bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Orientalism
Authors: Nash Geoffrey
Published: January 2016

Orientalism is a term first used in the late 18th century to refer to scholarly study of the East and a style in the arts. In the same period the British East India Company was expanding its control of the Indian subcontinent, while in Islamic domains Napoleon's expedition to Egypt of 1798 was followed by French colonization of Algeria beginning in 1830. The British decision to demote Eastern languages and culture in India in favor of education in Western knowledge signaled the emergence of an imperialistic sense of Western superiority. As orientalism became institutionalized in Europe, it contributed to imperialist governance in the East. However, the extent to which orientalists individually and collectively were responsible for buttressing imperialist ideology was not fully debated until the publication of Edward Said's
Orientalism
in 1978.
Songhai Empire
Authors: Amoah‐Boampong Cyrelene
Published: January 2016

The Songhai Empire was the largest of the three West African empires in the Western Sudan. The empire bore the same name as its prominent ethnic group, Songhai. It thrived between the mid‐15th and late 16th centuries largely due to the leadership of two great rulers, Sunni Ali and Muhammad Ture. In the late 16th century Sultan Al‐ Mansur of Morocco invaded and conquered the Songhai Empire through the use of superior firearms. Songhai refused to submit. Subsequently, the empire was divided into smaller principalities, which remained independent until 1898, when the French subjugated them.
America, United States of: 1. Continental expansion after 1776
Authors: McColley Robert
Published: January 2016

The people of the newly independent United States continued along the imperial path of their colonial days, engaging in foreign trade, attracting immigrants, marrying early, and claiming as much land as possible. With or without enslaved Africans, Americans continued to penetrate and cross the Appalachian Mountains, creating their first western state in 1792. By 1800 settlements had reached the Mississippi and, by 1803, beyond. By purchase, pressure, or war, Indian nations dissolved or moved west. The United States claimed land on the basis of treaties with European powers and, after a swift, aggressive war, by purchase from Mexico. The United States had its present boundaries by 1854, except for Alaska, purchased from Russia in 1867.
Neo‐Babylonian (Chaldean) Empire
Authors: Beaulieu Paul‐Alain
Published: January 2016

This entry surveys the sources, history, political and economic organization of the Neo‐Babylonian Empire, which ruled the greater part of the Near East between the fall of Assyria at the end of the 7th century and the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539
bce
.
ʿUqaylid Emirate
Authors: Hanne Eric
Published: January 2016

This entry provides a basic overview of the political history of the ʿUqaylid Emirate (fl.380–564ah/990–1164ce), focusing on its origins, relations with regional powers, and key figures from the dynasty.
Neo‐Sumerian (Ur III) Kingdom
Authors: Garfinkle Steven J.
Published: January 2016

The Neo‐Sumerian period (2112–2004
bce
, also known as the Ur III period) is one of the best‐documented centuries in antiquity. The dynasty united the city‐states of southern Mesopotamia into a single powerful kingdom that extended from the Persian Gulf up through most of southern Mesopotamia. The large administrative archives from this kingdom attest to its active military campaigns, but they also highlight the ephemeral nature of the kingdom's successes. The royal household did not establish sovereignty over neighboring societies and cultures; therefore, the Ur III state was not an empire.
Religion and empire
Authors: Strathern Alan
Published: January 2016

Political elites have always looked to religion in order to access ideological, social, magical, or administrative power. But imperial expansion often generates acute dilemmas regarding the management of this relationship. Religion can be used to preserve important distinctions between the ruling group and their various subject populations (differentiation), or to unite them as a shared moral community (integration). Each strategy presents both opportunities and risks, and imperial elites such as the Mexica, Ottomans, Mughals, Ming and Qing dynasties, Portuguese, Spanish, and British have deployed variants of them both. Meanwhile emperors such as Ashoka, Alexander, or Akbar have sought spectacular ways of establishing sacred authority among diverse religious groups at the same time. While religion was the most powerful means of acquiring legitimacy in the premodern world, the “world religions” in particular also presented norms by which imperial powers could be judged and found wanting. Empires were therefore vulnerable to the sting of righteous rebuke and the threat of religious rebellion.
Sasanian Empire
Authors: Daryaee Touraj , Rezakhani Khodadad
Published: January 2016

The Sasanian Empire was the dominant power in the region between Oxus and Euphrates during the period of late antiquity. The empire was founded in 224
ce
after the defeat of the Arsacid (Parthian) Dynasty and continued until 651
ce
, when the conquering armies of Islam invaded. The period had significant political, social, economic, and cultural effects on the history of medieval Iran and determined the course of much of the subsequent history of the Near East. Military competition with the nomadic powers in the east and northeast, as well as the Roman Empire in the west, was also a significant feature of the period, largely defining the extent of the medaeval Iranian world, whose basis was formed under the Sasanians in the political‐ideological concept of Iranshahr (“the Empire of Iran”).
Roman Empire: 4. 395–476
Authors: Potter David
Published: January 2016

