bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Dutch Empire: 1. Origins and organization
Authors: Raben Remco
Published: January 2016

Among the European colonial powers, the Dutch Empire stands out as a peculiar example of a consistently commercial undertaking. The history of Dutch colonialism is characterized by a remarkable but short‐lived dominance in Asia in the 17th century, the concentration on a limited number of areas around 1800, a late and reluctant shift to modern imperialism, and a strong developmental character in its last decades.
French Empire: 10. North America
Authors: Boucher Christophe
Published: January 2016

The French colonial presence in North America spanned intermittently from 1541 to 1803. At its territorial height before the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), French hegemony extended from Newfoundland to the Rockies and from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. In all, France claimed over half the continent, including over 20 current US states. This vast domain had four areas: Acadia, Canada, the Upper Country, and Louisiana. The French called their North American holdings New France, an expression that betrayed their aspirations. The architects of French colonial expansion intended to create an improved society to serve the mother country. Contrary to expectations, French colonists adapted culturally and implemented policies dictated by local demands. The Seven Years War abruptly ended French claims in North America. By the Treaty of Paris in 1763, France kept only two tiny islands south of Newfoundland. In 1800, the French momentarily regained a foothold in North America, finally forfeiting their rights through the Louisiana Purchase.
Austrian Empire (to 1867)
Authors: Vushko Iryna
Published: January 2016

This entry presents the history of the Austrian Empire from its genesis to 1867. Its main focus is upon the political history of the empire, its consolidation in the 16th century, and its evolution through the middle of the 19th century. Topics include: marriage alliances and acquisition of territories; Reformation and Counter‐Reformation; the Habsburg monarchy or empire's status in Europe and its relationships with its neighbors, specifically the Ottoman Empire and Prussia; relationships between the Habsburg monarchy and the Holy Roman Empire; wars, the revolution of 1848, and the Austro‐Hungarian Compromise of 1867. The entry addresses differences in the status of different territories in the empire – most notably Hungary and Bohemia – attempts to impose centralization, and the resulting discontents. It concludes with a discussion of the federalization of the empire in 1867 tracing its roots back to the empire's creation in the 16th century.
Dutch Empire: 2. Africa
Authors: Worden Nigel
Published: January 2016

The Dutch African Empire was primarily commercial and was linked to wider Dutch colonial interests. It was divided into two distinct spheres. The Dutch West India Company (WIC) established trading posts and forts along the West African coast and traded in gold, ivory, and slaves. The Dutch trans‐Atlantic slave trade reached a peak in the later 17th century when the Dutch centered their activities on Elmina in modern Ghana but also traded in Angola. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) initially used African islands such as St. Helena and Mauritius as refreshment posts for its shipping between Europe and Asia but after 1652 focused on the Cape Colony for this purpose. The Cape subsequently emerged as a major settler colony in Africa, using slave labor from the Indian Ocean and integrally linked to the VOC empire in Asia.
China, imperial: 6. Yuan dynasty period, 1279–1368
Authors: Brose Michael C.
Published: January 2016

When Khubilai created the Yuan Dynasty in 1279, after almost seventy years of campaigns by three generations of Mongol leaders, he reunited all of China for the first time in over three centuries. This was, however, the first time that non‐Chinese ruled China in its entirety. The Yuan state also forever changed China's social, political, and geographic landscape, not least because it was a hybrid of nomadic and Chinese customs and institutions. But Khubilai's completion of the conquest of China and his adoption of the Chinese dynastic model for his new state also spelled the end to the idea of a united Mongol Empire, already largely a fiction in his own lifetime.
Pergamon, Kingdom of (Attalids)
Authors: Kosmetatou Elizabeth
Published: January 2016

The Mysian city of Pergamon in western Asia Minor became one of the greatest Hellenistic cities under the Attalids (281–133
bce
). While initially only a minor regional power, Pergamon became a major player in Hellenistic affairs under the late Attalid kings who forged a relationship with Rome that benefited it but also turned it into a Roman client state.
Angevin Empire (French “Second” Angevin dynasty)
Authors: Drendel John
Published: January 2016

Charles I, brother of the French King Louis IX, conquered southern Italy between 1266 and 1288 and established a dynasty destined to rule a vast Mediterranean empire almost entirely outside of the Kingdom of France. Despite the loss of Sicily in 1282, the Angevin Empire achieved its apogee in the middle of the 14th century under Robert I and Jeanne I, when Naples governed directly the county of Provence, southern Italy, and the western Peloponnesus, while collateral branches ruled Hungary and Poland. Angevin statecraft of the 14th century was unmatched in Europe, and Naples fostered a brilliant court culture. Dynastic quarrels exacerbated by the Great Schism led to political decline and the conquest of Naples by the Aragonese in 1435.
Martial race theory
Authors: Westwood Sarah Davis
Published: January 2016

