Empire. What is an empire: definition, forms of empires, examples. most famous empires

Empire(from lat. imperium - power) - a form of organization largest state. The fundamental difference between an empire and a nation state lies in the multinational nature of the empire or in the presence of an equally significant attribute - ideology - a system of ideas that reveal the supranational, universal essence of this form of state.

An empire is not necessarily a multinational state; Thus, China and Germany for centuries were mainly one-national states, however, their rulers bore the title of emperor and both states had a developed system of ideas, positioning their universal character, exalting them above all other peoples and countries.

Geopolitical Forms of Empires

Classics of geopolitics Carl Schmitt and Halford Mackinder in their works distinguished two types of empires according to the form of expansion. Dividing all states according to their geopolitics into tellurocratic and thalassocratic, these thinkers also singled out their characteristic imperial forms.

Tellurocracy: Continental empires, when annexing neighboring lands and incorporating them into their borders, for security reasons, were forced to immediately turn them into their provinces, guarantee the operation of imperial laws and the circulation of imperial currency. This led to a relatively painless inclusion of elites and societies in empire building. The most important for such empires was the popularization of local heroes, literature, the translation of works into the imperial language, and often the development of graphics. written language for the included people (and very often on a chart different from that of the titular ethnic group of the empire). For such empires, the genocide of the local population was completely uncharacteristic. There are a huge number of examples of the voluntary inclusion of peoples in the boundaries of the empire:
Our two peoples (Dungans and Russians) from now on become one family, and we only want to unite (with you) together. All our hearts and thoughts, all our best qualities aimed at ensuring that by combined forces, having destroyed the rebels, live forever in peace and friendship, forever rely on each other, which will be a great happiness not for one person, but truly for the entire Universe "
- The Dungans of Xinjiang address Poltoratsky, an official of the Russian Empire

Thalassocracy: Another type of empire - colonial, maritime. Separated from their colonies by oceans and seas, they did not seek to export development, law and progressive forms of economic structure to the colonies. Their main goal is maximum production natural resources, exploiting the strategic position of the land-based colony. In such empires, cases of genocide, mass migrations, and cruel treatment of the autochthonous population were frequent. Punitive operations were a daily practice (Lord Protector Cromwell destroyed 4/5 of the population of Ireland, 95% of the Indians were slaughtered during the development North America white colonists).
When the economic viability of the colonies fell, the colonial empires abandoned the colonies. Naturally, to beginning of XXI century, almost all colonial, maritime empires collapsed.

The history of the concept of "empire"

ancient empires

In ancient times, there was the concept of empires, that is, the fullness of power. “The Romans have empires - the highest government, belonged to one people, manifesting it in legislation, supreme court, in resolving the issue of war and peace; temporarily, as the highest authority, was transferred to elected dignitaries. From the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus, emperors became its owners. Later, the Empire began to designate the territory over which the supreme power of the ruler extended. With the inclusion of the entire “civilized” world of antiquity into the Roman Empire, the concept of empire underwent a transformation and began to be understood as a state uniting numerous countries and peoples.

medieval empires

The model of the "worldwide" Roman Empire, supplemented by the Christian concept of a single church, formed the basis of the medieval concept of empire - the unification of the entire Christian world under the rule of a single monarch, whose main duty was the protection of the church. Under the conditions of a feudal society, the concept of empire did not and could not presuppose centralization and a bureaucratic system. empires medieval Europe- Frankish and Holy Roman - remained decentralized formations, whose unity was supported by the sacredness of imperial power.

Empires in Modern Times

The emergence of centralized nation states in the era of modern times, combined with the aggravation of interstate relations and the need to build up military potential, as well as the beginning of colonial expansion, led to the emergence of empires of a new type: Spanish, Portuguese, French, British and others. Colonial empires lasted until the 1970s. 20th century

Empires in the modern world

Despite the popularity of nation-state concepts, empires continue to exist today in one form or another. As a rule, these are continental states that had no experience of colonialism. Among them, one can single out such states as Russia (with a formal national form- the nation of Russians), Indonesia, Iran (with numerous reservations), India.

Empires that seek to build a nation-state almost always fall apart into an ethnically compact state.

China long time was also an empire, but the CCP's policy of assimilation led to the disappearance of all forms of the socio-economic, ethnic and cultural structure alternative to the Han, led to the assimilation of the Mongols, Russians, Dungans, partly Tibetans and Uighurs. China is currently striving to build an ethnocratic nation-state.