The government of the Later Roman Empire, especially in the west, was shaped by the redefinition of the emperor's role in government. A succession of child emperors weakened the political fabric of the western empire as the decline in the significance of the imperial office heralded a concomitant reduction in the efficiency of the other organs of imperial government and the empire's gradual dissolution into a collection of Germanic successor states.
Roman Empire: 3. 180–395
Authors: Potter David
Published: January 2016

Between 180 and 395 the Roman Empire acquired a new political system, a new administrative structure, and a new religion. The changes stemmed from efforts of emperors in the early 4th century to bring an end to the chronic infighting that had rendered the empire incapable of dealing with external threats that in earlier centuries it had contained with relative ease. The key agents of change were the emperors Diocletian and Constantine.
French Empire: 6. Africa
Authors: Chafer Tony
Published: January 2016

France's African empire was an incoherent and disjointed construct, assembled in an ad hoc manner with no preconceived plan over a period of nearly one hundred years. The process started with the seizure of Algiers in 1830 and culminated with the addition to the empire of parts of the former German colonies of Kamerun and Togoland in 1919 under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I. The legal status and arrangements for administering the territories varied enormously, with the north of Algeria treated as part of metropolitan France, Tunisia and Morocco as protectorates, and France's sub‐Saharan African empire as colonies. The main focus here will be on the colonies of French West Africa (Afrique Occidentale Française, or AOF) and French Equatorial Africa (Afrique Equatoriale Française, or AEF), which were the part of the French African empire that came under the responsibility of the Ministry of Colonies. Sections are devoted to colonization, colonial rule, the colonial economy, the ‘”civilizing mission”, the world wars and decolonization. A short final section will be devoted to Algeria since, although it was not formally a colony, it was nonetheless a vitally important part of the French African empire.
Dahomey, Kingdom of
Authors: Cameron Monroe J.
Published: January 2016

The Kingdom of Dahomey rose to power on the Slave Coast of West Africa during the tumultuous Atlantic Era (16th–19th centuriesce). In the 17th century, polities across this region maintained political control largely through ceremonial rites that incorporated Atlantic wealth as symbols of power. Dahomey, in contrast, developed a powerful bureaucracy that maintained a heavy hand in broader political and economic affairs, profiting substantially from the mercantile and agricultural activities of a wide range of players across the kingdom. Yet, political expansion in Dahomey was a dynamic and fraught process. As domestic and Atlantic commercial sectors expanded and shifted over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, Dahomean political institutions transformed dramatically to profit from a variety of new economic opportunities, not the least of which was the destabilizing shift from an export economy based on human captives, to one dependent on agricultural production in the early 19th century.
Portuguese Empire: 2. Africa
Authors: Oliveira Pedro Aires
Published: January 2016

In the context of Portuguese overseas expansion (15th–20th centuries), Africa took on particular importance in the last hundred years (c.1880–1975), when the boundaries of the Lusitanian areas on the continent were finally established and the metropolis undertook more systematic efforts in terms of human occupation and economic exploitation of the territories under its jurisdiction. However, although the types of physical ownership and imposition of colonial structures of domination in areas that would later constitute independent countries evolved through a somewhat slow process, it would be limiting to refer to the existence of a Portuguese “African empire” merely by going back to the time of the “Scramble.” A more multifaceted concept of empire (including an institutional dimension dictated by the center and more ambiguous and informal modalities of influence generated in the periphery) must be called upon in this analysis to understand the longevity and the idiosyncrasies of the Lusitanian presence in Africa.
Mongol Empire, Great
Authors: Lane George
Published: January 2016

After uniting the Turco‐Mongol tribes and being declared Great Fierce Khan, Chinggis began his conquests of the settled lands. After conquering Northern China he looked west for trade but was forced into conflict. On his death his empire stretched from China to Russia and his sons continued the expansion. In China and Iran multicultural regimes were founded and trade links were established from Europe to China.
Seljuk Sultanate of Anatolia (Rum)
Authors: Peacock A. C. S.
Published: January 2016

Emerging in the wake of the Turkish invasions of the Middle East in the 11th century and the resulting collapse of Byzantine power in Asia Minor, the Seljuk Sultanate of Anatolia (1081–1307
ce
) rose to become the major Muslim power in the eastern Mediterranean by the early 13th century, a position enhanced by the sultanate's control of important east–west trade routes. The Mongol invasions of the mid‐13th century, however, reduced the Seljuks to the status of a Mongol protectorate, until eventually in the early 14th century the Mongols abolished even the puppet sultanate. Nonetheless, as the first major Muslim state in Anatolia, the Seljuks of Anatolia exercised a significant influence on the formation of Ottoman institutions and dynastic ideology.
Roman Empire: 1. To 96ce
Authors: Hollander David B.
Published: January 2016

