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Empire

Definition: Empire

Empire

Noun

1. The domain ruled by an emperor or empress.

2. A group of countries under a single authority: "the British empire".

3. A monarchy with an emperor as head of state.

4. A group of diverse companies run as a single organization.

5. An eating apple that somewhat resembles a McIntosh; used as both an eating and a cooking apple.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "empire" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)

Etymology: Empire \Em"pire\, noun. [French expression, from the Latin expression imperium command, sovereignty, dominion, empire, from imperare. See Emperor; compare to Imperial.]. (references)

 

Specialty Definition: Empire

DomainDefinition

Computing

Empire n. Any of a family of military simulations derived from a game written by Peter Langston many years ago. A number of multi-player variants of varying degrees of sophistication exist, and one single-player version implemented for both Unix and VMS; the latter is even available as MS-DOS freeware. All are notoriously addictive. Of various commercial derivatives the best known is probably "Empire Deluxe" on PCs and Amigas. Modern empire is a real-time wargame played over the internet by up to 120 players. Typical games last from 24 hours (blitz) to a couple of months (long term). The amount of sleep you can get while playing is a function of the rate at which updates occur and the number of co-rulers of your country. Empire server software is available for Unix-like machines, and clients for Unix and other platforms. A comprehensive history of the game is available at `http://www.empire.cx/infopages/History.html'. The Empire resource site is at `http://www.empire.cx/'. Source: Jargon File.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: British Empire

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The British Empire, which in the early decades of the 20th century covered nearly 30 million square kilometress with a population of 400-500 million people (roughly a quarter of the world's population), was the most extensive area under a single country's rule in history.

Introduction

The British Empire came together over 300 years through a succession of phases of expansion by trade, settlement or conquest, interspersed with intervals of pacific commercial and diplomatic activity or imperial contraction. Its territories were scattered across every continent and ocean, and it was described with some truth as "the empire on which the sun never sets". It reached its height in the 1930s and 40s.

The Empire facilitated the spread of British technology, commerce, language, and government around much of the globe. Imperial hegemony contributed to Britain's extraordinary economic growth and greatly strengthened her voice in world affairs. Even as Britain extended its imperial reach overseas, it continued to develop and broaden democratic institutions at home.

From the perspective of the colonies, the record of the British Empire is mixed. They gained from Britain the English language, an administrative and legal framework on the British model, as well as technological and economic development. With varying degrees of success, in decolonisation Britain sought to pass on to her colonies governments based on parliamentary democracy and the rule of law. At the very least, those countries which were colonised by Britain were spared the incompetence and brutality of some other European empires, such as the Belgian and Portuguese empires; and almost all have since chosen to join the Commonwealth of Nations, the association which replaced the Empire.

Nonetheless, British colonial policy was always driven to a large extent by Britain's trading interests. While settler economies developed the infrastructure to support balanced development, tropical African territories found themselves developed only as raw-material suppliers. British policies based on comparative advantage left many developing economies dangerously reliant on a single cash crop. A disregard for the complexities of national and racial identities left a legacy of partition or inter-communal difficulties in areas as diverse as Ireland, India, Zimbabwe, Guyana and Fiji.

History

For details, see the main article History of the British Empire.

The first British Empire

From the early 17th century England and later Great Britain established colonies in continental North America and the islands of the Caribbean such as Jamaica and Barbados. During the Seven Years War the British defeated the French at the Plains of Abraham and captured all of New France in 1760, giving Britain control over almost all of North America. However, the most populous American colonies were lost in the American War of Independence (1775-83).

The period is sometimes referred to as the end of the "first British Empire", indicating the shift of British expansion from the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries to the "second British Empire" in Asia and later also Africa from the 18th century.

See also Colonial history of America.

Later, the creation of British colonies in Australia (from 1788) and New Zealand (1840) created a major zone of British migration.

The second British Empire

For details, see the main article Pax Britannica.''

The end of the old colonial and slave systems (Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807) were accompanied by the adoption of free trade, culminating in the repeal of the Corn Laws and Navigation Acts in the 1840s. As the only industrialised country in the world, Britain could prosper through free trade alone without having to resort to formal rule.

From 1857 the British East India Company, whose main purpose was the lucrative East Indies trade, extended its rule across nearly the whole of India. Ceylon, Burma, Malaya and Hong Kong were gradually added. Following the Indian Mutiny of 1857 the Company's territories were placed (1858) under the administration of the Crown.

See also Imperialism in Asia.''


Benjamin Disraeli and Queen Victoria

New Imperialism

For details, see the main article New Imperialism.

The "Long Depression" of 1873-96 saw Britain's economic dominance threatened by competition from Germany and led to the widespread abandonment of free trade among Europe's powers. Although she continued to adhere to free trade until 1932, Britain joined the new scramble for protectionist formal empires rather than allow areas under her influence to be seized by rivals.

During this period, Europe's powers added nearly 23,000,000 km² to their overseas colonial possessions. As it was mostly unoccupied by the Western powers as late as the 1880s, Africa became the primary target of the "new" imperialist expansion. In 1899 Britain completed her takeover of South Africa, begun with the annexation (1795) of the Cape, by invading the Afrikaner republics of the gold-rich Transvaal and the neighbouring Orange Free State.

The period also saw the building of the Suez Canal.

See also Scramble for Africa.

After the First World War

The aftermath of World War I saw the last major extension of British rule, with British Mandates over the former Ottoman territories of Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq and Kuwait. but the heavy costs of the war undermined her capacity to maintain the vast empire. Nationalist sentiment grew in both old and new Imperial territories.

The 1920s saw a rapid transformation of the status of the self-governing territories, leading to the 1926 Balfour Declaration and the 1931 Statute of Westminster, which provided formal equality of the Dominions with Britain, which is seen as the beginning of the British Commonwealth.

See also Dominion.


M.K. Gandhi was a leader of the Indian independence movement

Decolonisation

The Second World War (1939 - 45) left Britain all but exhausted, with its former allies disinclined to support the colonial status quo. The bloody partition and independence of India in 1947 deprived the Empire of its heart and marked the beginning of the end for the British Empire. Burma and Ceylon followed soon after.

The Suez Crisis of 1956 saw Britain's limitations exposed to a humiliating degree. From then Britain's withdrawal from its colonies in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific was carried out with great rapidity through the 1960s, 70s and 80s. The last populous colony was decolonised in 1997, with the handover of Hong Kong to China.

Extent

At its height, the British Empire consisted of the following territory -

Africa

The Americas and Atlantic

Antarctica

Asia

Europe

Pacific

Remaining Dependent Territories

Now only a few small territories remain under British administration, mostly for reasons of perceived insufficiency as sovereign states. The last remaining Dependent Territories are:

Territories possessing substantial self-government

Other territories

See also:

External links:

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Byzantine Empire

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Timeline
Byzantine Empire
DateEvent
330 Constantine I makes Constantinople his capital.
527 Justinian I becomes Emperor.
532-537 Justinian builds the church of Hagia Sophia
1054 The Church in Constantinople breaks with the Church in Rome
1204 Constantinople is captured by crusaders
1261 Constantinople is liberated by the Byzantine emperor Michael Palaeologus.
1453 Ottoman Turks take Constantinople. End of Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire was the eastern section of the Roman Empire which remained in existence after the fall of the western section. The life of the empire is commonly considered to span AD 395 to 1453. During the thousand years of its existence, it was known simply as the "Roman Empire." The Byzantines considered themselves to be Romans (Rhomaioi) and the legitimate continuation of the Roman Empire, although much of its religion, language, and culture was in actuality Greek. Latin remained the official language until the 7th century. Surrounding lands and empires (such as the Persians and Arabs to the east, Europeans to the west, and Russians to the north) called them Roman as well, and it was considered a great insult to refer to the empire as "Greek.", because "Greek" meant "Pagan". The empire was not referred to as "Byzantine" until the 17th century, when historians began to distinguish the medieval entity from the (in reality quite different) ancient empire. This name comes from the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium.