The European Union and the United States in a figurative sense are also considered empires in accordance with the criteria of the "Signs of an Empire" section. However, from the point of view of the theory of the nation-state, the first is a commonwealth of nations with a special form of supranationality, and the second is a classical nation-state, where ethnic differences are forced out of the political plane, which is completely uncharacteristic of empires.

Signs of an empire

At present, a figurative interpretation of the word "empire" is also widely used. In this case, it means a large state in terms of territory and population, which has the following features:

Availability strong army and police;
great foreign policy influence;
powerful national idea(religion, ideology);
rigid, as a rule, individual, power;
high loyalty of the population;
active foreign policy aimed at expansion, the desire for regional or world domination.

A state that meets these criteria will be an empire. At the same time, the monarchy as a type state structure not required.

Many states, developing along the path "up and out", sooner or later become empires. For human history there were many empires. Most famous: Byzantine Empire, Roman Empire, Russian empire, British Empire, Spanish Empire, France under Napoleon, Third Reich, Ottoman Empire.

Some states passed through the stage of empire several times (France, Germany, Russia).

Most famous empires

Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918)
Arab Caliphate(7th century)
Assyrian Empire (X-VI centuries BC)
British Empire (c. 1583-1960s)
Byzantine Empire (395-1453)
German Empire (1871-1918)
German colonial empire (1884-1918)
Third Reich (1933-1945)
Habsburg Empire (Austrian Empire) (1804-1867)
Chinese Empire (221 BC - 1912)
Macedonian Empire (c. 338 BC - 309 BC)
Mongol Empire (1206-1368)
Mughal Empire (1526-1857)
Ottoman Empire (1281-1923)
Persian Empire (c. 550-330 BC)
Roman Empire (27 BC - 476)
Russian Empire (1721-1917)
Holy Roman Empire (843-1806)
french empire
First French Empire (1804-1815)
Second French Empire (1853-1871)
French colonial empire (c. 1605-1960s)
Empire of Japan (1867-1945)

At the time of the highest prosperity of the Roman Empire, its dominion extended over vast territories - their total area was about 6.51 million square kilometers. However, in the list of the largest empires in history, the Roman one occupies only the nineteenth place.

What do you think, which one is the first one?

The largest empire in the world in history

Mongolian

294 (21.8 % )

Russian

213 (15.8 % )

Spanish

48 (3.6 % )

british

562 (41.6 % )

Mongolian

118 (8.7 % )

Turkic Khaganate

18 (1.3 % )

Japanese

5 (0.4 % )

Arab Caliphate

18 (1.3 % )

Macedonian

74 (5.5 % )

Now we know the correct answer...

Millennia of human existence passed under the sign of wars and expansions. Great states arose, grew and collapsed, which changed (and some continue to change) the face of the modern world.

Empire - the most powerful type of state, where under the rule of a single monarch (emperor) united various countries and peoples. Let's take a look at the ten biggest empires that have ever appeared on the world stage. Oddly enough, but in our list you will not find either the Roman, or the Ottoman, or even the empire of Alexander the Great - history has seen more.

10. Arab Caliphate

Population: -

State area: - 6.7

Capital: 630-656 Medina / 656 - 661 Mecca / 661 - 754 Damascus / 754 - 762 Al-Kufa / 762 - 836 Baghdad / 836 - 892 Samarra / 892 - 1258 Baghdad

Beginning of domination: 632 g

Fall of the empire: 1258

The existence of this empire marked the so-called. The "golden era of Islam" - the period from the 7th to the 13th century AD. e. The caliphate was founded immediately after the death of the founder of the Muslim faith, Muhammad, in 632, and the Medina community founded by the prophet became its core. Centuries of Arab conquests increased the area of ​​the empire to 13 million square meters. km, covering territories in all three parts of the Old World. By the middle of the 13th century, the Caliphate, torn apart by internal conflicts, was so weakened that it was easily captured first by the Mongols, and then by the Ottomans, the founders of another great Persian empire.

9. Japanese Empire

Population: 97,770,000

State area: 7.4 million km2

Capital: Tokyo

Beginning of reign: 1868

Fall of an empire: 1947

Japan is the only empire on the modern political map. Now this status is rather formal, but 70 years ago it was Tokyo that was the main center of imperialism in Asia. Japan - an ally of the Third Reich and fascist Italy - then tried to establish control over west coast Pacific Ocean, sharing a vast front with the Americans. At this time, the peak of the territorial scope of the empire came, which controlled almost the entire maritime space and 7.4 million square meters. km of land from Sakhalin to New Guinea.