Over the course of nearly five hundred years, Rome transformed itself from a vulnerable city‐state into the capital of an empire stretching from Britain to Armenia. While the causes of Roman imperialism remain contested, its consequences are clear and substantial: the cultural transformation of the Mediterranean basin and much of Western Europe.
Golden Horde Khanate
Authors: Vásáry István
Published: January 2016

No English‐language monograph exists on the history of the Golden Horde Khanate. After a treatment of the Mongol origins of the Golden Horde, the western campaign of 1236–1241, which laid the territorial foundation of the new Chinggisid state founded by Batu Khan, is analyzed. The first 100 years of the political history of the Jochid realm, with special emphasis on Berke Khan's reign (1257–1266), Prince Nogai's separatist policy of the 1290s, and the golden age of the Horde during Uzbek Khan's rule (1313–1342), is then discussed. After the political anarchy of the 1360s, Toqtamish Khan succeeded in restoring the empire, but the western campaign of Timur Leng (Tamerlane) inflicted a serious blow on the Golden Horde from which it could not recover, and it finally disintegrated into local khanates (Kazan, Kasimov, Crimea, Astrakhan, Great Horde, and Nogai Horde) in the 15th century. Subsequently, the following themes are touched upon: state and society; economy and trade; worldviews, religions, and cultures.
Byzantine Empire: 3. 1204–1461
Authors: Carr Mike
Published: January 2016

Despite the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade and the subsequent fragmentation of the Byzantine Empire, the Crusaders were never able to achieve a total conquest of all Greek territories. Instead, three Byzantine successor states were set up at Nicaea in Asia Minor, at Arta in Epiros, and at Trebizond on the coast of the Black Sea, all of which regarded themselves as the true inheritors of the Byzantine imperial tradition. In 1261 the emperor of Nicaea was able to recover Constantinople from the Latins, and this restored empire, along with the other successor states, survived until the 15th century, when they eventually succumbed to the rising power of the Ottoman Turks.
Carthaginian Empire
Authors: Hoyos Dexter
Published: January 2016

From the 7th centurybceCarthage acquired dominance over the other Phoenician colonial cities in North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, together with the territories around them. After about 450 she also mastered her own fertile hinterland called Libya (modern northern Tunisia). Mediterranean‐wide trade, including with Rome, and revenues from the empire made Carthage a major power. A military power more than a naval one, Carthage warred repeatedly with the Greek states of Sicily, especially Syracuse, between 500 and 270bce.Defeated by Rome in the First Punic War (264–241), she lost her Sicilian and other island territories, but conquered a new land empire in Spain. The Second Punic War under Hannibal's leadership (218–201), however, deprived her of this and restricted her to Libya, with her own destruction by Rome following in 146bce.
Client states
Authors: Harrington Jack
Published: January 2016

“Client state” is one of the most widely used terms to describe the dependence of a smaller power to another. The origins of the term, in the modern historiography of the Roman Empire, reveal its use to describe the extra‐legal obligations that weaker and more powerful states can enter into. Most expanding empires have taken on clients. If imperialism persists today, long after the decolonization of the mid‐20th century, it is through empires of client states.
Neo‐colonialism
Authors: A. Nwachuku Levi
Published: January 2016

Neo‐colonialism was born on the praxis of colonialism. In its operation it is, in a sense, a replacement word for imperialism. It has become a term that is used to describe the post relationship of imperial powers to their former colonies.

Following the end of World War II, colonial powers began to re‐assess the political and economic rationale for continuing to keep their colonies. In 1945, George Padmore of Trinidad with W. E. B. DuBois of the United States organized the Fifth Pan‐African Congress in Manchester, Britain. Some African future political independence advocates were in attendance. They include Hastings Banda from Malawi, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana (Gold Coast). They became the presidents of their independent nations. The conferees at the congress called upon the colonial powers to grant their colonies political independence.

The irony of the Imperial Powers fighting a war of liberation in Europe but keeping their colonial empire un‐liberated fueled the colonies' desire to end colonialism. But soon after they realized that their former masters still had a hegemonic relationship with them, in spite of their being independent. In 1965, Kwame Nkrumah, who became Ghana's first president, coined the word neo‐colonialism to describe the influence of the former imperial nations on the ex‐colonies in the areas of economy, language, culture, and political philosophy.