Martial race theory affected policies of military recruitment and conscription throughout the British and French empires. This ideology established a racial hierarchy based on climatic theories, physical qualities, and perceived behavioral characteristics, and colonial authorities sought to identify indigenous peoples in Asia and Africa naturally suited for military service. However, the classification of groups as inherently militaristic and their disproportionate presence in colonial forces was more often due to their acceptance of colonial authority instead of some innate fearlessness or capacity for violence.
Choson (Joseon) Korea
Authors: Karlsson Anders
Published: January 2016

The Choson dynasty ruled the Korean peninsula from 1392 to 1910. Confucianism replaced Buddhism as the primary belief system and exerted a strong influence over politics, society, and scholarship. Although a tributary to first the Ming and later the Qing, Choson considered themselves to be a civilized center in the region, superior to what they thought were barbarian neighbors. Against the background of late 19th century imperialistic rivalry in the region, in 1897 the status of the Choson ruler was raised from king to emperor, and the name of the state changed to the Great Han Empire (Taehan cheguk) to put it on equal footing with China and Japan.
China, imperial: 8. Qing or Manchu dynasty period, 1636–1911
Authors: Hang Henry Choi Sze
Published: January 2016

The Qing or Manchu dynasty was founded in 1636 by the Manchus, who were originally named the Jurchens, and the founders of the Jin dynasty. The rise of the Qing Empire started with a military conquest of China proper which eventually expanded into Inner Asia by relying on Han‐Chinese armies. As a result China, especially during Qianlong's long reign, reached the peak of Sino‐centrism that was based on the tributary system. This Sino‐centric worldview was challenged by the Western imperialist invasion beginning in the 1840s. The treaty‐port system became the new norm in the late Qing period and Qing Empire was eventually overthrown by Han‐Chinese revolutionaries in 1911.
Kakatiya Kingdom
Authors: Harijan Vikram
Published: January 2016

The Kakatiyas were powerful rulers of large parts of Deccan for almost 400 years (c.950–1323
ce
). The Kakatiya kingdom reached its high‐water mark in terms of political power and territorial expansion during the 12th and 13th centuries. During this period the whole of the Telugu country formed part of the kingdom, and the era was marked by new trends in political, administrative, military, taxation, and trade policies as well as agricultural, irrigational, religious, and cultural affairs. The Kakatiyas gave importance to three “T”s: namely, Tank, Temple, and Town. From the gender perspective also, the Kakatiyas did not lag behind their contemporaries and produced, like Razia Sultan (r.1236–1240) of the Delhi Sultanate, a great woman ruler Rudramadevi (c.1262–1295) who played a very significant role in the kingdom's history. Like Razia, she proved to be very successful despite the rigid patriarchal system which prevailed in South India at that time. The Kakatiyas were also great patrons of art and literature. Innumerable majestic temples were built, and their contribution to the development of Sanskrit and Telugu literature as well as Telugu language was no less significant and substantial.
Architecture, imperial
Authors: Leach Andrew
Published: January 2016

Architecture has lent expression to imperial projects across history, both through the assertion of symbolic authority and in the mechanisms of its upkeep. Although architecture itself is an historically contingent term, buildings have played an enduring role in organizing imperial projects of all kinds and across a diverse geography, especially in those societies and cultures for which the city has been an important unit of social organization. This entry explores the relationship between architectural symbolism and architectural types as a significant relationship in the conceptualization of imperial architecture. It considers the archetypes of this relationship in the ancient world, as well as the model that Rome, in particular, served for subsequent European imperial projects. It suggests a relationship, played out in architectural terms, between architecture and religion, and architecture and nationalism, and concludes with reflections on the analogy architecture offers for understanding the endurance of architecture's role in the subtle imperialism of global capitalism.
Sub‐imperialism
Authors: Farrell Brian P.
Published: January 2016

Sub‐imperialism as a theoretical construct remains so controversial that such an examination would merit its own entry. But its historical experience may be distilled thematically. The intrinsic nature of empire and imperialism so often lent itself so readily to delegation, devolution, and manipulation that different expressions of sub‐imperialism formed an integral part of the larger history of empire. This entry analyzes three expressions of sub‐imperialism in the context of modern empires.
Urartu, Kingdom of
Authors: Redgate A. E.
Published: January 2016

The kingdom that Assyria called Urartu and the Urartians called Bianili formed in the mid‐9th century
bce
, expanded rapidly, and fell in the mid‐7th century
bce
. External attacks by Cimmerians and Scyths and internal revolt, possibly under Armenian leadership, may have contributed. Its heartland was the Lake Van region, though its original base may have been in northwest Iran. Its security and prosperity depended on its physical geography, its fortresses, irrigation works, and centralized administrative system. War and economy entwined, and much use was made of deportees. The kingdom is notable also for, in religion, establishing the god Haldi as head of the pantheon, and for its royal inscriptions and the importance of its kings in state and society.
Armenia, Kingdom of (ancient)
Authors: Redgate A. E.
Published: January 2016