Origin

The division of the Empire began with the Tetrarchy (quadrumvirate) in the late 3rd century AD with Emperor Diocletian, as an institution intended to more efficiently control the vast Roman empire. He split the empire in half, with two emperors ruling from Italy and Greece, each having a co-emperor of their own. This division continued into the 4th century until 324 when Constantine the Great managed to become the sole Emperor of the Empire. Constantine decided to found a new capital for himself and chose Byzantium (today's Istanbul) for that purpose. The rebuilding process was completed in AD 330. Constantine renamed the city Nova Roma (New Rome) but in popular use it was called Constantinople, meaning Constantine's City. This new capital became the centre of his administration. Constantine was also the first Christian emperor. Although the empire was not yet "Byzantine" under Constantine, Christianity would become one of the defining characteristics of the Byzantine Empire, as opposed to the pagan Roman Empire.

Another defining moment in the history of Roman/Byzantine Empire was the Battle of Adrianople in 378. This defeat, along with the death of Emperor Valens, is one possible date for dividing the ancient and medieval worlds. The Roman empire was divided further by Valens' successor Theodosius I (also called "the great"), who had ruled both beginning in 392. In 395 he gave the two halves to his two sons Arcadius and Honorius; Arcadius became ruler in the East, with his capital in Constantinople, and Honorius became ruler in the west, with his capital in Milan. At this point it is common to refer to the empire as "Eastern Roman" rather than "Byzantine."

Byzantine Imperial eagle

Culture

Although the empire was still considered Roman, in reality the general prevailing cultural identity of the Eastern Roman Empire was Greek. Greek was not only the everyday language, but also the language of the church, of the literature and of all commercial transactions. The empire was a multinational state, including Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Egyptians, Syrians, Illyrians, and Slavs, but its Greek culture radiated from large centers of Hellenism such as Constantinople, Antioch, Ephesus, Thessalonika and Alexandria. Though it was not as pronounced at this time, the Eastern Empire was developing its own style of Christianity, under such scholars as John Chrysostom.

Early History

The Eastern Empire was largely spared the difficulties of the west in the 3rd and 4th centuries, in part because urban culture was better established there and the initial invasions were attracted to the wealth of Rome. Throughout the 5th century various invasions conquered the western half of the empire, but at best could only demand tribute from the eastern half. Theodosius II expanded the walls of Constantinople, leaving the city impenetrable to "barbarian" attacks. Zeno I ruled the east as the empire in the west finally collapsed in 476. Zeno negotiated with the Goths, ending their threats to the east but leaving them in control of the west.

The 6th century saw the beginning of the conflicts with the Byzantine Empire's traditional early enemies, the Persians, Slavs, and Bulgars. Theological crises, such as the question of Monophysitism, also dominated the empire. However, the Eastern Empire had not forgotten its western roots. Under Justinian I, and the brilliant general Belisarius, the empire even regained some of the lost Roman provinces in the west, conquering much of Italy, north Africa, and Spain. Justinian updated the ancient Roman legal code in the new Corpus Juris Civilis, although it is notable that these laws were still written in Latin, a language which was becoming archaic and poorly understood even by those who wrote the new code. Under Justinian's reign, the Church of Hagia Sophia was constructed in the 530s. This church would become the centre of Byzantine religious life and the centre of the still-developing Eastern Orthodox form of Christianity.

Justinian left his successors an empty treasury, however, and they were unable to deal with the sudden appearance of new invaders on all fronts. The Lombards seized Northern Italy, the Slavs overwhelmed much of the Balkans, and the Persians invaded and conqured the eastern provinces. These were recovered by the emperor Heraclius, but the unexpected appearance of the newly converted and united Muslim Arabs took Heraclius by surprise, and the southern provinces were all overrun. Mesopotamia, Syria and Egypt were permanently incorporated into the Muslim Empire in the 7th century.

Hellenizing Era

What the empire lost in territory, though, it made up in uniformity. Heraclius fully Hellenized the empire by making Greek the official language, and he took the title Basileus ("king") instead of the old Roman term Augustus. The empire was by now noticeably different in religion than the former imperial lands in western Europe, although the southern Byzantine provinces differed significantly from the north in culture and practiced monophysite (rather than Orthodox) Christianity. The loss of the southern provinces to the Arabs made Orthodoxy stronger in the remaining provinces. Heraclius divided the empire into a system of military provinces called themes to face permanent assault, with urban life declining outside the capital while Constantinople grew to become the largest city in the world. Attempts by the Arabs to conquer Constantinople failed in the face of the Byzantines' superior navy and their monopoly of the still mysterious incendiary weapon Greek fire. After repelling the initial Arab assault, the empire began to recover.

The 8th century was dominated by the controversy over iconoclasm. Icons were banned by Emperor Leo III, leading to revolts by iconophiles within the empire. Thanks to the efforts of Empress Irene, the Second Council of Nicaea met in 787 and affirmed that icons could be venerated but not worshipped. Irene also attempted a marriage alliance with Charlemagne, which would have united the two empires, but these plans came to nothing. The iconoclast controversy returned in the early 9th century, but they were restored once more in 843. These controversies did not help the disintegrating relations with the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire, which were both beginning to gain more power of their own.

Golden Era

The empire reached its height under the Macedonian emperors of the late 9th, 10th and early 11th centuries. During these years the Empire held out against pressure from the Roman church to remove the patriarch Photius, and gained control over the Adriatic Sea, parts of Italy, and much of the land held by the Bulgarians. The Bulgarians were completely defeated by Basil II in 1014. The Empire also gained a new ally (yet sometimes also an enemy) in the new Russian state in Kiev, from which the empire received an important mercenary force, the Varangian Guard.

Like Rome before it, though, Byzantium soon fell into a period of difficulties, caused to a large extent by the growth of the landed aristocracy, which undermined the theme system. Facing its old enemies, the Holy Roman Empire and the Abbasid caliphate, it might have recovered, but around the same time new invaders appeared on the scene who had little reason to respect its reputation - the Normans, who conquered Italy, and the Seljuk Turks, who were mainly interested in defeating Egypt but still made moves into Asia Minor, the main recruiting ground for the Byzantine armies. With the defeat at Manzikert of emperor Romanus IV in 1071 by Alp Arslan, sultan of the Seljuk Turks, most of that province was lost. The final split between the Roman and Orthodox churches occurred at this time as well, with their mutual excommunication in 1054.

End of Empire

The last few centuries of Byzantine life were brought by a usurper, Alexius Comnenus, who began to reestablish an army on the basis of feudal grants (pronoia) and made significant advances against the Seljuk Turks. His plea for western aid against the Seljuk advance brought about the First Crusade, which helped him reclaim Nicaea but soon distanced itself from imperial aid. Later crusades grew increasingly antagonistic. Although Alexius' grandson Manuel I Comnenus was a friend of the Crusaders, neither side could forget that the other had excommunicated them, and the Byzantines were very suspicious of the intentions of the Roman Catholic Crusaders who continually passed through their territory. The Germans of the Holy Roman Empire and the Normans of Sicily and Italy continued to attack the empire in the 11th and 12th centuries. The Italian city states, who had been granted trading rights in Constantinople by Alexius, became the targets of anti-Western sentiments as the most visibly example of Western "Franks" or "Latins." The Venetians were especially disliked, even though their ships were the basis of the Byzantine navy. To add to the empire's concerns, the Seljuks remained a threat, defeating Manuel at Myriokephalon in 1176.

Frederick Barbarossa attempted to conquer the empire during the Third Crusade, but it was the Fourth Crusade that had the most devastating effect on the empire. Although the intent of the crusade was to conquer Egypt, the Venetians took control of the expedition, and under their influence the crusade captured Constantinople in 1204. As a result a short-lived feudal kingdom was founded, (the Latin Empire) and Byzantine power was permanently weakened.

