Empire Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Definition== An empire is an aggregate of many separate states or territories under a supreme ruler or oligarchy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Oxford Dictionary Online |url=https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/61337?rskey=ZzCRVM&result=1&isAdvanced=false#eid |access-date=2020-06-30}}"An extensive territory under the control of a supreme ruler (typically an emperor) or an [[oligarchy]], often consisting of an aggregate of many separate states or territories. In later use also: an extensive group of subject territories ultimately under the rule of a single sovereign state."</ref> This is in contrast to a [[federation]], which is an extensive state voluntarily composed of autonomous states and peoples. An empire is a large polity which rules over territories outside of its original borders. Definitions of what physically and politically constitutes an empire vary. It might be a state affecting [[imperialism|imperial policies]] or a particular [[Structuralism|political structure]]. Empires are typically formed from diverse ethnic, national, cultural, and religious components.{{Sfn|Howe|2002|page=15}} 'Empire' and 'colonialism' are used to refer to relationships between a powerful state or society versus a less powerful one; [[Michael W. Doyle]] has defined empire as "effective control, whether formal or informal, of a subordinated society by an imperial society".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Doyle |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XlluDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA30 |title=Empires |date=5 September 2018 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-3413-7 |page=30 |language=en |quote=I favor the behavioral definition of empire as effective control, whether formal or informal, of a subordinated society by an imperial society.}}</ref> [[Tom Nairn]] and [[Paul James (academic)|Paul James]] define empires as polities that "extend relations of power across territorial spaces over which they have no prior or given legal sovereignty, and where, in one or more of the domains of economics, politics, and culture, they gain some measure of extensive [[hegemony]] over those spaces to extract or accrue value".{{Sfn|James|Nairn|2006|page=xxiii}} [[Rein Taagepera]] has defined an empire as "any relatively large sovereign political entity whose components are not sovereign".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Taagepera |first=Rein |date=1979 |title=Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D. |journal=Social Science History |volume=3 |issue=3/4 |page=117 |doi=10.2307/1170959 |jstor=1170959}}</ref> The terrestrial empire's maritime analogue is the [[thalassocracy]], an empire composed of islands and coasts which are accessible to its terrestrial homeland, such as the Athenian-dominated [[Delian League]]. Furthermore, empires can expand by both land and sea. Stephen Howe notes that empires by land can be characterized by expansion over terrain, "extending directly outwards from the original frontier"{{Sfn|Howe|2002|page=15}} while an empire by sea can be characterized by colonial expansion and empire building "by an increasingly powerful navy".{{Sfnp|Howe|2002|page=66}} However, sometimes an empire is only a semantic construction, such as when a ruler assumes the title of "emperor".<ref>{{Cite web |title=empire |url=https://www.thefreedictionary.com/empire |access-date=26 October 2018 |website=The Free Dictionary |quote=any monarchy that for reasons of history, prestige, etc, has an emperor rather than a king as head of state}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2018 |title=empire |url=http://www.yourdictionary.com/empire |access-date=26 October 2018 |website=Your Dictionary |publisher=LoveToKnow, Corp. |quote=government by an emperor or empress}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=empire |url=https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/empire |access-date=26 October 2018 |website=Vocabulary.com Dictionary |quote=a monarchy with an emperor as head of state}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2018 |title=empire |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/empire |access-date=26 October 2018 |website=Collins English Dictionary |quote=government by an emperor or empress}}</ref> That polity over which the ruler reigns logically becomes an "empire", despite having no additional territory or hegemony. Examples of this form of empire are the [[Central African Empire]], [[Second Mexican Empire|Mexican Empire]], or the [[Korean Empire]] proclaimed in 1897 when Korea, far from gaining new territory, was on the verge of being annexed by the [[Empire of Japan]], one of the last to use the name officially. Among the last states in the 20th century known as empires in this sense were the Central African Empire, [[Ethiopia]], [[Empire of Vietnam|Vietnam]], [[Manchukuo]], [[Russian Empire|Russia]], [[German Empire|Germany]], and Korea. Scholars distinguish empires from nation-states.<ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last=Tilly |first=Charles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uV8KywAACAAJ |title=Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990β1992 |date=1990 |publisher=Blackwell |pages=4, 45β46 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Colomer |first=Josep M. |title=Empires Versus States |date=2017 |entry=Empires Versus States |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.608 |doi-access= |isbn=978-0-19-022863-7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hechter |first1=Michael |last2=Brustein |first2=William |date=1980 |title=Regional Modes of Production and Patterns of State Formation in Western Europe |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=85 |issue=5 |pages=1061β1094 |doi=10.1086/227125 |issn=0002-9602 |jstor=2778891 |s2cid=143853058}}</ref> In an empire, there is a hierarchy whereby one group of people (usually, the metropole) has command over other groups of people, and there is a hierarchy of rights and prestige for different groups of people.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stanard |first=Matthew G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pZlNDwAAQBAJ |title=European Overseas Empire, 1879 - 1999: A Short History |date=2018 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-119-13013-0 |pages=3β4 |language=en}}</ref> [[Josep Colomer]] distinguished between empires and nation-states in the following way: # Empires were vastly larger than states # Empires lacked fixed or permanent boundaries whereas a state had fixed boundaries # Empires had a "compound of diverse groups and territorial units with asymmetric links with the center" whereas a state had "supreme authority over a territory and population" # Empires had multi-level, overlapping jurisdictions whereas a state sought monopoly and homogenization<ref name=":0" /> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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