Armenia, emerging from the Achaemenid Empire (331
bce
) and ended by Sasanian Persia (428
ce
), was entangled with several empires, functioning in its later centuries as a buffer state and theater of rivalry between East and West, though briefly having an empire of its own in the 1st century
bce
. Originally much bigger than the modern republic, including the lands of the earlier kingdom of Urartu, it was a fraction of that by 428. The early centuries saw some centralization of power and administration, subordination of native dynasts, transfers of population, and encouragement of urban life, the later centuries a lack of bureaucracy and difficulty controlling the aristocracy. Devices that buttressed royal authority included the royal hunt. Strengthening the crown may have been one motive for conversion to Christianity (early 4th century). It did not do so, but conversion nevertheless protected Armenian identity from absorption by Rome or Persia.
Mataram, Sultanate of
Authors: Horton William Bradley
Published: January 2016

A kingdom centered in South‐Central Java between the 16th century and 1755, when it was formally divided, Mataram has its roots in the mid‐16th‐century kingdoms of Pajang and Pengging, with legends ascribing its founding to Kyai Gedhe Mataram and expansion to his son Panembahan Senapati Ingalaga (r. c.1584–1601). Mataram reached the peak of its power under Sultan Agung in the early 17th century, based on his political ability and continual military exploits. However, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was also aggressively expanding throughout the Indonesian archipelago, and had located its headquarters on the northwest coast of Java. The reign of Amangkurat I and the wars for succession over the next hundred years drew the VOC into Javanese affairs, and allowed them to intervene in the shrinking kingdom of Mataram. The division of the kingdom in 1755 is conventionally considered the end of Mataram.
Empires from the viewpoint of the colonized
Authors: Coller Ian
Published: January 2016

Between 1500 and 1950, most human societies on the planet fell under the control of European colonial regimes, whether for a few years or for several centuries. No total view of the myriad responses to empire on the part of the colonized is possible: the impact of empire itself varied dramatically, as plural and overlapping systems were applied in differential ways. The multiplicity of colonial arrangements might touch colonized people directly, indirectly, or hardly at all. By the end of the 19th century, however, untouched areas were shrinking rapidly. The effects of economic globalization and cultural convergence accompanied colonial expansion to create a more complex imperial world order that helped to naturalize racial and cultural hegemony. The distinctiveness of European colonial empire was in its creation of a stable, indeed, legally rigidified category of the colonized “native,” excluded from rights, political participation, and even from history itself. However, viewed from another perspective, colonized peoples have been very much the agents of history and key to the transformation of the modern world.
Japan (Sengoku period)
Authors: Eason David
Published: January 2016

Historians of Japan generally use the label
sengoku
to refer to a distinctive period of time that spanned from roughly the mid‐1400s until the closing decades of the 1500s. Characterized by political instability and near‐incessant warfare, this era witnessed the violent rise and fall of numerous influential warrior families. At the same time, the resulting struggle for survival also created conditions that encouraged various institutional innovations. Still, the development of detailed land surveys and standardized military musters did not make Japan an empire. Rather, it is only by examining one particularly ambitious late 16th‐century leader's attempts to combine these policies with notions of national superiority and shortsighted plans to subjugate both Korea and China that connections between the process of reunification and the drive to empire begin to become clear.
Slavery, institution of
Authors: Nwachuku Levi A.
Published: January 2016

Slavery is an old institution. Its practice has varied in time and place. Prior to the era of empire building, slavery was largely a domestic practice confined to the given community. A slave was not a commercialized commodity. A slave was regarded as a human being, but was placed in a very low social status. More often than not, the slave status was passed on to the future generation of the enslaved. Slavery as an institution began to attract global attention between 1500 and 1850 when Western European powers created empires in Africa and in the Caribbean islands. The United States, Britain's off‐shoot born in the last quarter of the 18th century, became the epicenter of international involvement in the institution of slavery. The Western powers were not the only benefactors of the slave institution. The Muslims also participated in the slave business. By the 16th century, a slave began to acquire a new definition, as anyone who could be bought and sold for money, and whose labor was economically valuable. This definition revolutionized the institution. Slaves became a profit‐making commodity. European nations became active participants in a business which stripped individuals of their human value and denied them their natural right to freedom.
Assimilation and empire
Authors: Sèbe Berny
Published: January 2016

Assimilation has been, over the centuries, one of the major ways of conceptualizing the relationship between center and periphery within imperial systems. It can be described as the attempt to integrate (through the use of force if necessary) conquered or colonial territories and populations into the political, sociocultural, and often economic mold of the conquering power. Assimilation has been practiced for political, military, religious, or cultural reasons since Roman times, with the Spanish, Portuguese, and French Empires often placing it at the center of their colonial strategies, though the British Empire also practiced it (especially for legal matters). The early Muslim conquest of the Mediterranean, or the Japanese assimilation of the Korean peninsula, offer examples of cultural or religious assimilation implemented by non‐European powers.
Informal empire
Authors: Pizzo David
Published: January 2016