Three Byzantine successor states were left - the Empire of Nicaea, Epirus, and Trebizond. The first, controlled by the Palaeologan dynasty, managed to reclaim Constantinople in 1261 and defeat Epirus, reviving the empire but giving too much attention to Europe when the Asian provinces were the primary concern. For a while the empire survived simply because the Muslims were too divided to attack, but eventually the Ottomans overran all but a handful of port cities. The empire appealed to the west for help, but they would only consider sending aid in return for reuniting the churches. Church unity was considered, and occasionally accomplished by law, but the Orthodox citizens would not accept Roman Catholicism. Some western mercenaries arrived to help, but many preferred to let the empire die, and did nothing as the Ottomans picked apart of the remaining territories.

Constantinople was initially not considered worth the effort of conquest, but with the advent of cannons, the walls, which had been impenetrable except by the Crusaders for over 1000 years, no longer offered protection from the Ottomans. The Fall of Constantinople finally came after a two-year siege by Mehmed II on May 29, 1453. By the end of the century the remaining cities, such as Trebizond and Mistra, had also fallen.

The Byzantine empire played an important role in the transmission of classical knowledge to the Islamic world. Its most lasting influence, though, lies in its church. Early Byzantine missionary work spread Orthodox Christianity to various Slavic peoples, and it is still predominant among them and the Greeks. The start and end dates of the capital's independence, 395 to 1453, were originally the defined bounds of the Middle Ages.

See also List of Byzantine Empire-related topics, Roman Empire, Roman Emperors, Byzantine Emperors, Latin Empire, Empire of Nicaea, Byzantine currency, Byzantine architecture and Byzantine aristocracy and bureaucracy.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Byzantine Empire."

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Delian League

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Delian League was an association of Greek city-states in the 5th century BC. As it was led by Athens, it is sometimes perjoratively referred to as the Athenian Empire.

In 478 BC, following the defeat of Xerxes' invasion of Greece, Pausanias the Spartan led Hellenic forces against the Persians. He was an unpopular commander (who may have conspired with the Persians), and Sparta was eager to stop prosecuting the war. They surrendered the leadership of the ongoing campaign to Athens, which was eager to accept it. The Delian League was inaugurated in 477 BC as an offensive and defensive alliance against Persia. The principal cities in the League were Athens, Chios, Samos, and Lesbos, but many of the principal islands and Ionian cities joined the league.

Athens led the Delian League from the beginning, though at its founding the treasury was located on the island of Delos, and each state in the league had an equal vote. The assessment due from each state was assigned by Aristides the Just, leader of the Athenians; some members were assessed ships, others money. A council of all the cities met at Delos regularly, probably when bringing their assessment to the island.

The first action of the Delian League, under the command of Cimon, was the capture of Eion, a Persian fortification that guarded a river crossing on the way to Asia; following this victory, the League acted against several pirate islands in the Aegean Sea, most notably against Scyrus where they turned the Dolopian inhabitants in to slaves and set up a cleruchy. A few years later they sailed against Caria and Lycia, defeating both the Persian army and navy in the battle of the Eurymedon.

These actions were most likely very popular with the League. However, the League, particuarly the Athenians, were willing to force cities to join the League. Carystus, a city on the southern tip of Euboea, was forced to join the League by military actions of the Athenians. The justification for this was that Carystus was enjoying the advantages of the League (protection from pirates and the Persians) without taking on any of the responsibilities. Furthermore, Carystus was a traditional base for Persian occupations. Naxos, a member of the Delian League, attempted to secede, and was enslaved; Naxos is believed to have been forced to tear down her walls, lost her fleet, and her vote in the League.

Thucydides tells us that this is how Athens control over the League grew.

Of all the causes of defection, that connected with arrears of tribute and vessels, and with failure of sevice, was the chief; for the Athenians were very severe and exacting, and made themselves offensive by applying the screw of necessity to men who were not used to and in fact not disposed for any continuous labour. In some other respects the Athenians were not the old popular rulers they had been at first; and if they had more than their fair share of service, it was correspondingly easy for them to reduce any that tried to leave the confederacy. For this the allies had themselves to blame, the wish to get off service making most of them arrange to pay their share of the expense in money instead of in ships, and so to avoid having to leave their homes. Thus while Athens was increasing her navy with the funds they contributed, a revolt always found them without resources or experience for war. [Thucydides i. 99]

In 461 BC, Cimon was ostracized, and was succeeded in his influence by democrats like Ephialtes and Pericles. This signalled a complete change in Athenian foreign policy, neglecting the alliance with the Spartans and instead allying with her enemies, Argos and Thessaly. Megara deserted the Peloponnesian league and allied herself with Athens, allowing construction of a double line of walls across the isthmus of Corinth, protecting Athens from attack from that quarter. Around the same time they also constructed the Long Walls connecting their city to the Piraeus, its port, making it effectively invulnerable to attack by land.

Soon war with the Peloponnesians broke out. In 458 BC, the Athenians blockaded the island of Aegina, and simultaneously defended Megara from the Corinthians by sending out an army composed of those too young or old for regular military service. The next year Sparta sent an army into Boeotia, reviving the power of Thebes to help hold the Athenians in check. Their return was blocked, and they resolved to march on Athens, where the Long Walls were not yet completed, winning a victory at Tanagra. All this accomplished, however, was to allow them to return home via the Megarid. Two months later, the Athenians under Myronides invaded Boeotia, and winning a battle at Oenophyta gained control of the whole country except Thebes.

War with the Persians continued, however. In 460 BC, Egypt had revolted under Inarus and Amyrtaeus, who requested aid from Athens. Pericles led 200 ships, originally intended to attack Cyprus, to their aid. After four years, however, the rebellion was defeated by the general Megabyzus, who captured the greater part of the Athenian forces. The remainder escaped to Cyrene and thence returned home.

Fearing retribution for all this, the Athenians moved the treasury of the League from Delos to Athens, further consolidating their control over the League. The Persians followed up their victory by sending a fleet to re-establish their control over Cyprus, and 200 ships were sent out to counter them under Cimon, who returned from ostracism in 451 BC. He died during the blockade of Citium, though the fleet won a double victory by land and sea over the Persians off Salamis Island.

This battle was the last major one fought against the Persians. Many writers report that a formal peace treaty, known as the Peace of Callias, was formalised in 450 BC, but some writers believe that the treaty was a myth created later to inflate the stature of Athens. However, an understanding was definitely reached, enabling the Athenians to focus their attention on events in Greece proper.

The peace with Persia, however, was followed by further reverses. The battle of Coronea, in 447 BC, led to the abandonment of Boeotia. Euboea and Megara both revolted, and while the former was restored to its status as a tributary ally, the latter was a permanent loss. The Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues signed a peace treaty, which was set to endure for thirty years. It only lasted until 431 BC, when the Peloponnesian War broke out.

Those who revolted unsuccessfully during the war saw the example made of the Mytilenians, the principal people on Lesbos. After an unsuccessful revolt, the Athenians ordered the death of the entire male population. After some thought, they recinded this order, and only put to death the leading 1000 ringleaders of the revolt, and redistributed the land of the entire island to Athenian shareholders, who were sent out to reside on Lesbos.

This type of treatment was not reserved solely for those who revolted. Thucydides documents the example of Melos, a small island, neutral in the war, though originally founded by Spartans. The Melians were offered a choice to join the Athenians, or be conquered. Choosing to resist, their town was besieged and conquered; the males were put to death, and the women sold into slavery.

The Delian League was never formally turned into the Athenian Empire; but by the start of the Peloponnesian War, only Chios and Lesbos were left to contribute ships, and these states were by now far too weak to secede without support. Lesbos tried to revolt first, and failed completely. Chios, the greatest and most powerful of the original members of the Delian League (save Athens), was the last to revolt, and in the aftermath of the Syracusan Expedition enjoyed a success of several years, inspiring all of Ionia to revolt. Athens was, however, still able to eventually suppress these revolts.

