by Nathan Albright
University of California at Los Angeles, USA
There have been many empires in world history, on almost all of the continents of the world, and yet certain similarities bind them together. The question is posed often: how does one create an empire, or put in another way, what are the conditions needed to create an empire?
An empire is a large collection of nations and peoples ruled by a dominant group, which though economic strength and military power, controls the destinies of subject nations. Empires tend to be politically conservative and heavily militaristic, as well as very competitive.
But enough about the characteristics of empires. The question is how can an empire be created. The first step in creating an empire is ethnocentrism. For a nation to become an empire it must develop a strong sense of national pride. For the United States, this was called Manifest Destiny. For Britain it was called the "White Man's Burden." In any nation there are individuals that desire to rule the world, but the majority of people tend to be less imperialistic. However, when an educated imperialist supports his or her views for conquest with a rhetoric of helping those poor, underdeveloped (insert ethnic group here), then imperialism can begin. Imperialism can also begin when the pepole begin to see other nations as a threat or when the people believe that an empire would make them wealthier. Either way, it is the people who must support any plans for an empire or at least not violently oppose it. However, this is only the first step.
The next step in developing an empire after bulding up popular support is developing a strong military and diplomatic corps. Both of these serve basically the same function in creating an empire. A strong military is needed to kill/capture charismatic native leaders and garrison conquered nations to ensure their obedience. A strong diplomatic corps is neccesary to convince other nations that no one is threatening the balance of power. However, for an empire to develop, even when an imperialistic nation has a strong military and savvy diplomats, there have to be places to conquer.
Fortunately, this is fairly easy. At any given point there are nations who are experiencing economic and political difficulty, and division makes an area ripe for conquest. Civil disorder does too. Also, there are often leaders in impoverished areas willing to sell their nations for some money and a position, so patience and diplomatic/military/economic pressure will often create an empire.
If one has the boldness and patience to keep fighting, an empire can be yours. Also, it helps to be united and be fighting against an unimaginitive foe. But if a decadent empire or war-torn nation is in your area and you want some land, you just might have yourself an empire.