This entry deals with nominally independent societies and countries dominated by external interests and states. Informal empire is the term used to describe the economic, political, social, and cultural influence imperial and great powers have over weaker states or societies without the establishment of formal political control or sovereignty. In many ways, it has been a more frequent form of international relations than formal empire, and formal empires themselves often exert powerful influence over nominally independent states and peoples. Prior to the rise of Western imperialism, powerful states like the Ottoman Empire and Imperial China had substantial informal empires. Informal empires have had a profound effect on many “semi‐colonial” societies such as Persia/Iran, Mexico, Argentina, Cuba, Nicaragua, Thailand, China, and the states of the Persian/Arabian Gulf. The end of formal European empires led to the creation of new informal ones during the Cold War and beyond.
Revolts, colonial
Authors: Pizzo David
Published: January 2016

Colonial revolts were a frequent occurrence in nearly every empire in history. They played a crucial role in both the forms empire took and the formation of the identity and culture of populations subjected to colonial rule. Rebellions against colonial rule took many forms, ranging from small insurrections of only a few dozen insurgents to massive uprisings involving hundreds of thousands of combatants. This entry discusses cases in the ancient world and then gives examples of colonial revolts from the Early Modern period, particularly those of indigenous peoples or enslaved populations of African descent. The global empires created by European states after 1450 faced frequent rebellions, as did continental empires like the United States and Russia. The numerous revolts that broke out in European empires after 1945 ultimately led to the end of those empires by the 1970s.
Exploration and empire
Authors: Etherington Norman , MacKenzie John M.
Published: January 2016

All empires develop a worldview embracing the horizons of their actual and aspirational power. Exploration generally involved efforts to push these horizons further outwards, sometimes through the enterprising journeys of traders, travelers, and geographers interested in what lay beyond their immediate world, and of the military in search of further conquests. Exploration is a characteristic of the Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Asian worlds with further maritime explorations in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. European explorations of northern Europe, the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea were prosecuted by medieval Norsemen, while there were also exploratory journeys in Asia in the same period. Modern European exploration is dated from the late 15th century, building to a climax in the 19th. By this time exploration was ideologically charged, closely bound up with the extension of western empires, of white settlement across the world, as well as the development of all forms of scientific study.
Rustamid Imamate
Authors: Aillet Cyrille
Published: January 2016

The Rustamid Imamate (777–909ce) is still considered the symbol of a vanished Golden Age and the model for an anti‐absolutist and collegial form of government by today's Ibadis. It was also one of the first autonomous Islamic states in North Africa and its capital, Tâhart (northwestern Algeria), achieved prosperity during the 9th century thanks to its pioneering role in trans‐Saharan trade.
Financial institutions
Authors: Dilley Andrew
Published: January 2016

The histories of finance and empire have been intimately entwined. This entry charts the evolution of financial institutions from the late 15th to the 21st century. It focuses on global centers (Amsterdam, London, Paris, and New York especially) and their activities, considering their relationship with European states and empires. First it charts the emergence of a distinctive bundle of financial institutions in Early Modern Europe. Then it examines the changing nature of finance between 1815 and 1914. This period saw far more extensive export of European financial institutions and European capital, processes long suspected of being strongly connected with imperialism. Finally it considers the 20th century, a period in which financial power ceased to be solely concentrated in Europe and in which new financial devices reconfigured relations between finance and states.
Kazakh Khanate
Authors: Lazzerini Edward J.
Published: January 2016

The Kazakh Khanate was created in 1456 by two Chinggisid princes – Karay and Janibek – who broke from the Shaybanid ruler, Abu'l‐Khayr Khan, and moved their clans north from the Syr‐Dar'ia River in Central Asia. After the collapse of Shaybanid rule, the Kazakh tribes had spread across the northern steppe and came to be distinguished from other tribes – increasingly identified as Uzbeks – that remained south of the Syr‐Dar'ia. The ambition of Kazakh khans almost always exceeded their ability to unify the tribes under their nominal control, given the great authority wielded by local and regional subordinates. Terrible conflict with Oirot Mongols that led to repeated destruction of Kazakh resources kept them on the defensive as they grew weaker and weaker in the 17th and 18th centuries, just at the time that the Russian Empire was moving southward into Kazakh lands. The official end of the Khanate is dated 1848.
Wahhabi Empire
Authors: Alshaer Atef
Published: January 2016