It is not entirely accurate to assign neo‐colonial practice to only those European nations who hegemonize many parts of the world and built empires as their national policy. In the contemporary context, powerful nations which did not necessarily own empires participate in neo‐colonial practice in non‐developed nations. Business, corporations, and military complexes have collectively influenced the dynamics of institutions in the underdeveloped world. Excluding the influence of China in the economy of African colonies, one could rightly describe neo‐colonialism as a form of “Westernization” of the underdeveloped world.
Iran, Imperial State of
Authors: Randjbar‐Daemi Siavush
Published: January 2016

The Imperial State of Iran (initially Persia) existed from 1925 to 1979 under the Pahlavi dynasty of Shah Reza Khan Mirpanj – until he was exiled following the Anglo‐Russian invasion1941 – and his son Mohammed Reza Pahlavi until he was deposed in 1979. They restored central rule over the disparate regions of the state and attempted to exert territorial claim to Bahrain and other islands in the Persian Gulf and to project power abroad. Internally their authoritarian rule, which appealed to ancient Persian imperial power and historical legitimacy, was used to impose modernizing policies which antagonized traditional conservative and liberal opinion and which, together with a deeply unpopular alliance with the West, led to the popular revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
Cultural genocide
Authors: Treglia Gabriella
Published: January 2016

Cultural genocide, or ethnocide, is the attempted destruction of a group's culture, religion, and identity. It is a coercive act imposed by a dominant group upon a weaker or minority group. Cultural genocide has been associated with imperialism and with settler‐colonialism. It is particularly associated with forced religious conversion and with forced assimilation policies, including child removal and the outlawing of cultural expression.
Sport: 2. Modern empires
Authors: Taylor Matthew
Published: January 2016

The spread of sport in the modern world has been closely connected to the growth of European and non‐European empires. Sport often served practical purposes, in helping colonial officials and expatriates settle in new environments. It also played a significant role in the imperial mission of colonial governments and the ideologies of administrators, educators, and missionaries. Yet sport rarely remained isolated in colonial enclaves. It could become a key site for colonial resistance and for the celebration of an independent local identity; at other times, it was a vehicle for reinforcing imperial connections and loyalty to the colonial power. If sport was sometimes implicated in anti‐colonial struggles, sporting relationships forged during the age of empire often survived the process of decolonization.
Oyo (Yoruba) Empire
Authors: Ogen Olukoya
Published: January 2016

Pre‐colonial West Africa was home to a number of great empires. One of the most prominent of these was the ancient Oyo Empire. This was unarguably the greatest kingdom established by the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria. The empire had a strong army and for a long time was able to exert its dominance over several Yoruba towns and such kingdoms as Dahomey, Nupe, Borgu, and so on. It was not until the late 18th century that it began to face a series of crises that paved the way for its decline. The empire eventually fell in the early 19th century following a full‐scale invasion launched on its capital by Fulani jihadists. This invasion led to the widespread dispersal of the inhabitants of Oyo and their resettlement in other parts of Yorubaland such as Ogbomoso, Osogbo, Ibadan, Modakeke, and so on.
Dependency theory
Authors: Paul Abhijeet
Published: January 2016

Dependency theory, first developed in the 1950s, is based on the paradigm of underdevelopment visible in the poor nations belonging to the so‐called Third World. On this view, from systematic imperial and neo‐colonial exploitation of raw materials and resources from the poor countries well into the 20th century, a long history of dependency of the poor over the rich has emanated. Critics of the theory have since argued that with the emergence of the developmental state in the 1960s, the impact of they theory has gradually waned. And in the wake of globalization and the emergence of the so‐called “post‐colonial” nation‐state since the late 1980s or so, dependency theory seems to have been made redundant.
Race and empire
Authors: Cleall Esme
Published: January 2016

Race has been one of the key categories that colonial powers have used to think and speak about difference. Because racial difference is not concrete or biological, what “race” means changes over time, place, and context and its meaning intersects with other ways of thinking about difference, such as gender, class, and disability. Despite these contingencies, its understanding as something natural, rather than socially constructed, lends immense power. Complexion, IQ, religion, language, and behavior have, amongst many other things, been used as “evidence” of racial difference. Race can denote perceived “biological” difference (such as physical characteristics) or “cultural” difference linked to ethnicity and shared heritage; the relationships between these two “registers” of race are constantly shifting. Race has long been used to justify European colonialism, including the trans‐Atlantic slave trade, and has continued to be a formative category after decolonization.
China, imperial: 3. 220–c.580
Authors: Blitstein Pablo Ariel
Published: January 2016

After the fall of the Han dynasty in 220ce, the Chinese world started a period of political fragmentation which lasted until the Sui dynasty unified the territory in 589. This period was characterized by two main transformations. On the one hand, there was an overhaul of the ruling elites: they came to be identified with a limited number of eminent families (shizu) who controlled the imperial power. On the other hand, new populations entered into the social and institutional landscape of the empire, and some of them even established their rule on large parts of the former Han territory. These populations brought new customs, doctrines, and forms of rulership that left a deep mark in imperial institutions. Without understanding the radical transformations that took place between the Han and the Sui dynasties, it would be impossible to grasp the political, social, and intellectual landscape of later times in Chinese imperial history.
Phrygian Kingdom
Authors: Newington Sam
Published: January 2016

This brief overview explains how Phrygia became established geographically and as an empire with global reach. At its peak in the late 8th centurybce, Phrygia dominated much of Anatolia and confronted the powerful states of Urartu and Assyria in the east. The mythological tales and the historical perspectives offered by writers such as Herodotus and Cicero are acknowledged, though emphasis is given to the topographical landscape that evidence Phrygia as an empire. Major cities with highly advanced urban infrastructure emerged during the Phrygian heyday, which informs us of the imperial status that Phrygia aspired to and achieved.
World War II and empire
Authors: Jackson Ashley
Published: January 2016