8. Portuguese Empire

Population: 50 million (480 BC) / 35 million (330 BC)

State area: - 10.4 million km2

Capital: Coimbra, Lisbon

Since the 16th century, the Portuguese have been looking for ways to break through the Spanish isolation in the Iberian Peninsula. In 1497, they opened a sea route to India, which marked the beginning of the growth of the Portuguese colonial empire. Three years earlier, the Tordesillas Treaty was concluded between the “sworn neighbors”, which actually divided the world known at that time between the two countries, on unfavorable last conditions for the Portuguese. But this did not stop them from collecting more than 10 million square meters. km of land, most of which was occupied by Brazil. The handover of Macau to the Chinese in 1999 ended Portugal's colonial history.

7. Turkic Khaganate

Area - 13 million km2

one of the largest ancient states in the history of mankind in Asia, created by a tribal union of the Turks (Turkuts) headed by rulers from the Ashina clan. During the period of greatest expansion (the end of the 6th century), it controlled the territories of China (Manchuria), Mongolia, Altai, East Turkestan, West Turkestan (Central Asia), Kazakhstan and the North Caucasus. In addition, tributaries of the Kaganate were Sasanian Iran, the Chinese states of Northern Zhou, Northern Qi since 576 and from the same year the Turkic Kaganate is tearing away from Byzantium North Caucasus and Crimea.

6. French Empire

Population: -

State area: 13.5 million square meters km

Capital: Paris

Beginning of reign: 1546

Fall of an empire: 1940

France became the third European power (after Spain and Portugal) to become interested in overseas territories. Since 1546 - the time of foundation New France(now Quebec, Canada) - originates the formation of Francophonie in the world. Having lost the American opposition to the Anglo-Saxons, and also inspired by the conquests of Napoleon, the French occupied almost the entire West Africa. In the middle of the twentieth century, the area of ​​the empire reached 13.5 million square meters. km, more than 110 million people lived in it. By 1962 most of French colonies became independent states.

Chinese Empire

5. Chinese Empire (Qing Empire)

Population: 383,100,000

State area: 14.7 million km2

Capital: Mukden (1636–1644), Beijing (1644–1912)

Beginning of reign: 1616

Fall of the empire: 1912

Ancient empire of Asia, cradle Eastern culture. The first Chinese dynasties ruled from the 2nd millennium BC. e., but a single empire was created only in 221 BC. e. During the reign of Qing - the last monarchical dynasty of the Middle Kingdom - the empire occupied a record area of ​​14.7 million square meters. km. This is 1.5 times more than that of the modern Chinese state, mainly due to Mongolia, now independent. In 1911, the Xinhai Revolution broke out, putting an end to the monarchy in China, turning the empire into a republic.

4. Spanish Empire

Population: 60 million

State area: 20,000,000 km2

Capital: Toledo (1492-1561) / Madrid (1561-1601) / Valladolid (1601-1606) / Madrid (1606-1898)

Fall of the empire: 1898

The period of Spain's world domination began with the voyages of Columbus, who opened up new horizons for Catholic missionary work and territorial expansion. AT XVI century almost the entire Western Hemisphere was "at the feet" of the Spanish king with his "invincible armada". It was at this time that Spain was called “the country where the sun never sets”, because its possessions covered a seventh of the land (about 20 million sq. Km) and almost half sea ​​routes in all corners of the planet. Greatest Empires The Incas and Aztecs fell to the conquistadors, and in their place a predominantly Hispanic Latin America was formed.

3. Russian Empire

Population: 60 million

Population: 181.5 million (1916)

State area: 23,700,000 km2

Capital: St. Petersburg, Moscow

Fall of the empire: 1917

The largest continental monarchy in human history. Its roots reach the times of the Moscow principality, then the kingdom. In 1721, Peter I proclaimed the imperial status of Russia, which owned vast territories from Finland to Chukotka. AT late XIX century, the state has reached its geographical peak: 24.5 million square meters. km, about 130 million inhabitants, over 100 ethnic groups and nationalities. At one time, Russian possessions were the lands of Alaska (until it was sold by the Americans in 1867), as well as part of California.