What has come to be known as Wahhabism has acquired a broader meaning than was originally conceived. Within the environment where Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al‐Wahhab emerged in Najd, he postulated that there was widespread corruption underpinned by deviation from the Islamic ethos as embedded within the Qur'an and the tradition of Prophet Muhammad. He claimed that there were innovations. These were concerned with practices of idolatry, intercession, and sanctification, which amounted to serious transgressions from the faith of Islam that emphasized monotheism. ‘Abd al‐Wahhab set himself the task of reforming the Muslim community. He managed to form an alliance with the significant political leader Muhammad ibn Saud. He preached his religious project of revival through return to the Islamic scriptures and bolstered it with political legitimacy. Saudi Arabia continued to be ruled by Wahhabi ideology, marked by archaism inside the kingdom but facilitated by political and economic pragmatism through alliance and cooperation with the West.
Chavin culture (pre‐Moche)
Authors: Rick John W.
Published: January 2016

Chavin culture refers to the 1200–500
bce
, middle and Late Formative periods societies of the central Andes of South America, as well as to the archetypical site of Chavín de Huantár in the north‐central highlands of Peru. This site and other contemporary monumental ritual centers established many of the cultural characteristics of pre‐Columbian societies of the Andes and thus was a major antecedent to the later Andean empires. Elaborate rituals helped build the credibility of emerging authorities, and participation in these cult‐based centers gave initiates access to iconic pottery and other material representations of these religions, as well as knowledge and experiences. Long‐distance interactions between cult centers and their followers distributed highly stylized cultural materials over most of the central Andes, creating the first prehistoric time period with strong regional commonalities.
Cities, imperial
Authors: Ginn Geoffrey , Spearritt Peter
Published: January 2016

A major urban center can be considered an imperial city when it embodies the power relationships of empire. The entry discusses a range of historical examples, both modern and premodern, and highlights typical elements and spatial arrangements that relate to key imperial functions of governance and control. The importance of ideology and imperial display to the urban fabric of such cities is emphasized. The urban implications of imperial decline are considered, as are present‐day forms of corporate imperialism in the global cities of the 21st century.
Revolution and social change
Authors: Pizzo David
Published: January 2016

Social change and revolution exist in a classic dialectic: social change causes revolution, and revolutions often cause social change. Revolutions, meaning mass movements aimed at effecting fundamental political and social changes in their societies, have frequently broken out in empires or in semi‐colonial countries. At times, revolutions began in metropolitan societies in part due to social changes unleashed by their empires. Many revolutionary states have themselves been expansionist powers that attempted to spread their systems and/or ideologies. In many societies, the imposition and functioning of imperial rule led to both widespread mass discontent and the rise of a literate, nationalist elite. Cases in which these two converged often led to revolutions against empires or regimes viewed as overly subservient to foreign interests, as was the case in Cuba, China, and Iran.
Tourism and empire
Authors: Skwiot Christine
Published: January 2016

The pleasures of imperialism and the politics of empire have long converged, variously stabilizing and destabilizing colonial and neo‐colonial rule. There certainly were travel accounts and pleasure travelers in the Ancient and Early Modern worlds, but imperial tourism in its modern sense began more recently, in the industrial age. In 1869, Thomas Cook & Son's first Middle Eastern tour coincided with the opening of the Suez Canal. The two events heralded the beginning of the age of “high” imperialism. They also engendered dynamic relationships between tourism and empire that helped produce the global south and persisted long beyond the formal end of empire in the late 20th century. Tourism has often proven capable of legitimating a variety of imperial economic, political, and racial regimes, but when they have become too corrupt, too repressive, or both, tourism has proved an equally effective foil for anti‐imperial and anti‐racist movements.
Wars of independence
Authors: Pizzo David
Published: January 2016

This entry focuses on wars of independence against imperial powers from the ancient world to the late 20th century. Wars of independence generally begin as revolts or rebellions against colonial rule. In the event that they are successful and lead to the creation of a new, independent sovereign state, they are then referred to as wars of independence rather than as “insurrections” or “uprisings.” The term originally applied to the (US) American War of Independence of 1775–1783, and it was subsequently used to describe the Haitian Revolution, the uprisings in the Spanish American colonies, and the numerous insurrections against modern colonial empires in the second half of the 20th century. Even when wars of independence did not end in a military victory for the insurgents, the political costs incurred by imperial states in crushing them often resulted in independence in any case after a brief period of delay.
Nazi Empire
Authors: Fischer Conan
Published: January 2016

The Nazi Empire (Third Reich, 1933–1945) grew explosively through annexation and conquest to embrace most of continental Europe by late 1942. Its total collapse by 1945 was equally sudden. It was a hierarchical racialist empire where Germanic peoples were deemed to enjoy pre‐emptive rights to land and resources, whilst other peoples were consigned to subordinate, often slave‐like roles. The Jews were held to pose a mortal biological threat to the empire and were systematically murdered in their millions. Governance in the Third Reich centered on the unchallenged personal authority of its dictator, Adolf Hitler, with any coherent administrative and executive procedure sorely wanting. The brutality and unbridled ambition of the Nazi Empire created enemies of all the major powers (Japan excepted) and provoked widespread popular resistance in occupied territories. Militarily and economically overwhelmed, the collapse of this grotesque regime was marked by the suicide of Hitler himself.
China, imperial: 5. Song dynasty period, 960–1279
Authors: Wyatt Don J.
Published: January 2016

