History is perhaps the best judge of time, for only the best can truly stand the test of time, and yet remain the best. There have been many civilizations in the past, but very few have survived; the rest have been replaced. No one civilization lasts forever and even the strongest and best of them all reaches the day when it crumbles, only to be washed away by the sands of time! Yet what causes them to collapse?

Tyrants and inefficient and ineffective rulers is one of the most common causes. The Shang dynasty met its end at the hands of an inefficient ruler, who only knew how to please his concubine, or so the story goes, where he supposedly lighted all the fireposts (which were used in wars to call back the officials from faraway provinces to the capital) and made a mockery of his officials who rushed back to "rescue" him, only to find the king extremely happy, because his concubine was finally amused and gave him a smile. Not surprisingly, like the boy who cries wolf, nobody believed him the next time round he lighted the fireposts, when the people of Chou invaded him, and thus, he met his tragic end, and with it, was the end of the Shang dynasty.

Another common cause : weak military power. Weak military power, in the olden days, did not only mean a civilization could not invade its neighbors and expand its power; it also meant itself was susceptible to attacks by greedy neighbors, being unable to resist the military mightiness of the latter. The Persians were able to conquer the last of the Mesopotamians, which included the Assyrians and Babylonians, because of their military might. Similarly, the Persians themselves met the same end when Alexander the Great grasped the reins of power. Under the military leadership of Alexander, the Greeks finally managed to the subdue the thorn in their flesh for many centuries--the Persians.

The above two reasons are perhaps the only root causes of the fall of an empire. Everything else branches out from there; inefficient administration-a result of a weak ruler, rebellions by one's own people--because the ruler is a tyrant, because the empire possesses some rare raw materials--unable to withstand the attacks by the greedy neighbour because it is weak militarily.

However, if the reasons are the same throughout the whole time of history, then why has nobody managed to prevent it? What lessons can we learn from the fall of an empire? How may we apply these lessons to modern society?

And how has these lessons affected the way we run our society today? For example, does the high expenditure on military for almost every nation in the world be because the nation fears an attack by its neighbor? What other side-effects do you think these lessons have generated?

Corrupt Emperors was one reason why the mighty Roman empire fell.