World War II was a clash of empires because most of the earth's land surface was ruled by a tiny handful of colonial powers and because major belligerents fought either to extend empires or to defend them or, as in the case of the United States of America, assumed an imperial mantle as war transformed the international system. By the end of the war, the aggressive imperialism of the Axis powers had been quashed and they had been forced to disgorge their gains of conquest and colonization. This entry explains why the war was an imperial war and the ways in which different types of empire participated. Colonies contributed to the war efforts of their metropoles, endured wartime privations including forced labor, severe food shortages, and inflation, and often suffered enemy occupation. The war shattered the European colonial empires, saw the brief, violent rise of new imperial powers, and forged a world order dominated by two superpowers.
China, imperial: 2. Han dynasty, 206
bce
–220
ce
Authors: de Crespigny Rafe
Published: January 2016

The Han Empire ruled China from 202
bce
to 220
ce
, except for a brief interregnum from 9 to 23
ce
when the “usurper” Wang Mang held power. The emperor had a spiritual position, but ultimate authority was based upon military power, supported by a sophisticated civil service of well‐educated officials. The economy was based on peasant agriculture, aided by water control, with a network of canals and roads for communications and transport. The capital district and the north China plain provided a key economic region for expansion, notably into south China, where native peoples were incorporated into the empire, but also against the nomadic tribes of the north, and into central Asia. War on the steppe, however, strained the imperial economy and young emperors, often dominated by consort families or harem eunuchs, were a source of weakness. In 190 disorder at the capital ended the dynasty in civil war.
Visual communication in ancient empires
Authors: Elkins Nathan T.
Published: January 2016

In ancient empires, imperial authorities primarily used the visual arts to communicate ideas to their subjects. Portraits, statues, relief sculpture, public building programs, and coins communicated ideologically charged messages. This is especially true of the Romans, who during the republic and the empire were particularly adept at exploiting state‐sanctioned art and architecture to communicate ideology.
Capitalism and imperialism
Authors: Dilley Andrew
Published: January 2016

The relationship between capitalism and imperialism has been a major theme in the scholarship on empires. After considering the terms, this entry reviews the major traditions which have explored this relationship. It explores “classical” liberal and Marxist treatments, then later scholarship on the links between capitalism and the causes and consequences of imperial expansion, and recent works on globalization.
China, imperial: 4. Sui, Tang, and Five dynasties periods, c.581–960
Authors: Liao Yi‐fang
Published: January 2016

This period constituted roughly 20 regimes. However, the Tang dynasty formed a large part of it and played an important role not only in Chinese history as the second imperial age after the Han dynasty, but also in Asia and in world history for its political authority and cultural influence over surrounding countries. China fell into disunity after the collapse of the Han dynasty. The nomads migrated into northern China and mixed with the Han people. The Sui, based on an army made up of mixed ethnic origins, conquered southern China and ended the division. Then, the Tang succeeded the centralized policy of the Sui and successfully built a great empire of wealth and conquest. However, the Tang's decline also resulted in political disintegration. Although the situation deteriorated to the degree that many regimes co‐existed during the Five dynasties, it did not last long until the reunification of the Song dynasty.
Gupta Empire
Authors: Agrawal Ashvini
Published: January 2016

The process of political disintegration in northern India set by the decline of the Kushan Empire in the 3rd centurycegave rise to a large number of independent states. One of these was the Gupta Empire, which rose to imperial status within a period of 50 years from its inception and dominated the political, cultural, and economic horizons of India until the mid‐6th century. Chandragupta I, the third ruler of the dynasty, married the Lichchhavi princess Kumaradevi, thus raising the prestige of the Guptas. Their son Samudragupta was the greatest conqueror of the family who brought under his control almost the entire Indian subcontinent. The rise of the empire continued through his successors, Chandragupta II Vikramaditya, Kumaragupta I, and Skandagupta, after which the process of decline started due to internal bickering, the growing power of its feudatory rulers, and external invasions until its collapse in c.550ce.
Railways and empire
Authors: Charney Michael W.
Published: January 2016

The railways were above all an economic enterprise important in forging informal and formal empire. Nevertheless, the railways were even more vital for their political and cultural impact, contributing to the emergence of the idea of the nation, nationalism, and ultimately independence. The vagaries of the colonial export economy and eventual challenges from cheap motor vehicle transportation meant that the railways faced the continual problem of how to derive a profit in the face of colonial regulations.
Burmese Empire
Authors: Charney Michael W.
Published: January 2016