The Athenian Empire was very stable, and only 27 years of war, aided by the Persians and internal strife, were able to defeat it. The Athenian Empire did not stay defeated for long. The Second Athenian Empire, a maritime self-defense league, was founded in 377 BC and was led by Athens; but Athens would never recover the full extent of her power, and her enemies were now far stronger and more varied.

See also:

Athenian democracy
Hellenic civilization
Peloponnesian War

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Delian League."

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Empire

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

An empire is a large, multi-ethnic state, whose political structure is held together by coercion. (Compare with a federation, where a large multi-ethnic state is based on mutual agreement between the participants.)

The modern term is derived from the Latin imperium, which was coined in what was possibly the most famous example of this sort of political structure, the Roman Empire founded in 31 BC. The actual political concept, however, predates the Romans by several thousand years. Probably the first example was the Akkadian Empire of Sargon of Akkad.

An empire can take several forms. Empires have been traditionally ruled by powerful monarchies under the leadership of a hereditary (or in some cases, self-appointed) emperor. Historically, most empires came into being as the result of a militarily strong state conquering other states and incorporating them into a larger political union. Often these multi-ethnic entities were strengthened by the introduction of a common religion, as was the case under Constantine I of the Roman Empire.

The discovery of the New World provided an opportunity for many European states to embark upon programs of imperialism on a different model, colonization. Under this model, subject states were de jure subordinate to the imperial state, rather than de facto as in earlier empires. This led to a good deal of resentment in the client states, and therefore probably to the penultimate demise of this system in the early twentieth century.

Another problem with the European imperial model might be described as gerrymandering. In the interest of expediency, an imperial power tended to carve out a client state based solely on convenience of geography, while ignoring extreme cultural differences in the resulting area. An example of the attendant problems can be seen in India. Formerly part of the British Empire, after India gained its independence it quickly split along cultural lines producing the country of Pakistan, which later split yet again resulting in the country of Bangladesh.

The concept of "empire" in the modern world, while still present politically, is losing cohesion semantically. For example, the former Soviet Union fits many of the criteria of an empire, but nevertheless did not claim to be one, nor was it ruled by a traditional hereditary "emperor" (see Soviet Empire). In the early 21st century, tendencies to refer to the USA as an empire could be seen, following the book Empire by Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt (see American Empire or History of United States Imperialism).

Among the empires in history are:

See Also

Empire is the name of several different computer games. See Empire (computer game).

An empire can also refer to the large economic holdings of one person, usually including the ownership of many different businesses and corporations. For example, Bill Gates could be said to have a "Software Empire."

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Empire."

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Empire (computer game)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

There have been a number of different computer games called Empire. They fall into two categories, the first category being a primarily military game with simple rules and played at a single sitting, and the second category being a complex combined military-economic game usually involving many players over a period of days or weeks.

The simpler kind of Empire started as a program written by Walter Bright around 1977 for VAX/VMS and distributed via DECUS. This version was ported to MS-DOS in 1984. A partial rewrite by Mark Baldwin in 1987 was sold as Empire: Wargame of the Century on the Atari ST and other platforms, and in the 1990s released another successor, Empire Deluxe.

The concept of the game is that each player starts with one city in an unexplored world, uses the city to build armies, aircraft, and various types of ships from transports to battleships, explores the world, capturing cities as they are found and using them to build more military units. Eventually the players find each other and fight until only one is left. Although the rules are simple, the game is notable for its chess-like depth.

This version of Empire inspired a number of other games, including Strategic Conquest, Empire Master, and Xconq.

The more complex Empire game also dates from the 1970s, and was originally designed by Peter S. Langston to be a comprehensive economic simulation with dozens of players participating. The game is turn-based, with players giving their orders at their convenience, then being executed all at once by the game server, at set intervals ranging from a few hours to once/day. The world consists of "sectors" which may be designated as agricultural, industrial, etc, and there are dozens of types of units, requiring a variety of raw and manufactured materials for their creation.

The game source code has been modified and mutated by many hands, and there are nearly as many versions as games that have been played. Version names have included BSD Empire, PSL Empire, and Wolfpack Empire. Galactic Bloodshed (GB for short) is a space-themed game of similar character.

External Links

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Empire, California

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Empire is a town located in Stanislaus County, California. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 3,903.

Geography


Empire is located at 37°38'39" North, 120°54'27" West (37.644298, -120.907592)1. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 4.1 km² (1.6 mi²). 4.1 km² (1.6 mi²) of it is land and none of it is covered by water.

Demographics


As of the census of 2000, there are 3,903 people, 1,160 households, and 881 families residing in the town. The population density is 953.8/km² (2,463.7/mi²). There are 1,214 housing units at an average density of 296.7/km² (766.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the town is 65.92% White, 0.54% African American, 1.46% Native American, 1.82% Asian, 0.20% Pacific Islander, 24.62% from other races, and 5.43% from two or more races. 42.89% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 1,160 households out of which 39.0% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.6% are married couples living together, 16.3% have a female householder with no husband present, and 24.0% are non-families. 20.6% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.1% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 3.30 and the average family size is 3.77. In the town the population is spread out with 31.6% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 27.4% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 10.9% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 32 years. For every 100 females there are 95.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 89.5 males. The median income for a household in the town is $27,500, and the median income for a family is $30,862. Males have a median income of $28,814 versus $22,750 for females. The per capita income for the town is $12,133. 21.8% of the population and 16.5% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 25.1% are under the age of 18 and 22.2% are 65 or older.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Empire, California."

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Empire, Colorado

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Empire is a town located in Clear Creek County, Colorado. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 355.

Geography


Empire is located at 39°45'37" North, 105°40'59" West (39.760319, -105.682995)1. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.6 km² (0.2 mi²). 0.6 km² (0.2 mi²) of it is land and none of it is covered by water.

Demographics


As of the census of 2000, there are 355 people, 163 households, and 88 families residing in the town. The population density is 548.3/km² (1,406.0/mi²). There are 179 housing units at an average density of 276.4/km² (708.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the town is 94.37% White, 0.00% African American, 3.10% Native American, 0.28% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.28% from other races, and 1.97% from two or more races. 3.66% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 163 households out of which 30.7% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.3% are married couples living together, 11.7% have a female householder with no husband present, and 46.0% are non-families. 39.3% of all households are made up of individuals and 6.7% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.18 and the average family size is 2.99. In the town the population is spread out with 27.0% under the age of 18, 4.2% from 18 to 24, 30.7% from 25 to 44, 32.1% from 45 to 64, and 5.9% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 40 years. For every 100 females there are 112.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 121.4 males. The median income for a household in the town is $32,159, and the median income for a family is $43,750. Males have a median income of $40,313 versus $29,500 for females. The per capita income for the town is $20,417. 11.0% of the population and 10.5% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 11.4% are under the age of 18 and 0.0% are 65 or older.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Empire, Colorado."

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Empire, Louisiana

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Empire is a town located in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 2,211.

Geography


Empire is located at 29°23'55" North, 89°36'31" West (29.398586, -89.608501)1. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 19.9 km² (7.7 mi²). 13.8 km² (5.3 mi²) of it is land and 6.1 km² (2.3 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 30.64% water.

Demographics


As of the census of 2000, there are 2,211 people, 771 households, and 573 families residing in the town. The population density is 160.5/km² (415.4/mi²). There are 923 housing units at an average density of 67.0/km² (173.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the town is 60.79% White, 33.79% African American, 0.41% Native American, 2.76% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.90% from other races, and 1.36% from two or more races. 1.18% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 771 households out of which 36.4% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.6% are married couples living together, 16.1% have a female householder with no husband present, and 25.6% are non-families. 20.5% of all households are made up of individuals and 7.3% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.87 and the average family size is 3.30. In the town the population is spread out with 29.5% under the age of 18, 10.1% from 18 to 24, 27.2% from 25 to 44, 22.6% from 45 to 64, and 10.7% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 34 years. For every 100 females there are 101.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 101.7 males. The median income for a household in the town is $27,208, and the median income for a family is $35,035. Males have a median income of $30,357 versus $20,096 for females. The per capita income for the town is $12,960. 27.9% of the population and 24.1% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 33.5% are under the age of 18 and 28.2% are 65 or older.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Empire, Louisiana."

