries replaced the Roman legions. The Silk Road was cut off, the Western Han Dynasty collapsed, and the Eastern Han Dynasty reopened the Silk Road and revitalized the empire.
Ten
As mentioned above, it was precisely because of the Anshi Rebellion that the Tang Dynasty weakened and was unable to maintain the Silk Road, resulting in financial exhaustion, so the Tang Empire gradually died out. The prosperity of the Ming Dynasty had a lot to do with the large inflow of silver from Europe, and when the silver import was blocked, the Ming Dynasty's finances dried up, and the Ming Dynasty could not provide relief to the victims internally, and could not strengthen the army to resist the enemy, so the Ming Dynasty perished under the internal and external attacks of the peasant army and the Houjin army.
Many netizens who really understand history can find that the current American Empire is very similar to the late Ming Dynasty in history, so there are nicknames for Ming Orthodoxy America and British Orthodox Britain.
The blockage of silver trade was certainly one of the reasons for the depletion of the Ming Dynasty's financial resources, but the inflow of massive amounts of silver had already accumulated huge wealth in the Ming Dynasty, and the huge vested interest groups within the Ming Dynasty were the root cause of its demise.
The final result was that the peasant army within the Ming Dynasty destroyed most of the vested interest groups (Zhu Ming vassal king, who ate 2/3 of the national finance), the newly established Qing court hit the landlord class hard (the gentry paid taxes as one), and the flag army issued a large number of flags to reduce the financial burden after the world was settled.
Eleven
Someone on the Internet has raised such a question, that is, Xu Xiake's travel time happened to be the last ten years of the fall of the Ming Dynasty, why did he not see the image of the Ming Dynasty in the travelogue?
This brings us to the main point of this article, which is that the collapse of empires occurs in an instant.
In people's general impression, under normal circumstances, it is difficult for a country to collapse suddenly, but it was different in the late empire, on the one hand, the internal contradictions have intensified for a long time, and on the other hand, the empire still looks strong on the outside, and at this time, a sudden fuse reaches a critical value, which makes the empire collapse instantly.
epilogue
So if you look at the U.S. empire from the perspective of empire, you can't just look at the 50 states at home, the real meaning of the U.S. empire is a global empire, otherwise why would the Central Command be in West Asia? From this point of view, the collapse of the US empire actually began to start with the independence of the territories on the continents under its control, for example, France was about to stand up in Europe, and Iselel was besieged and the first island chain that locked the eastern powers was dismantled, which was the harbinger of the collapse of the empire.
Text/Mao Diu
Editor/Taizu's shepherd