From the 11th century until the end of the 19th century, Burma (Myanmar) was home to a series of kingdoms that integrated the Irrawaddy Valley politically. The lasting legacy of these kingdoms was that they established political, religious, cultural, and linguistic standards and models that would prove durable and would survive the colonial period and help shape post‐independence Burma from 1948.
Colonies, variety of
Authors: MacKenzie John M.
Published: January 2016

Colonies have existed in a wide variety of forms. The origins of the Latin word imply a single building, farm, or estate, and the original colonies were indeed often trading establishments planted on sea lanes or in other landward regions. But the need for protection or the desire to exploit resources directly often led to such colonies spreading out into larger geographical units forming the modern concept of the colony as a territory under imperial control. It is debatable whether the great Middle Eastern and Asian land‐based empires should be placed in a different category from those empires which proceeded by the establishment of colonies, although some empires, such as the Macedonian of Alexander the Great, some Asian, and the Ottoman did establish colonies of retired soldiers. In modern times, European colonies ranged from the earlier trading establishments to strategic positions, islands, plantation colonies, colonies of settlement, to “dependent” colonies of “exploitation.” In the 20th century the League of Nations created a new category: “mandates” or colonies held under international trusteeship.
British Empire: 12. Southeast Asia
Authors: Charney Michael W.
Published: January 2016

Although slowly built up from a number of fragments carved out of pre‐existing states in the region, Britain's possessions in Southeast Asia over the long haul left the colonial period as four independent states: Burma (Myanmar), Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei. Despite the unique circumstances and separate evolution of these administrations, their history in the interim has much in common and has had similar effects. There is still a British military presence in the region, a lasting legacy of British rule there.
Diplomacy and empire
Authors: MacKenzie John M.
Published: January 2016

All empires used diplomacy as a mechanism for survival and expansion. This might involve dynastic marriages with adjacent or rival states, the creation of client states, and the sending of envoys between one empire and another. These methods were firmly established in the ancient world, as well as in many other empires. Although royal secretaries in Europe dealt with foreign affairs from Renaissance times, France led the way with dedicated officials in the 16th century, with Britain following later in the 18th. But fully fledged ministries were only to appear in the 19th, with impressive buildings, large numbers of civil servants, and diplomatic and consular corps fanning out across the world. These were headed by ministers responsible to rulers or parliaments. Treaty making, sometimes as part of postwar settlements, sometimes to regulate international actions, became common and frequently involved the redistribution of territories and the establishment of “ground rules” in imperial affairs. European methods were then imposed upon the rest of the world, notably Oriental powers like China and Japan. Europeans started out as supplicants to the great Oriental empires, then became dominant, and returned to being clients in the late 20th century.
Popular imperialism
Authors: Mackenzie John M.
Published: January 2016

Popular imperialism refers to the ways in which imperial ideologies and events are transmitted to the public in metropolitan states and their capitals. The objectives are first, to enhance the power of rulers or, in modern times, of ruling parties, and second, to reconcile the common people to the policies of imperial expansion and rule, as well as to the sacrifices required in their achievement, for example by the military. Popular imperialism can be conveyed in a whole variety of ways, by visual spectacles, displays, and games, by sculptures, architecture, and coinage, or by the great range of entertainment and visual media of modern times.
Fortifications, imperial
Authors: Farrell Brian P.
Published: January 2016

Fortifications were the most universal physical expression of empire in world history. They expressed not only the determination to develop and defend imperial space, but also, usually, the need to do so. But fortifications were so ubiquitous in imperial history that it is better to analyze them by placing them in a broader context of imperial strategies for managing, as well as defending, space, frontier relationships, and the movement of things and people. This entry will examine the interplay between space, force, and strategy, as represented by fortification strategies ranging from imperial China to France in North America.
Tarascan (P'urhépecha) Empire
Authors: Roskamp Hans
Published: January 2016

The Tarascan or P'urhépecha Empire of West Mexico was founded in the late 14th or early 15th century by members of the Uacúsecha (“eagle”) lineage who resided in several settlements on the banks of Lake Pátzcuaro and took the city of Tzintzuntzan as their capital. By means of trade, military conquests, and matrimonial alliances, they managed to control a territory that roughly covers the present‐day Mexican state of Michoacán and some parts of the adjacent regions of Jalisco, Colima, Guanajuato, Guerrero, and Mexico. Whereas the Tarascan culture and language were dominant in the core area of the empire, the periphery had a vast population of other ethnic groups. The western and southern borders of the empire were successfully defended against the military campaigns of the expanding Aztecs from central Mexico. In 1522 the Tarascans surrendered to the European conquerors and vowed obedience to the Spanish king and the Christian god.
Durrani Empire
Authors: Vogelsang Willem
Published: January 2016

The Durrani Empire was founded by Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1747
ce
. From the city of Kandahar in present‐day southern Afghanistan, it stretched from close to the Caspian Sea in the west, to past Delhi and Agra in North India in the east. By the late 19th century the Durrani Empire would develop, though much reduced in extent, into the state of Afghanistan.
Median Empire
Authors: Llewellyn‐Jones Lloyd
Published: January 2016