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Empire, Michigan

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Empire is a village located in Leelanau County, Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 378.

Geography


According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 3.2 km² (1.2 mi²). 3.0 km² (1.1 mi²) of it is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 7.26% water.

Demographics


As of the census of 2000, there are 378 people, 187 households, and 104 families residing in the village. The population density is 126.9/km² (328.5/mi²). There are 276 housing units at an average density of 92.7/km² (239.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the village is 98.94% White, 0.00% African American, 0.26% Native American, 0.26% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.00% from other races, and 0.53% from two or more races. 0.00% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 187 households out of which 16.6% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.1% are married couples living together, 5.9% have a female householder with no husband present, and 43.9% are non-families. 39.6% of all households are made up of individuals and 16.6% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.02 and the average family size is 2.70. In the village the population is spread out with 15.6% under the age of 18, 6.3% from 18 to 24, 19.3% from 25 to 44, 35.2% from 45 to 64, and 23.5% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 49 years. For every 100 females there are 94.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 96.9 males. The median income for a household in the village is $39,722, and the median income for a family is $52,813. Males have a median income of $31,042 versus $24,250 for females. The per capita income for the village is $27,850. 7.4% of the population and 2.7% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 7.8% are under the age of 18 and 6.0% are 65 or older.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Empire, Michigan."

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Empire, Ohio

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Empire is a village located in Jefferson County, Ohio. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 300.

Geography


Empire is located at 40°30'39" North, 80°37'24" West (40.510729, -80.623446)1. According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 0.9 km² (0.3 mi²). 0.9 km² (0.3 mi²) of it is land and none of the area is covered with water.

Demographics


As of the census of 2000, there are 300 people, 124 households, and 86 families residing in the village. The population density is 351.0/km² (913.1/mi²). There are 139 housing units at an average density of 162.6/km² (423.1/mi²). The racial makeup of the village is 97.00% White, 1.00% African American, 0.67% Native American, 0.00% Asian, 0.67% Pacific Islander, 0.00% from other races, and 0.67% from two or more races. 1.33% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 124 households out of which 36.3% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.5% are married couples living together, 18.5% have a female householder with no husband present, and 30.6% are non-families. 29.0% of all households are made up of individuals and 8.9% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.42 and the average family size is 2.90. In the village the population is spread out with 27.3% under the age of 18, 7.0% from 18 to 24, 32.7% from 25 to 44, 22.7% from 45 to 64, and 10.3% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 36 years. For every 100 females there are 92.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 86.3 males. The median income for a household in the village is $21,442, and the median income for a family is $24,250. Males have a median income of $30,625 versus $16,786 for females. The per capita income for the village is $11,667. 16.3% of the population and 16.5% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 9.9% are under the age of 18 and 9.5% are 65 or older.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Empire, Ohio."

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Empire, Wisconsin

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Empire is a town located in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 2,620.

Geography


According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 75.5 km² (29.1 mi²). 75.2 km² (29.0 mi²) of it is land and 0.3 km² (0.1 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 0.45% water.

Demographics


As of the census of 2000, there are 2,620 people, 910 households, and 786 families residing in the town. The population density is 34.9/km² (90.3/mi²). There are 944 housing units at an average density of 12.6/km² (32.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the town is 98.13% White, 0.27% African American, 0.34% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.11% from other races, and 0.50% from two or more races. 0.99% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 910 households out of which 40.0% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 79.3% are married couples living together, 4.3% have a female householder with no husband present, and 13.6% are non-families. 11.4% of all households are made up of individuals and 4.4% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.88 and the average family size is 3.12. In the town the population is spread out with 28.7% under the age of 18, 5.6% from 18 to 24, 26.8% from 25 to 44, 28.9% from 45 to 64, and 10.1% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 40 years. For every 100 females there are 102.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 101.6 males. The median income for a household in the town is $67,330, and the median income for a family is $70,511. Males have a median income of $42,875 versus $29,300 for females. The per capita income for the town is $27,174. 1.5% of the population and 0.5% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 1.9% are under the age of 18 and 2.6% are 65 or older.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Empire, Wisconsin."

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First French Empire

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

 This article is part of the
History of France series.
 Gaul
 Franks
 France in the Middle Ages
 Valois Dynasty
 Bourbon Dynasty
 French Revolution

 First French Empire

 French Restoration

 Second Republic

 Second French Empire

 Third Republic

 France during World War II

 Fourth Republic

 Fifth Republic

The First French Empire, commonly known as the French Empire, the Napoleonic Empire or simply as The Empire, covers the period of the domination of France and of much of continental Europe by Napoleon I of France. Constitutionally, it refers to the period of 1804 to 1814, from the Consulate to the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in the history of the French state, with a coda in the Hundred Days of 1815.

The First French Empire stands distinct from its imitator and would-be successor the Second French Empire of Napoleon III (1852-1870).

Bonaparte's march to empire began with the Constitution of the year X (August 1802). Having become "First Consul", he attracted more power and gravitated towards imperial status, gathering support on the way for his internal rebuilding of France and its institutions. He gradually dampened opposition and Republican enthusiasm, using exile, systematic bureacratic oppression and constitutional means. The decision of the Senate on May 18, 1804, giving him the title of emperor, was the counterblast to the dread he had excited.

Never did a harder master ordain more imperiously, nor understand better how to command obedience. "This was because," as Goethe said, "under his orders men were sure of accomplishing their ends. That is why they rallied round him, as one to inspire them with that kind of certainty."

Indeed no man previously ever concentrated authority to such a point, nor showed mental abilities at all comparable to his: an extraordinary power of work, prodigious memory for details and fine judgment in their selection; together with a luminous decision and a simple and rapid conception, all placed at the disposal of a sovereign will. No head of the state gave expression more imperiously than this Corsican to the popular passions of the French of that day: abhorrence for the emigrant nobility, fear of the ancien régime, dislike of foreigners, hatred of England, an appetite for conquest evoked by revolutionary propaganda, and the love of glory.

In this Napoleon was a soldier of the people: because of this he judged and ruled his contemporaries. Having seen their actions in the stormy hours of the French Revolution, he despised them and looked upon them as incapable of disinterested conduct, conceited, and obsessed by the notion of equality. Hence his colossal egoism, his habitual disregard of others, his jealous passion for power, his impatience of all contradiction, his vain untruthful boasting, his unbridled self-sufficiency and lack of moderation - passions which were gradually to cloud his clear faculty of reasoning. His genius, assisted by the impoverishment of two generations, was like the oak which admits beneath its shade none but the smallest of saplings. With the exception of Talleyrand, after 1808 he would have about him only mediocre people, without initiative, prostrate at the feet of the giant: his tribe of paltry, rapacious and embarrassing Corsicans; his admirably subservient generals; his selfish ministers, docile agents, apprehensive of the future, who for fourteen long years felt a prognostication of defeat and discounted the inevitable catastrophe.

So First Empire France had no internal history outside the plans and transformations to which Napoleon subjected the institutions of the Consulate, and outside the after-effects of his wars. Well knowing that his fortunes rested on the delighted acquiescence of France, Napoleon expected to continue indefinitely fashioning public opinion according to his pleasure. To his contempt for men he added that of all ideas which might put a bridle on his ambition; and to guard against them, he inaugurated the "Golden Age" of the police that he might tame every moral force to his hand. Being essentially a man of order, he loathed, as he said, all demagogic action, Jacobinism and visions of liberty, which he desired only for himself. To make his will predominant, he stifled or did violence to that of others, through his bishops, his gendarmes, his university, his press, his catechism. Nourished like Frederick II and Catherine the Great in 18th century maxims, he would not allow any of that ideology to filter through into his rough but regular ordering of mankind. Thus the whole political system, being summed up in the emperor, was bound to share his fall.