Despite the militaristic origins it shares with nearly all prior and subsequent dynasties, the Song marks a watershed China's imperial history because of its uniquely civil character. Owing largely to the perfection of an elaborate system of state‐sponsored civil service examinations during its centuries, the Song is remembered as a meritocratic age when a classless bureaucracy ascended over a disappearing hereditary aristocracy and when educated commoners became empowered to exert themselves for the first time as a political force. However, this same ultra‐civilianized ethos of the Song is often cited foremost among those factors that precipitated its decline and demise.
Gao Empire
Authors: McIntosh Susan Keech
Published: January 2016

From the 9th to the 13th centuriesce, the eastern Niger Bend was dominated by a trading state known to Arab chroniclers as Kawkaw with its royal capital, Gao, strategically located on the Niger River at the mouth of a fossil valley leading north to the Sahara. Through control of distant salt sources and trade routes, Songhai rulers created a far‐reaching kingdom that had elements of empire. Historical sources unfortunately provide little information on the military or larger political configuration of Kawkaw.
Missions and missionaries
Authors: Carey Hilary M.
Published: January 2016

Missions and missionaries have been major players in the history of world empires and especially in relation to Europe and the history of Christianity. This entry provides an account of missions from the early Christians to the post‐colonial era. It considers the role played by missions and missionaries in some other world religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism. Missionaries ensured that Christianity spread across Europe in the Middle Ages and then to the New World. Consideration is given to the symbiotic relationship between missionaries and empire. Older themes have concerned the extent to which missionaries were implicated in the advance of colonialism, acting as surrogates for empire and promoting commerce along with Christianity. New themes in mission history include the role of women and indigenous Christians as well as missionaries as educators, linguists, scientists, and creators of imperial networks. In the post‐colonial period, missions have helped transform European missions into national churches and Christianity into a world religion.
Sikh Empire
Authors: Singh Pashaura
Published: January 2016

The end of the 18th century saw the beginning of the process of unification of Sikh confederacies (
misls
) in the Punjab, leading to the establishment of an empire by Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780–1839) in the early decades of the 19th century. Strategically, he made use of an efficient army, marriages, alliances, and suzerain–vassal polity to establish his political control over a domain extending from the Khyber Pass in the west to the River Satluj in the east, from the northern boundary of Kashmir to the deserts of Sindh in the South, comprising the provinces of Lahore, Multan, Peshawar, and Kashmir. It covered an area of 100 436 square miles with an estimated population of 12 million people. Designated as the
Sarkar Khalsa Ji
it was an absolute centralized monarchy, but a liberal and benevolent one that included Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims in the ruling class.
Photography and empire
Authors: Ryan James R.
Published: January 2016

The invention, development, and mass popularization of photography in the 19th century coincided with an intense and extensive period of European colonialism. Photography proved a significant means by which distant colonial territories could be explored, mapped, and controlled. New photographic technology profoundly affected ways in which the world was visualized as well as the ways in which empires were conceptualized and administered. Used in a range of ways across European and American colonial enterprises from the mid‐19th century, photography did not simply reflect empire; it actively constructed it. Yet, despite its undoubted power to shape colonial ways of seeing the world, photography was not always or inevitably the handmaid of colonial power. Photographs made in the service of empire could, in different hands, become persuasive testimony against imperial domination. Colonialized peoples also adapted photography for their own cultural and political purposes, employing it to shape new national and post‐colonial identities.
Technology and empire
Authors: Storey William Kelleher
Published: January 2016

Historians have tended to think about technology as an instrument of imperial domination. Empires helped to spread technologies through trade and political interventions, yet technological dissemination often produced results that were unexpected. Recent studies have highlighted the ways in which dominated people have reshaped technology and politics as a way of asserting their autonomy.
Material cultures of empire
Authors: Charney Michael W. , MacKenzie John M.
Published: January 2016

The material culture of empires involves aspects of the cultural reciprocities of imperial rule. The concept can cover the material items used in the course of the establishment and administration of imperial rule. It could include technology, weaponry, statuary, monuments, and tombs. It can also embrace the items that are adopted by subordinate peoples and are sometimes turned against their rulers. It can additionally refer to the manner in which dominant powers have a tendency to collect the materials of subordinate peoples, in modern times placing them in museums. This process underwent significant change as Britain and others, notably France, shifted their imperial interests from the settler colonies of North America to the non‐Western world, in particular India and Africa. Collecting and representing cultural objects became an important part of empire‐building and of imperial identity.
Enlightenment and empire
Authors: Kontler László
Published: January 2016

