Empire

===Bronze and Iron Age empires===

{{Multiple image
| header            = Early empires
| header_background = #f8eaba
| image1            = Map achaemenid empire en.png
| caption1          = [[Achaemenid Empire]] of [[Persia]] at its zenith
| image2            = Maurya empire in 265 BCE.jpg
| caption2          = [[Maurya Empire]] of [[India]] at its greatest extent under [[Ashoka the Great]]
}}
Stephen Howe writes that with the exception of the Roman, Chinese and "perhaps ancient Egyptian states", early empires seldom survived the death of their founder and were usually limited in scope to conquest and collection of tribute, having little impact on the everyday lives of their subjects.{{sfn|Howe|2002|pp=37, 39}}

With the exception of Rome, the periods of dissolution following imperial falls were equally short. Successor states seldom outlived their founders and disappeared in the next and often larger empire. Some empires, like the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire|Neo-Babylonian]], [[Medes|Median]] and [[Lydia|Lydian]] were outright conquered by a larger empire. The historical pattern was not a simple rise-and-fall cycle; rather it was rise, fall, and greater rise, or as [[Raoul Naroll]] put it, "expanding pulsation."<ref>Naroll, Raoul, (1967). "Imperial Cycles and World Order," ''Peace Research Society'', 7: pp 83-101.</ref>

Empires were limited in scope to conquest, as Howe observed, but conquest is a considerable scope. Many fought to the death to avoid it or to be liberated from it. Imperial conquests and attempts of conquest significantly contributed to the [[list of wars by death toll]]. The imperial impact on subjects can be regarded as "little," but only on those subjects who survived the imperial conquest and rule. We cannot ask the inhabitants of [[Carthage]] and [[Masada]], for example, whether empire had little impact on their lives, we seldom hear the voices of subject peoples because history is mostly written by winners. But one rich primary source of the subject population is the Hebrew [[Prophetic books]]. The hatred towards the ruling empires expressed in this source makes impression of an impact more serious than estimated by Howe. A classical writer and adherent of empire, [[Orosius]] explicitly preferred to avoid the views of subject populations.<ref>Orosius. ''History against the Pagans'', IV:23. (tr. Fear, A. T., Liverpool University Press, 2010).</ref> And another classical Roman patriot, [[Lucan]] confessed that "words cannot express how bitterly we are hated" by subject peoples.<ref>Lucan. ''Civil War'', 7:482. (tr. Braund, S. H., Oxford University Press, 1992).</ref>

The earliest known empire appeared in southern Egypt sometime around 3200 BC. Southern Egypt was divided by three kingdoms each centered on a powerful city. Hierapolis conquered the other two cities over two centuries, and later grew into the country of Egypt.{{Sfn|Stearns|2001}} The [[Akkadian Empire]], established by [[Sargon of Akkad]] (24th century BC), was an early all-Mesopotamian empire which spread into Anatolia, the Levant and Ancient Iran. This imperial achievement was repeated by [[Shamshi-Adad I]] of [[Assyria]] and [[Hammurabi]] of [[Babylon]] in the 19th and 18th centuries BC. In the 15th century BC, the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]] of [[Ancient Egypt]], ruled by [[Thutmose III]], was [[North Africa during Antiquity|ancient Africa]]'s major force upon incorporating [[Nubia]] and the [[City-state#Ancient city-states|ancient city-states]] of the [[Levant]].

{{Circa|1500 BC}} in China rose the [[Shang Empire]] which was succeeded by the [[Zhou dynasty|Zhou]] Empire {{Circa|1100 BC}}. Both equalled or surpassed in territory their contemporary Near Eastern empires such as the [[Middle Assyrian Empire]], [[Hittite Empire]], [[Egyptian Empire]] and those of the [[Mitanni]] and [[Elamites]]. The Zhou Empire dissolved in 770 BC into feudal multi-state system which lasted for five and a half centuries until the universal conquest of [[Qin dynasty|Qin]] in 221 BC. The first empire comparable to Rome in organization was the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] (916–612 BC). The [[Median Empire]] was the first empire within the territory of [[Persia]]. By the 6th century BC, after having allied with the [[Neo-Babylonian empire|Babylonians]], Scythians and Cimmerians to defeat the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]], the Medes were able to establish their own empire, which was the largest of its day and lasted for about sixty years.{{Sfn|Stearns|2001}}
{{Clear}}