Although an enemy of idealogues, Napoleon followed grandiose visions in his foreign policy. A condottiere of the Renaissance living in the 19th century, he used France, and all those nations annexed or attracted by the Revolution, to resuscitate the Roman conception of the idea of Empire for personal benefit. On the other hand, he was enslaved by the history and aggressive idealism of the National Convention, and of the republican propaganda under the Directory; they guided him quite as much as he guided them. Hence the immoderate extension given to French activity by his classical Latin spirit; hence also his conquests, leading on from one to another, and instead of being mutually helpful interfering with each other; hence, finally, his not entirely coherent policy, interrupted by hesitation and counter-attractions. This explains the retention of Italy, imposed on the Directory from 1796 onward, followed by his treatment of Venice, the foundation of the Cisalpine Republic - a foretaste of future annexations - the restoration of that republic after his return from Egypt, and in view of his as yet inchoate designs, the postponed solution of the Italian problem which the treaty of Lunéville had raised.

The Battle of Marengo (June 14, 1800 inaugurated the political idea which was to continue its development until Napoleon's Moscow campaign. Napoleon dreamed as yet only of keeping the duchy of Milan, setting aside Austria, and preparing some new enterprise in the East or in Egypt. The peace of Amiens, which cost him Egypt, could only seem to him a temporary truce; whilst he was gradually extending his authority in Italy, the cradle of his race, by the union of Piedmont, and by his tentative plans regarding Genoa, Parma, Tuscany and Naples. He wanted to make this his Cisalpine Gaul, laying siege to the Roman state on every hand, and preparing in the Concordat for the moral and material servitude of the pope. When he recognised his error in having raised the papacy from decadence by restoring its power over the churches, he tried in vain to correct it by the Articles Organiques ? wanting, like Charlemagne, to be the legal protector of the pope, and eventually master of the Church. To conceal his plan he aroused French colonial aspirations against England, and also the memory of the spoliations of 1763, exasperating English jealousy of France, whose borders now extended to the Rhine, and laying hands on Hanover, Hamburg and Cuxhaven.

By the "Recess" of 1803, which brought to his side Bavaria, Württemberg and Baden, he followed up the overwhelming tide of revolutionary ideas in Germany, to stem which Pitt, back in power, appealed once more to an Anglo-Austro-Russian coalition against this new Charlemagne, who was trying to renew the old Holy Roman Empire, who was mastering France, Italy and Germany; who finally on December 2, 1804 placed the imperial crown upon his head, after receiving the iron crown of the Lombard kings, and made Pope Pius VII consecrate him in Notre-Dame de Paris.

After this, in four campaigns, the Emperor transformed his Carolingian feudal and federal empire into one modelled on the Roman empire. The memories of imperial Rome were for a third time, after Julius Caesar and Charlemagne, to modify the historical evolution of France. Though the vague plan for an invasion of England fell to the ground, the Battle of Ulm and the Battle of Austerlitz obliterated Trafalgar, and the camp at Boulogne put the best military resources he had ever commanded at Napoleon's disposal.

In the first of these campaigns Bonaparte swept away the remnants of the old Roman-Germanic empire, and out of its shattered fragments created in southern Germany the vassal states of Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Hesse-Darmstadt and Saxony, which he attached to France under the name of the Confederation of the Rhine; but the treaty of Pressburg (December 26, 1805) gave France nothing but the danger of a more centralised and less docile Germany. On the other hand, Napoleon's creation of the kingdom of Italy, his annexation of Venetia and her ancient Adriatic empire - wiping out the humiliation of 1797 - and the occupation of Ancona, marked a new stage in his progress towards his Roman Empire. His good fortune soon led him from conquest to spoliation, and he complicated his master-idea of the grand empire by his Family Compact; the clan of the Bonapartes invaded European monarchies, wedding with princesses of blood-royal, and adding kingdom to kingdom. Joseph Bonaparte replaced the dispossessed Bourbonss at Naples; Louis Bonaparte was installed on the throne of the newly formed kingdom of Holland carved out of the Dutch Batavian Republic; Joachim Murat became grand-duke of Berg, Jerome Bonaparte son-in-law to the king of Württemberg, and Eugene de Beauharnais to the king of Bavaria; while Stéphanie de Beauharnais married the son of the grand-duke of Baden.

Meeting with less and less resistance, Napoleon went still further and would tolerate no neutral power. On August 6, 1806 he forced the Habsburgs, left with only the crown of Austria, to abdicate their Roman-Germanic title of emperor. Prussia alone remained outside the Confederation of the Rhine, of which Napoleon was Protector, and to further her decision he offered her English Hanover. In a second campaign he destroyed at Jena both the army and the state of Frederick William III of Prussia, who could not make up his mind between the Napoleonic treaty of Schönbrunn and Russia's counter-proposal at Potsdam (October 14, 1806). The butchery at Eylau and the vengeance taken at Friedland (June 14, 1807) finally ruined Frederick the Great's work, and obliged Russia, the ally of England and Prussia, to allow the latter to be despoiled, and to join Napoleon against the maritime tyranny of the former.

After the Treaties of Tilsit, however (July 1807), instead of trying to reconcile Europe to his grandeur, Napoleon had but one thought: to make use of his success to destroy England and complete his Italian dominion. It was from Berlin, on November 21, 1806, that he had dated the first decree of a continental blockade, a monstrous conception intended to paralyze his inveterate rival, but which on the contrary caused his own fall by its immoderate extension of the Empire. To the coalition of the northern powers he added the league of the Baltic and Mediterranean ports, and to the bombardment of Copenhagen by an English fleet he responded by a second decree of blockade, dated from Milan on December 17, 1807.

But the application of the Concordat and the taking of Naples led to the first of those struggles with the pope in which were formulated two antagonistic doctrines: Napoleon declaring himself Roman emperor, and Pius VII renewing the theocratic affirmations of Pope Gregory VII. The Emperor's Roman ambition was made more and more plainly visible by the occupation of the kingdom of Naples and of the Marches, and by the entry,of Miollis into Rome; while Junot invaded Portugal, Radet laid hands on the pope himself, and Joachim Murat took possession of formerly Roman Spain, whither Joseph Bonaparte transferred afterwards.

But Napoleon little knew the flame he was kindling. No more far-seeing than the Directory or the men of the year III, he thought that, with energy and execution, he might succeed in the Peninsula as he had succeeded in Italy in 1796 and 1797, in Egypt, and in Hesse, and that he might cut into Spanish granite as into Italian mosaic or "that big cake, Germany". He stumbled unawares upon the revolt of a proud national spirit, evolved through ten historic centuries; and the trap of Bayonne, together with the enthroning of Joseph Bonaparte, made the contemptible prince of the Asturias the elect of popular sentiment, the representative of religion and country.

Napoleon thought he had Spain within his grasp, and now suddenly everything started slipping from him. The Peninsula became the grave of whole armies and a battlefield against England. Dupont capitulated at Bailen into the hands of Castanos, and Junot at Cintra to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington; while Europe trembled at this first check to the hitherto invincible imperial armies. To reduce Spanish resistance Napoleon had in his turn to come to terms with the tsar Alexander I of Russia at Erfurt; so that, abandoning his designs in the East, he could maka the Grand Army evacuate Prussia and return in force to Madrid.

Thus Spain swallowed up the soldiers who were wanted for Napoleon's other fields of battle, and they had to be replaced by forced levies. Europe had only to wait, and he would eventually be found disarmed in face of a last coalition; but Spanish heroism infected Austria, and showed the force of national resistance. The provocations of Talleyrand and England strengthened the illusion: Why should not the Austrians emulate the Spaniards? The campaign of 1809, however, was but a pale copy of the Spanish insurrection. After a short and decisive action in Bavaria, Napoleon opened up the road to Vienna for a second time; and after the two days' battle at Essling, the stubborn fight at Wagram, the failure of a patriotic insurrection in northern Germany and of the English expedition against Antwerp, the treaty of Vienna (14 December 1809), with the annexation of the Illyrian provinces, completed the colossal Empire. Napoleon profited, in fact, by this campaign which had been planned for his overthrow.