2. Mongol Empire

Population: more than 110,000,000 people (1279)

State area: 38,000,000 km2 (1279)

Capital: Karakorum, Khanbalik

Beginning of reign: 1206

Fall of the empire: 1368

The greatest empire of all times and peoples, whose meaning of existence was one - war. The great Mongolian state was formed in 1206 under the leadership of Genghis Khan, having grown over several decades to 38 million square meters. km, from Baltic Sea to Vietnam, and at the same time killing every tenth inhabitant of the Earth. To end of XIII For centuries, its uluses covered a quarter of the land and a third of the planet's population, which then numbered almost half a billion people. The ethno-political framework of modern Eurasia was formed on the fragments of the empire.

1. British Empire

Population: 458,000,000 (approximately 24% of the world's population in 1922)

State area: 42.75 km2 (1922)

Capital London

Beginning of reign: 1497

Empire Fall: 1949 (1997)

The British Empire is the largest ever existing state in the history of mankind with colonies on all inhabited continents.

For 400 years of its formation, it has withstood the competition for world domination with other "colonial titans": France, Holland, Spain, Portugal. During its heyday, London controlled a quarter of the world's land (over 34 million square kilometers) on all inhabited continents, as well as vast expanses of the ocean. Formally, it still exists in the form of the Commonwealth, while countries such as Canada and Australia actually remain subject to the British crown.

International status in English- the main heritage of Pax Britannica.

Something else interesting for you from history: remember, or for example. Here you are. maybe you didn't know what was and

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from lat. Imperium - empire) - complex public education(superstate), a unitary association of heterogeneous parts with an imperial center, a metropolitan country that creates an empire and manages it and its constituent parts, which are at different stages of the formation of their own statehood and subordinate to the metropolis. Empire is an early archaic form of forced national-state integration, a converted realization of the historical trend of the unity of the world. Ancient empires often actually covered the entire known territory of land and sea, beyond which ancient geopolitics was no longer oriented.

The emergence of empires in history was a continuation and development of a simpler, more organic and stable statehood of the “nation-state” type - a socio-political structure of a community (tribal, ethnic, national), with a single ruler, with the distribution of one type of power, economy, culture, language. The formation of such a state and its intensive development in a limited area (the Italian region of Latium with a center in the city of Rome, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, English, French, etc.) European states) could lead to its expansion into a weaker near and far geopolitical environment in search of resources, material assets and for the sake of strengthening the military-political power and, ultimately, to the formation of an empire.

Empires may include other nation-states with their own established statehood, historically older than the statehood of the metropolis (Greece or Judea as part of the Roman Empire, India in the British Empire, etc.), as well as peoples on different stages pre-state development.

The degree of subordination of parts of the empire to its mother country is different - from allied and almost equal relations with the mother country (Australia, Canada as part of the British Empire) to limited subordination to control from the center (protectorates, mandated, trust and administered territories) and complete subordination (colonial possessions).

Empires can be compact continental (Austro-Hungarian, Russian), states with the so-called. overseas territories (British, French, Dutch, etc.) and mixed type(The Roman Empire). There are also colonial and non-colonial empires. Most of the empires of feudal and bourgeois Europe belonged to the first, much less often colonialism was developed in ancient world due to the low territorial mobility of the population. However, the ancient empires also moved their population to the conquered lands, created trade, cultural and administrative centers there, deployed garrisons that gave rise to entire countries (Gallia, Dacia, etc.).

The heterogeneity of empires and the coercive nature of imperial allegiance at all times invariably gave rise to internal tensions, conflicts, uprisings and liberation. civil wars. The contradictions of imperial statehood were exacerbated by the need to uniformly and stably govern the peoples and territories located on different levels development, and maneuver between two historical trends: the concentration and centralization of power and its decentralization, i.e. between the desire to fully control the state and the need to preserve and maintain autochthonous government, to combine the domination and privileges of the ruling nation with national, political and religious tolerance.

