States without nations: empires
Perhaps still more remote from contemporary experience is the
concept of empire. Yet this is a form of rule that has dominated large
parts of the globe for millennia. The most notable examples upon
which we shall concentrate at first are the ancient empires of China
and Rome. But similar structures were to be found in India (e.g. the
Moghul Empire), in Africa (Egypt and Mali) and in Central and
South America (e.g. the Aztecs). Nor should it be forgotten that,
more recently, each of the European nations sought to create colonial
empires in Africa, Asia and the Americas, whilst the USA and the
former USSR could both be accused of having colonial possessions by
other names.
It is tempting, and not totally misleading, to attribute the
longevity of many empires to the military advantage of a large and
powerful state surrounded by much smaller states, or tribal terri-
tories. Whilst empires may be briefly built on military advantage
alone as, perhaps, was that of Alexander the Great, the longer-lasting
examples can be attributed not only to size, but also to the advantages
of a ‘civilised’ culture in the literal sense of a society centred upon
relatively large urban centres containing specialised personnel who
contributed technical and organisational advantages to the empire.
The prestige and self-esteem associated with such systems may well
help them to survive. Certainly the ruling groups of the Chinese,
Roman and British empires were all firmly convinced of the
superiority of their cultural inheritance, and successfully imparted
this ideology to many of their subjects and neighbours. However this
conviction did not prevent such systems from adopting and adapting
to useful features of surrounding societies.
The history of China is particularly noteworthy for the way in
which the empire was militarily subdued on a number of occasions
by warlike tribes from the periphery of the empire. However the
conquerors on each occasion came to be merely a new ruling group
operating a very similar political system to the one they had defeated
(Eberhard, 1977). The adaptability of the Romans is well illustrated
by their reactions to Greek culture in the early period and the
transformation from the Classical Empire based on Rome into the
Byzantine Christian Empire based on Constantinople. One vital
feature of such systems is the way the rulers must be prepared to
tolerate linguistic, cultural and religious diversity, provided that36 SYSTEMS