The Enlightenment, as an intellectual movement and a set of sociocultural practices aimed at the improvement of humanity through useful knowledge, coincided with crucial developments in the exploration and penetration of overseas territories by Europeans, including colonial expansion. In taking account of this new experience, 18th‐century thinkers also looked back to indigenous traditions in formulating important theoretical positions both in favor of and against the growth of empire, and ones designed to provide for efficient imperial governance. Enlightenment social science and natural history supplied taxonomies of human and natural diversity, some of which underpinned while others questioned hierarchies of empire, and thanks to their infiltration of the domestic contemplation of empire via the forums of the 18th‐century public sphere, were instrumental in the shaping of contemporary imperial identities.
Ceremonial and court culture
Authors: Osborne Toby
Published: January 2016

Ceremonial culture was central to court life in Early Modern Europe, and focused on the prince and his identity. Ceremonies had a performative role in visualizing and displaying the princely character to the court and the wider realm. At the same time, ceremonies sought to ensure that life at court was conducted in orderly ways, though the very power that the prince embodied meant that those ceremonies were also subject to competition and negotiation among those who wanted access to him. Power was understood in personalized terms, and this too had consequences for the ways ceremonies functioned in contexts of imperial power, as the examples of the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish monarchy suggest.
Subaltern Studies
Authors: Ludden David
Published: January 2016

Subaltern Studies broke new ground in the study of subordinate groups in India, but its approach to empire recycled the standard national historiography of a purely top‐down production of imperial tiers separating alien British elites from Indian national subalterns. It therefore concealed the role of Indians in the creation of British India and of subaltern multitudes in struggles that complicated all anti‐imperial movements. In South Asia, transitions to British rule were always transitions from one imperial regime to another, and British policy tended to maintain old imperial ranks, as did nationalism. Empire remained a many‐layered cake from which nations were cut. Imperial ranks organized understandings and strategies of social mobility for people at every level, where subaltern responses to changing imperial conditions varied depending on circumstances. The subaltern was thus a multitude whose diversity of conscious activities shaped empire from beginning to end, and still shapes the nation today.
Sport: 1. Ancient empires
Authors: Owens Edwin J.
Published: January 2016

Sport played an important role in ancient society, providing opportunities for the elite to display individual prowess and reinforce their political and military dominance, until the introduction of cash prizes allowed other members of society to participate. The range of sports was diverse. Many sports originally reflected warfare and hunting skills and allowed individuals to display their physical and technical superiority. In the context of state and religious ceremonies, sport offered entertainment and recreation and fostered communal identity. Sporting occasions also allowed states to show their military and cultural supremacy.
Georgia, Kingdom of
Authors: Chkhartishvili Mariam
Published: January 2016

The period from the 12th century to the first decade of the 13th century is a milestone in the history of Georgian statehood. If before and after this date Georgia was at the edge of empires, in this short interval the Georgian Kingdom was itself transformed into a pan‐Caucasus empire. Georgian identity reached a high point in its development and Georgians saw themselves as God's chosen people. The epoch is distinguished by a unique cultural legacy in which two features are especially important:
The History of Georgia
and a poem by Rustaveli,
The Knight in the Panther's Skin
. The first was a historiographical monument and contributed to the forming of Georgians’ collective memory; the latter was literary fiction and praised universal human ideals. The Georgian Kingdom acquired the function of an identity marker: in 19th‐century Georgian nationalism, the period including the reigns of King David the Builder (1089–1125) and his great‐granddaughter King (not Queen) Tamar (1184–1210) was represented as a Golden Age of Georgian history.
Thalassocracies
Authors: Gorski Richard
Published: January 2016

Thalassocracy, meaning “rule from the sea” or “rule of the sea,” is most naturally associated with the ancient Mediterranean world where a number of societies used the sea very effectively to expand and project their influence. It has since been applied more widely to sea‐facing societies and maritime empires of different regions and periods. Athens and Carthage stand out from the ancient world, while the British Empire is probably the archetypal modern example. Empire is an important lens through which to study the broader role of seas and oceans in historical development.
Food and famine
Authors: Wheatcroft Stephen G.
Published: January 2016

This entry investigates the relationships between famine, food problems, and imperialism and how they changed over time. It begins by providing a basic definition of the main concepts, which shows the problematic nature of the word famine. This is followed by a short review of how this subject has been treated in the available literature. It then proceeds to give a more comprehensive account of the relationships between famine, food problems, and imperialism at different times. The subject is divided into four periods: (i) primitive military imperialism in the Classical and medieval world; (ii) the rise of military mercantile imperialism from the medieval period through to world war; (iii) the collapse of military imperialism in two world wars; and (iv) internal imperialism, as underdeveloped states try to escape poverty through communist transitions.
al‐Andalus (Muslim Iberia)
Authors: Clarke Nicola
Published: January 2016