The unitary nature of empires is determined, as a rule, by the unity of the highest political and legal institutions, the armed forces and financial system. The internal contradictions of empires were supplemented throughout their history by armed clashes between them, which often ended in the collapse of more weak side(e.g. death Byzantine Empire in 1453) and wars for the redistribution of colonies, including two world wars of the 20th century. This struggle culminated in the 20th century. completion of a thousand-year history of empires. Their near-universal collapse is explained the following reasons 1) a deep historical crisis of relations of domination with the use of armed violence, which came as a result of World War II and revealed that all imperial goals can be achieved without capture and subjugation of the means of exchange (actions, labor resources, capital, goods, information); 2) a general change in post-war international relations, the creation of the UN, an organized world community, the internationalization of the democratic process - a complex of political and ideological changes incompatible with the existence of enslaved, forced and dependent countries and peoples; 3) reduction of uneven development and international inequality; 4) the contradiction between the liberal-democratic social order, the intensive scientific and technological development of the metropolitan countries and the situation of the backward and degenerating imperial periphery; 5) the incompatibility of this situation with the imperatives of the world civilizational process, the dominant force of which was striving to become the imperial West; 6) an object lesson of imperial anachronism - the collapse of attempts to create new empires (German and Japanese) in the era of transition to new industrial and post-industrial societies; 7) the influence of liberating socialist ideas that came not only from a Soviet, but also from a Western European source; 8) the rise of national self-consciousness and the liberation movement in the subordinate parts of empires (a process that began at the end of the 18th century in America); 9) restoration or creation anew of rational constructions of nation-states (a source of anti-imperial separatism); 10) internal structural crisis of empires - violation of the permissible physical limits of complexity, controllability, expedient financial costs, expenditures of state resources for the maintenance and protection of empires.

In the 2nd floor. 20th century the historical system of world empires collapsed, leaving only some relic traces (China, Tibet, economic neo-imperialism of the great powers and transnational corporations). The collapse of empires left behind a wave of post-war separatism, which also captured integral unitary states - such as Canada, Spain, France (Quebec, Basque, Breton separatism, respectively), etc. Imperial statehood and imperialism itself as a means of integration are being replaced by large regional and functional unions states and fundamentally new form voluntary integration of the EU type.

Lit .: Lenin V. I. Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism. - Poly. coll. cit., v. 27; Luxembourg R. Accumulation of capital, vol. 1-2. M.-L., 1934; Seeley G.R. The expansion of England. L., 1883; Hobsoll G. A. Imperialism. A study. L., 1902; Rohrbach P. Deutschland uber den Weltvolkern. Dresden, 1903; Kautsky K. Nazionalstaat, imperialistischer Staat und Staatenbund. Nurnberg, 1915; Schumpeter J.A. Imperialisme.- "Archiv fur Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialipolitik", 1919, Bd. 46; Einaudi L. La guerra e lunita europea. Milano, 1948.

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expansion beyond long-term stable boundaries, caused by the outgrowth of an established, historically formed organism (Georgy Fedotov). After formation, each empire experiences a period of prosperity, due to the possibility of concentrating significant resources and establishing a relatively lasting peace on the large area. This is perceived by the population as a great blessing. Significant resources freed up and unified communication network contributes to the creation of a closed self-sufficient state. The empires of the Middle Ages and modern times differed little from each other in their domestic politics. Centralized management and a costly economy, wasteful spending of labor and natural resources, the implementation of expensive projects of the "century", huge expenses for the upkeep of the army, repressions against entire peoples.

Stand out in history monarchical states led by the emperor. Many European empires of the past pursued an active colonial policy. Some empires had numerous overseas colonies, others did not. Empires ceased to exist in different ways. In Britain, France and Spain, the borders of the empire were gradually reduced to the size of the metropolitan state, which largely avoided social upheavals and a drop in living standards. The British colonial empire was the largest in the world, with a population of 450 million by 1945. The empire gradually transformed into a community of states that retained close economic and cultural connections. The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian, German, Russian and Soviet empires was swift and unexpected and ended with a change in their political system. Austria-Hungary survived the Napoleonic era and withstood the iron onslaught of Bismarck, but in 1918 it broke up overnight into separate ones, including multinational states(Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia).

Classifying empires, one can single out the ancient empires - Egyptian, Persian, Roman, etc., which were under the absolute, often theocratic power of one sovereign - the monarch. In addition, there were colonial empires of the "New Age" - British, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, which were the result of the military-economic expansion of European countries in various regions of the planet. These empires were built around the state center - the metropolis, and, as a rule, had a rigidly centralized government. "Traditional" empires: Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian, Japanese, Ottoman, etc., were multi-level state complexes, held together by an ideological center, a single armed forces and economic space. In addition, according to the structure of the main communications, one should define "consolidated" (continental) and "non-consolidated" (sea) empires. The former have land communications of the center with all the constituent parts of the state, the latter have only maritime communications. It should be noted that almost all empires (primarily "traditional") were distinguished by cultural diversity. A "nation-state" having a monocultural and monoethnic character, held together only by administrative and legal unity, rarely acquires the status of an empire. Culturally and ethnically, an empire is always a coalition and a community, representing a monolith in political context.

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