Much contention surrounds the question of whether the Median “empire” ever existed as a political and military force or whether it was simply the invention of Greek historiography that was routinely written into Western scholarship thereafter. There is little doubt, though, that the Medes were an influential north Iranian tribal society and that they exerted some significant influence within the region in the 9th to early 6th centuries
bce
. Nor can it be doubted that the Medes were in no small way responsible for the downfall of the Assyrian Empire, but whether the Medes filled a power vacuum in the post‐Assyrian world is difficult to assess. The archaeology of Media reveals some sizable settlements, but evidence for a cohesive architectural style or for palatial buildings is yet to emerge.
Lydia, Kingdom of
Authors: Llewellyn‐Jones Lloyd
Published: January 2016

The Lydians occupied a central area of western Anatolia and although their origins are unknown, attested only in Greek mythical texts, in the 7th and 6th centuries
bce
evidence becomes more plentiful for Lydian expansion throughout much of Asia Minor. The leadership of aggressive military rulers such as Alyattes and Croesus quickly expanded Lydia's sphere of influence, making its capital, Sardis, one of the wealthiest and most beautiful cities of Antiquity.
Hittite Empire
Authors: Giusfredi Federico
Published: January 2016

The Hittites were an Indo‐European population of ancient Anatolia during the second millennium
bce
. After the phases of formation, the so‐called Old and Middle Hittite kingdoms, their state became an interregional empire in the last centuries of the Bronze Age (14th and 13th centuries
bce
). Their capital city, Hattusha, is one of the most important archaeological sites of the Ancient Near East, and in its archives several clay tablets with cuneiform texts have been unearthed that provide us with significant information about the history of Anatolia and neighboring countries. Even though the kingdom and the language of the Hittites disappeared at the end of the Bronze Age, they were one of the most culturally important and politically influential populations of the pre‐classic world.
Kalmyk Khanate
Authors: Lazzerini Edward J.
Published: January 2016

The Kalmyk Khanate was created in 1630 by a coalition of western Mongol tribes that had migrated from their original homeland in Dzhungaria to the lower Volga along Russia's eastern frontier. It survived until 1771 when abolished by Catherine II, Empress of Russia, following the migration of the bulk of the Kalmyk population to its original homeland in a desperate attempt to retain its independence.
Astronomy and navigation
Authors: Winterburn Emily
Published: January 2016

Astronomy and navigation are among the oldest of the sciences. All ancient cultures viewed the heavens, making up stories to remember star patterns and the relationship between their apparent movements, and the seasons. As people traveled, the stars became a useful way to work out direction. The relationship between astronomy and navigation and empire is more complex. At its simplest level, astronomy and navigation have helped empires to grow, helping them to travel beyond familiar landscapes, out into the unknown, without getting lost. They have helped with administration, too, underpinning calendars and time keeping. At a more complex level, astronomy and navigation have been used to demonstrate cultural and intellectual sophistication and power. At the same time, empires have brought cultures together, facilitating knowledge transfer and new developments in astronomy and navigation.
Cartography in the Russian Empire
Authors: Postnikov Alexey V.
Published: January 2016

Russian and West European skills combined to produce skilled surveyors and a cartographic tradition which both recorded and documented the expansion of the Russian Empire. Tsar Peter I in the 1720s was the first ruler to recognize its significance as an important tool in securing Russian access to the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, and Pacific Ocean. New scientific bodies, and especially the military from the 1760s, were charged with the mapping of Russia and its new territories, and imperial expansion also brought new cartographic and surveying skills and information from able practitioners in Finland, Poland, and elsewhere. New thematic maps were created to assist in the exploitation of the empire's resources and in colonial settlement, especially in Siberia in the 19th century. Mapping and exploratory expeditions from the late 18th century, in the reign of another expansionary ruler, Katherine the Great, led to extensive fur‐trapping in the east and Russia's claim to the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and the northwest coast of America.
Chera Kingdom
Authors: Majumdar Susmita Basu
Published: January 2016

The Cheras, Cholas, and Pandyas were rival dynasties in Tamilakam, South India, first recorded from around the 3rd century
bce
. The Chera chiefdom was based on the Kerala coast where it prospered from growing South Asian maritime trade as well as agriculture. They expanded their domains by subjugating minor chiefs and entering marriage alliances. The major activity of the
ventars
(traditional chiefs) was accumulation of resources, by exaction or otherwise, and their redistribution following the determinate pattern of social relationships. This redistribution involved gifts of land, mainly to warrior chiefs which was in reality the transfer of predatory control and not simply land ownership. From this base the Cheras made extensive conquests along the Malabar coast, Coimbatore, and Tamil Nadu before the 3rd century
ce
, and the chiefdom transformed into a powerful kingdom although its full transformation into a sophisticated monarchical state, similar to that of the Cholas and Pandyas, only occurred later.
Maukhari Empire
Authors: Ghosh Suchandra
Published: January 2016

