▶ empires and dynasties
introduction
When people think about history, it is likely that kings and
queens, emperors and empresses, as well as vast empires will
soon come to mind. In empires one can oft en see the great
sweep of history, especially when great empires extend their
realms by conquering their neighbors. It is important when
studying empires and dynasties to remember on whose backs
the empires were built. For instance, the empires of ancient
China consisted mostly of peasants who had little or no say in
how they lived their lives. When there were wars to be fought,
the peasants made up almost the entire military force of sol-
diers, and when they went away into battle, they seldom re-
turned home. Th e food they produced fed the empire, and the
battles they fought made emperors powerful.
On the other hand, the Zhou Dynasty (ca. 1045–ca. 256
b.c.e.) accomplished something remarkable: It created a sense
of common nationhood among the many ethnic groups that
lived within its territory, so that even when the empire splin-
tered among petty warlords, everyone believed that China
should be one nation. Even when barbarians seized control
of parts of China, the barbarians began thinking of them-
selves as Chinese. During the Six Dynasties era (220–589
c.e.), when China was embroiled in many civil wars, there
was an abiding belief among its people that all within China
were one nation.
Th e success or failure of an empire can be gauged in part
by how successful it was in creating among its population a
sense of being one people who stand apart from others. Th e
term barbarian or variants of it usually signifi ed that one set
of people were part of an empire and other sets of people be-
longed outside it; the outsiders were considered barbarians
because they did not practice the customs of the insiders.
Perhaps the world’s fi rst empire was that of the Old Akka-
dian Dynasty (ca. 2350–ca. 2100 b.c.e.), created by Sargon I in
the Near East. It suff ered from ill-defi ned borders and a size
greater than a central government could manage at that time,
but it also eventually failed because most of those within it
did not see themselves as Akkadians but instead as conquered
peoples, as outsiders. Th e rulers of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
(1000–626 b.c.e.) tried resettling entire populations from
their homes into parts of the empire where the rulers could
keep an eye on them. When Babylon and Judah revolted and
the Medes invaded in about 615 b.c.e., Assyria was full of
people who did not think of themselves as Assyrian. Th us,
the Assyrians were overthrown, and they had few places to
hide even in their own lands.
Perhaps no one was more aware of the importance of
making people feel part of their empire than were the Ro-
mans. From the time of Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul,
the Romans tended to let their conquered peoples live in
peace, just as long as they paid their taxes. Human sacri-
fi ces were forbidden, but religions were mostly left alone,
and wars among the peoples of the empire were forbidden,
despite Rome’s occasional civil wars. What Rome did was
bring the benefi ts of the Pax Romanum, the Peace of Rome,
to bear in conquered lands. Th ere were well-built roads for
communication and trade. Services on the roads included a
postal system in which a letter mailed in Britain could ar-
rive in Egypt in about four weeks. Trade along the roads
was protected by soldiers in stations or forts that appeared
frequently. Wealth and power could be attained by anyone
who made use of Rome’s opportunities, and conquered peo-
ple quickly began sending their children to school to learn
Latin and Roman customs, so that they could share in the
wealth of the empire.
Furthermore, Romans oft en settled in large groups in
newly conquered lands. Th is was crucial in the Romanization
of North Africa aft er Rome’s victory over Carthage. Roman-
style cities were built from the ground up and populated by
Roman soldiers, who were encouraged to marry local women.
Prosperous, bustling, and exciting Roman cities made the
Roman way of life very attractive, and the Romans marriages
with local people made the cities seem welcoming. It was by
luring people into living like Romans that the Roman Empire
became the standard for civilization among its multitude of
ethnic groups.
A sobering counterpoint was the German rebellion of 9
c.e. Th e Germans near the Elbe had been under Roman dom-
ination since about 9 b.c.e., and they were already becoming
Romanized by wearing Roman clothing, speaking Latin, and
following Roman laws. All this was ruined by a governor who
abused the Germans, overtaxing them and brutally repress-
ing them. Th e result was a rebellion in which three Roman
legions were wiped out. Th e Romans had to withdraw. Th is
lesson was reaffi rmed in Britain, where even allies of the Ro-
mans were subjected to rape and other brutalities, and rebel-
lion in 60–61 c.e. resulted in the killing of tens of thousands
of Romans. A lighter hand in Britain later Romanized the
Britons.
Th e practice of sharing social benefi ts worked in other
cases. Egypt was aided by its geography, which tended to set it
apart from other cultures, helping create an “us against them”
mentality among all who lived there. Still, Egypt did absorb
disparate peoples into its way of life. Libyans, Sea Peoples, and
Semites all invaded at one time or another, and even when
t hey lost t hey were somet imes a l lowed to set t le in Eg y pt. Th ey
tended to adopt Egyptian culture rapidly, probably within a
few generations. Even the Kushite dynasty (the Twenty-fi ft h
Dynasty, ca. 770–ca. 657 b.c.e.) was accepted, because its rul-
ers behaved like Egyptians and considered themselves to be
part of the Egyptian culture.
Another way to judge an empire’s success is by how long
it lasted. Th e Chinese empire lasted from about 1500 b.c.e.
to 1911 c.e.; the Egyptian empire lasted from before 2950
b.c.e. to 30 b.c.e. Another way to look at the success of em-
pires is by how much they infl uenced later people. Th e Chi-
nese empire still infl uences the written languages and laws
of modern people. Th e Greeks created most of the modernempires and dynasties: introduction 387