Between the Muslim conquest of much of the Iberian Peninsula in 711 and the fall of Granada in 1492, the history of al‐Andalus (Muslim Iberia) bears many of the hallmarks of the classic rise, decline, and fall narrative. It went from being an outpost of a much larger empire to an imperial seat in its own right, before crumbling, under pressure of civil war and external assaults from both the Christian north and the Muslim south, into an ever‐decreasing array of vulnerable city‐states. But the multicultural reality of this vibrant and turbulent medieval polity was more complex than it first appears.
China, imperial: 7. Ming dynasty period, 1368–1644
Authors: Lee Cheuk Yin , Chan Ying‐kit
Published: January 2016

The Ming dynasty, also known as Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China for 276 years (1368–1644) following the collapse of the Mongol regime Yuan dynasty. The founder Zhu Yuanzhang was from humble origins and founded his capital in Nanjing, Jiangsu. However, most historians believed that the power of Chinese monarchical absolutism reached its peak in the Ming dynasty because of Zhu Yuanzhang's authoritarian rule. To secure his power, he resolutely and unprecedentedly abolished the position of prime minister and had direct control over the six ministries. As a result, the government was controlled by powerful Grand Secretaries and subsequently by domineering eunuchs when the succeeding emperors were not as capable as the founding emperors. Declining governmental effectiveness came to a climax in the reign of Emperors Shizong and Shenzong when eunuch factions and the Donglin Party fought internecine struggles at the Ming court. During the same period of time, Ming China suffered from a series of crises, in particular the invasion of the Manchus from the north in Liaodong Province and peasant rebellions in the south. Eventually, the domestic rebel Li Zicheng captured Beijing in 1644, the frontier general Wu Sangui invited the Manchus to crush the rebels, and the Manchus seized the opportunity to take the throne and occupy China.
Khwarazmian Empire
Authors: Mitchell Colin P.
Published: January 2016

The Khwarazmian Empire grew from a regional dynasty of Turkic military governors – based in the arid plains and deserts east of the Caspian Sea – who first served the Great Seljuks in the 11th century. The Khwarazmshahs emerged as a successor state that held dominion over most of the eastern Islamic world in the 12th century, until the devastating Mongol invasions of the early 13th century. From traditional power bases like Urganj in the region of Khwarazm, the Khwarazmshahs ultimately grew to control major Islamic cosmopolitan centers like Bukhara, Samarkand, Nishapur, Herat, and Rayy, while at the same time patronizing religious and scientific scholarship.
Minoan civilization
Authors: Bennet John
Published: January 2016

Study of the Minoan civilization of Crete effectively began in 1900 with Arthur Evans’ excavations at the site of Knossos. The “Minoan” civilization crystallized at the turn of the 3rd/2nd millennia
bce
and seems to have exercised a profound influence on the Aegean islands, the Dodecanese, and coastal southwestern Turkey. This increased from the Middle (c.1900–1700
bce
) to the Late Bronze Age (c.1700–1450
bce
), when Crete may have been dominated by Knossos. The presence of Minoan material culture and practices at sites in the Aegean might support the Ancient Greek tradition of a “thalassocracy” of Minos, or a Minoan “empire,” but recent interpretations see this phenomenon as a product of local power strategies. After a major destruction horizon on Crete c.1450
bce
, Aegean engagement seems to have shifted to the emergent mainland (“Mycenaean”) polities, whose material culture becomes prevalent in the period 1400–1200
bce
.
Roman Empire: 2. 96–180
Authors: Pollard Nigel
Published: January 2016

From a number of perspectives, the period from 96
ce
(the death of the emperor Domitian and the accession of Nerva) to 180
ce
(the death of Marcus Aurelius) represents the high point of the Roman Empire. It reached its greatest territorial extent in the reign of Trajan (98–117
ce
), and its population peaked before the empire‐wide plague of 165
ce
. The imperial succession functioned smoothly through a process of adoption that prevented civil wars like those of 69
ce
and 193–197
ce
, and for the most part emperors of this period both sought and received the support of the traditional ruling class. Perhaps more importantly, while the actual and ideological roles of the emperor and the imperial capital remained paramount, and exploitation of provincial territory remained a key component of Roman imperialism, the period was characterized by crucial shifts in the relationship between center and peripheries. The Roman Empire was no longer just its capital and its subject territories, but for the first time, in some senses at least, a substantially integrated polity.
Genocide and empire
Authors: Rossman Jeffrey J.
Published: January 2016

The concept of genocide is grounded in a long‐standing Western critique of colonialism and the defense of indigenous rights which has reached widespread acceptance in international covenants in the 20th century, including but not limited to the United Nations Genocide Convention. Genocide, the mass murder of indigenous peoples, and the forced assimilation of any survivors, involving the destruction of the culture or national character of the subordinate group and theft of its territory, has been widely practiced by imperial powers. Often, settlers were responsible for genocidal actions in the pursuit of territory, a process imperial powers at the center were unable to control. From time to time imperial rulers and officials were prompted to pursue genocidal policies in response to the actual or potential threat of rebellion. Subaltern genocide – subaltern actors seeking retribution through genocidal acts – has also been a feature and a legacy of imperial history.