The pope was deported to Savona beneath the eyes of indifferent Europe, and his domains were incorporated in the Empire; the senate's decision on 17 February 1810 created the title of king of Rome, and made Rome the capital of Italy. The pope banished, it was now desirable to send away those to whom Italy had been more or less promised. Eugene de Beauharnais, Napoleon's stepson, was transferred to Frankfurt, and Murat carefully watched until the time should come to take him to Russia and instal him as king of Poland. Between 1810 and 1812 Napoleon's divorce of Josephine, and his marriage with Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, followed by the birth of the king of Rome, shed a brilliant light upon his future policy. He renounced a federation in which his brothers were not sufficiently docile; he gradually withdrew power (sociology) from them; he concentrated all his affection and ambition on the son who was the guarantee of the continuance of his dynasty. This was the apogee of his reign.

But undermining forces already impinged: the faults inherent in his unwieldy achievement. England, his chief enemy, was persistently active; and rebellion both of the governing and of the governed broke out everywhere. Napoleon felt his impotence in coping with the Spanish Uprising , which he underrated, while yet unable to suppress it altogether. Men like Stein, Hardenberg and Scharnhorst had secretly started preparing Prussia's retaliation.

Napoleon's material omnipotence could not stand against the moral force of the pope, a prisoner at Fontainebleau; and this he did not realise. The alliance arranged at Tilsit was seriously shaken by the Austrian marriage, the threat of a Polish restoration, and the unfriendly policy of Napoleon at Constantinople. The very persons whom he had placed in power were counteracting his plans: after four years' experience Napoleon found himself obliged to treat his Corsican dynasties like those of the ancien régime, and all his relations were betraying him. Caroline Bonaparte conspired against her brother and against her husband Murat; the hypochondriacal Louis, now Dutch in his sympathies, found the supervision of the blockade taken from him, and also the defence of the Scheldt, which he had refused to ensure; Jerome Bonaparte, idling in his harem, lost that of the North Sea shores; and Joseph, who was attempting the moral conquest of Spain, was continually insulted at Madrid. The very nature of things was against the new dynasties, as it had been against the old.

After national insurrections and family recriminations came treachery from Napoleon's ministers. Talleyrand betrayed his designs to Metternich and sufferred dismissed; Fouché corresponded with Austria in 1809 and 1810, entered into an understanding with Louis, and also with England; while Bourrienne was convicted of peculation. By a natural consequence of the spirit of conquest Napoleon had aroused, all these parvenus, having tasted victory, dreamed of sovereign power: Bernadotte, who had helped him to the Consulate, played Napoleon false to win the crown of Sweden; Soult, like Murat, coveted the Spanish throne after that of Portugal, thus anticipating the treason of 1813 and the defection of 1814; many persons hoped for "an accident" which might resemble the tragic ends of Alexander the Great and of Julius Caesar.

The country itself, besides, though flattered by conquests, was tired of self-sacrifice. It had become satiated; "the cry of the mothers rose threateningly" against "the Ogre" and his intolerable imposition of wholesale conscription. The soldiers themselves, discontented after Austerlitz, cried out for peace after Eylau. Finally, amidst profound silence from the press and the Assemblies, a protest was raised against imperial despotism by the literary world, against the excommunicated sovereign by Catholicism, and against the author of the continental blockade by the discontented bourgeoisie, ruined by the crisis of 1811.

Napoleon himself was no longer the "General Bonaparte" of his campaign in Italy. He was already showing signs of physical decay; the Roman medallion profile had coarsened, the obese body was often lymphatic. Mental degeneration, too, betrayed itself in an unwonted irresolution.

At Eylau, at Wagram, and later at Waterloo, his method of acting by enormous masses of infantry and cavalry, in a mad passion for conquest, and his misuse of his military resources, were all signs of his moral and technical decadence; and this at the precise moment when, instead of the armies and governments of the old system, which had hitherto reigned supreme, the nations themselves were rising against France, and the events of 1792 were being avenged upon her. The three campaigns of two years brought the final catastrophe.

Napoleon had hardly succeeded in putting down the revolt in Germany when the tsar of Russia himself headed a European insurrection against the ruinous tyranny of the continental blockade. To put a stop to this, to ensure his own access to the Mediterranean and exclude his chief rival, Napoleon made a desperate effort in 1812 against a country as invincible as Russia. Despite his victorious advance, the taking of Smolensk, the victory on the Moskva, and the entry into Moscow, he was vanquished by Russian patriotism and religious fervour, by the country and the climate, and by Alexander's refusal to make terms. After this came the lamentable retreat, while all Europe was concentrating against him. Pushed back, as he had been in Spain, from bastion to bastion, after the action on the Berezina, Napoleon had to fall back upon the frontiers of 1809, and then - having refused the peace offered him by Austria at the congress of Prague, from a dread of losing Italy, where each of his victories had marked a stage in the accomplishment of his dream - on those of 1805, despite Lützen and Bautzen, and on those of 1802 after his defeat at Leipzig, where Bernadotte turned upon him, Jean Victor Moreau figured among the Allies, and the Saxons and Bavarians forsook him.

Following his retreat from Russia came Napoleon's retreat from Germany. After the loss of Spain, reconquered by Wellington, the rising in the Netherlands preliminary to the invasion and the manifesto of Frankfurt which proclaimed it, he had to fall back upon the frontiers of 1795; and then later was driven yet farther back upon. those of 1792, despite the wonderful campaign of 1814 against the invaders, in which the old Bonaparte of 1796 seemed to have returned. Paris capitulated on 30 March 1814, and the Delenda Carthago, pronounced against England, was spoken of Napoleon. The great empire of East and West fell in ruins with the emperor's abdication at Fontainebleau. Only the Hundred Days revived the flame for a final flicker: France returned to a restored Bourbon monarchy in the person of Louis XVIII.

See also: Napoleonic Era

Initial text from 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica. Please update as needed.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "First French Empire."

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French Empire

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The term French Empire can refer to:

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "French Empire."

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Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

In the fictional Star Wars universe, the Galactic Empire was the regime established by Palpatine to replace the Galactic Republic.

The Republic ended following a period of intense political turmoil and war. At the height of the chaos the Republic's scheming head of government, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, proclaimed himself Emperor.

The Empire was ruled with absolute power by Palpatine as Emperor with Darth Vader being his assistant. The Galactic Senate still existed years after the Empire's establishment, but it had little power and was eventually dissolved by Palpatine. The real power below the Emperor was in the hands of the Grand Moffs, like Tarkin and the regional governors who were eventually granted direct control of their regions.

This power was backed up by the use of state terrorism which threatened horrific retaliation to any defiance to the government. The instrument of that terror was the Imperial military, which included the Imperial Stormtroopers and a large fleet of intimidating war vehicles like Star Destroyers and All Terrain Armoured Transports (AT-ATs or Walkers) which were intended in part to spread fear as well as destroy the enemy.

In addition a key instrument was intended to be the Death Star, a moon sized space station with sufficient firepower to destroy a planet with a single shot, shown in the first Star Wars movie, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

In non-canonical works, the Empire also emphasized humanoid supremacy and other alien species like Wookies were subject to slavery. It is believed by some that Palpatine's association with non-humans like Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace contradicts this.

The Empire was opposed by the Rebel Alliance, a guerilla army dedicated to the defeat of the Emperor and the restoration of the Galactic Republic. This goal was nominally achieved with the death of Palpatine and the destruction of the second Death Star at the hands of the Alliance at the Battle of Endor, as depicted in the sixth Star Wars movie, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. However, the Empire was too large to be destroyed in one blow; for the next decade and more, the Rebels, renamed the New Republic, fought to free the galaxy from former Imperials styling themselves as independent warlords as well as Imperial loyalists such as Grand Admiral Thrawn. These battles are chronicled in the many novels licensed by Lucasfilm.