With the decline of the Gupta Empire, the growing political importance of the region of the Ganga‐Yamuna doab (the tongue of land between the two rivers) in North India was evident with the rise of the Maukhari dynasty of Kanauj and their evolving rivalry with Magadha (Later Gupta). From the early 6th century to early 7th century
ce
, there were two Maukhari houses, the first in Gaya in South Bihar, and the second in Kanauj in Uttar Pradesh. The main sources are inscriptions like the Haraha inscription of Ishanavarman and the Apshad inscription of Adityasena, as well as texts such as the
Harshacharita
of Banabhatta. The last Maukhari ruler was Grahavarman, the brother‐in‐law of Harshavardhan of the Pushyabhuti dynasty, founder of the Harsha Empire. Thus, an alliance between the Pushyabhutis and the Maukharis was formed, which changed the axis of power of North India. With the murder of Grahavarman in 605
ce
the dynasty came to an end.
Ports, imperial
Authors: Hyslop Jonathan
Published: January 2016

While ports are often presented as places of openness and exchange, empires have frequently sought to regulate the flows of people and goods through them. Early modern empires sought to centralize control of trade through restricting port participation in empire; late modern empires imposed increasingly strong migration controls. The 19th century saw a remarkable age of imperial port building, in both metropolitan and colonial cities. This was given a further impetus by the development of steamships and railways. In the period of the end of the European empires and the rise of American power, older forms of port were replaced by container facilities, separated from the city.
British Empire: 3. Africa
Authors: MacKenzie John M.
Published: January 2016

Africa has sometimes been depicted as a sideshow to British ambitions elsewhere, but this is only partly true. The slave trade, in which the British emerged as the most important slavers on the West African coast, was vital to the development of plantations in the West Indies and the southern colonies of North America. The take‐over of the Cape, at the southern tip of Africa, from the Dutch during the Napoleonic Wars was based on its key strategic position on the route to India. Similarly the British established their “veiled protectorate” in Egypt in 1882 because of its vital strategic role as a pivotal point between the Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, African, and Asian worlds, particularly after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Even British interest in East Africa was considered to be a by‐product of the British desire to maintain their dominant position on the entire Nile system as well as in India and the Indian Ocean. But African colonies later developed importance for their own sake with the emergence of significant economic interests in West, Central, and southern Africa while complex commitments arose from the presence of white settlers in South, Central, and East Africa. All of this ensured a particularly messy decolonization of African colonies.
Mandates, League of Nations'
Authors: Sinanoglou Penny
Published: January 2016

The Mandates system of the League of Nations was established at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, and provided international oversight for the former Ottoman provinces and German colonies in the Middle East, Africa, and the Pacific that had been conquered by Allied powers in the course of World War I. Rather than annex these territories, Belgium, Britain, the British dominions, France, and Japan agreed, with some reluctance, to hold them under “mandate” from the League of Nations.
Agriculture and empire
Authors: Tauger Mark B.
Published: January 2016

Empires relied on agriculture for foods, taxation, soldiers, and laborers, but most empires also aided farmers during crises. Earlier contiguous empires such as China and Russia were based on pre‐existing peasant societies and often employed serfdom. Later overseas empires such as Spanish America and British and French “new imperialism” employed early versions of globalization through forced migrations to supply slaves for plantations, taxation to encourage market production, and European settlers who expropriated native peoples. Struggles between large landlords and small peasant farmers were basic themes in all empires, with extremely varied results. China's Song dynasty set a precedent of government aid to peasants, but later reforms, while sometimes successful, often failed catastrophically, such as Communist China's people's communes or the Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme in the late British Empire.
Dutch Empire: 4. East Indies
Authors: Borschberg Peter
Published: January 2016

The Dutch East Indian Empire spans two periods: the first, between c.1602 and 1795, coincides with the life span of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and covers the territories and settlements across Asia controlled by the company. The second period, between c.1815 and 1949, focuses on the Dutch East Indies, which emerged after World War II substantially as the Republic of Indonesia.
Rashidun Caliphate
Authors: Urban Elizabeth
Published: January 2016

The Rashidun Caliphate (632–661) is the period in Islamic history immediately following the death of the Prophet Muhammad. While Muhammad led a small religious polity in Medina under his charismatic prophetic leadership, he did not create anything that might be called an empire. The situation changed under the four caliphs of the Rashidun period – Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali – who oversaw the rapid expansion of the Islamic polity throughout the Near East. They elaborated important military, legal, and economic structures and developed a nascent imperial apparatus that helped ensure the success of the Islamic state. The Rashidun Caliphate is often considered a religio‐political golden age, but it also witnessed many fierce debates about the nature of authority, the role of the caliph, and the relationship between religion and politics. In fact, the Rashidun Caliphate ended with a calamitous civil war that permanently divided the young Muslim community, revealing the incredible difficulty of simultaneously ruling a huge empire and maintaining religious unity.