An interesting article supporting the Empire can be found at The Case for the Empire. A response to that article is No Case for the Empire.

See also: Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire Series

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Galactic Empire (Star Wars)."

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Gerlach-Empire, Nevada

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Gerlach-Empire is a town located in Washoe County, Nevada. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 499.

Geography

Gerlach-Empire is located at 40°37'22" North, 119°20'29" West (40.622883, -119.341273)1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 243.6 km² (94.1 mi²). 243.6 km² (94.1 mi²) of it is land and none of it is covered by water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there are 499 people, 234 households, and 146 families residing in the town. The population density is 2.0/km² (5.3/mi²). There are 297 housing units at an average density of 1.2/km² (3.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the town is 91.18% White, 0.00% African American, 2.81% Native American, 0.20% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 4.61% from other races, and 1.20% from two or more races. 11.02% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 234 households out of which 26.1% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.3% are married couples living together, 9.8% have a female householder with no husband present, and 37.2% are non-families. 34.2% of all households are made up of individuals and 6.8% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.13 and the average family size is 2.71.

In the town the population is spread out with 22.6% under the age of 18, 7.0% from 18 to 24, 31.5% from 25 to 44, 29.5% from 45 to 64, and 9.4% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 38 years. For every 100 females there are 116.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 120.6 males.

The median income for a household in the town is $35,089, and the median income for a family is $43,125. Males have a median income of $36,000 versus $23,056 for females. The per capita income for the town is $14,793. 14.6% of the population and 10.3% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 15.8% are under the age of 18 and 12.7% are 65 or older.

Economy

The economy of Gerlach and Empire focus on gypsum mining near Empire and tourism in the nearby Black Rock Desert. For over five years, Burning Man, a week long countercultural festival with over 10,000 participants has been held nearby. Due to the appearance of the participants, local enthusiasm is mixed, but the event is responsible for over 30% of the sales in most of the commercial establishments in the area.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Gerlach-Empire, Nevada."

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Holy Roman Empire

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

 This article is part of the
History of Germany series.
 Franks
 Holy Roman Empire
 German Confederation
 German Empire
 Weimar Republic
 Nazi Germany
 Germany since 1945

The Holy Roman Empire (German: Heiliges Römisches Reich) was a political conglomeration of lands in western and central Europe in the Middle Ages. Emerging from the eastern part of the Frankish realm after its division in the Treaty of Verdun (843), it formally lasted almost a millennium until its dissolution in 1806.

Contemporary terminology for the Empire varied greatly over the centuries. The term Roman Empire was used in 1034 to denote the lands under Conrad II, and Holy Empire in 1157. The use of the term Roman Emperor to refer to Northern European rulers started earlier with Otto II (Emperor 973-983). Emperors from Charlemagne (died 814) to Otto I the Great (Emperor 962-973) had simply used the phrase Imperator Augustus ("August Emperor"). The precise term Holy Roman Empire dates from 1254; the full expression Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (German Heiliges Römisches Reich deutscher Nation) appears in 1512, after several variations in the late 15th century.

Character of the Reich

The Holy Roman Empire is an institution unique in world history that is difficult to grasp. To understand what it was, it might be helpful to assess first what it was not.

The Reich can thus best be described as a crossbreed between a state and a confederation on religious grounds -- except for the latter, not being unlike the European Union of today.

Trivia

Contemporaries did not quite know how to describe this figure either. In his famous 1667 description De statu imperii Germanici, published under the alias Severinus de Monzambano, Samuel Pufendorf wrote: "Nihil ergo aliud restat, quam ut dicamus Germaniam esse irregulare aliquod corpus et monstro simile ..." ("We are therefore left with calling Germany a body that conforms to no rule and resembles a monster").

Voltaire later described it as "neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire".

In Faust I, in a scene written in 1775, the German writer Goethe has one of the drinkers in Auerbach's Cellar in Leipzig ask "Our Holy Roman Empire, lads, What holds it still together?" Goethe also has a longer, not very favorable essay about his personal experiences as a trainee at the Reichskammergericht in his autobiographical work Dichtung und Wahrheit.

Structure and institutions

From the High Middle Ages on, the Reich was stamped by a most peculiar coexistance of the Empire and the struggle of the dukes of the local territories to take power away from it. As opposed to the rulers of the West Frankish lands, which later became France, the emperor never managed to gain much control over the lands that he formally owned. Instead, from that time on, the emperor was forced to grant more and more powers to the individual dukes in their respective territories. This process began in the 12th century and was more or less concluded with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia. Several attempts were made to reverse this degradation of the Reich's former glory, but failed.

Formally, the Reich comprised the king, to be crowned emperor by the pope (until 1508), on the one side, and the Reichsstände (imperial estates) on the other side.

German King. The pope's crowning of Charlemagne as emperor in 800 formed the example that later kings would follow: it was the result of Charlemagne having defended the pope against the rebellious inhabitants of Rome, which initiated the notion of the Reich being the protector of the church.

Becoming emperor required becoming king of the Germans first. German kings had been elected since time immemorial; in the 9th century by the leaders of the five most important tribes (the Franks, Saxons, Bavarians, Swabians and Thuringians), later by the main lay and clerical dukes of the kingdom, finally only by the so-called Kurfürsten (electing dukes). This collegiate was formally established by a 1356 decree known as the Golden Bull. Initially, there were seven electors; this number varied slightly over the following centuries (see Holy Roman Empire elector for details).

Until 1508, the newly elected king then traveled to Rome to be crowned emperor by the pope. In many cases, this took several years when the king was held up by other tasks: frequently he first had to resolve conflicts in rebellious northern Italy or was in quarrel with the pope himself.

At no time could the emperor simply decree rulings and govern autonomously over the Empire. His power was severely restricted by the various local leaders; after the late 15th century, the Reichstag established itself as the legislative body of the Empire, a complicated assembly that convened irregularly at the request of the emperor at varying locations. Only after 1663 would the Reichstag become a permanent assembly; see Reichstag (institution) for details.

Imperial Estates. An entity was considered Reichsstand (imperial estate) if, according to feudal law, it had no authority above it besides the king himself. Only these later had seats at the Reichstag and included, with great variance over the centuries:

The number of territories was amazingly large, rising to several hundreds at the time of the Peace of Westphalia. Many of these were comprised of no more than a few square miles. The Empire is thus aptly described as a "patchwork carpet" (Flickenteppich) by many. For a list as of 1792, refer to List of Reichstag participants (1792).

Imperial Courts. The Reich also had two courts: the Reichshofrat at the court of the king/emperor (that is, later in Vienna), and the Reichskammergericht (Imperial Chamber Court), established with the Imperial Reform of 1495.

Chronology

From the East Franks to the Investiture Controversy

The Empire is usually considered to have been founded in 962 by Otto I the Great, at the latest.

Although some date the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire from the coronation of Charlemagne as emperor of the Romans in 800, Charlemagne himself more typically used the title king of the Franks. This title also makes clearer that the Frankish Kingdom covered an area that included modern-day France and Germany and was thus the kernel of both countries.

Most historians therefore consider the establishment of the Empire to be a process that started with the split of the Frankish realm in the Treaty of Verdun in 843, continuing the Carolingian dynasty independently in all three sections. The eastern part fell to Louis the German, who was followed by several leaders until the death of Louis IV, called "the Child", the last Carolingian in the eastern part.

The leaders of Alamannia, Bavaria, Frankia and Saxonia elected Conrad I of the Franks, not a Carolingian, as their leader in 911. His successor, Henry I the Fowler (r. 919-936), a Saxon, achieved the acceptance of a separate Eastern Empire by the West Frankish (still ruled by the Carolingians) in 921, calling himself rex Francorum orientalum (king of the East Franks).

Heinrich designated his son Otto to be his successor, who was elected king in Aachen in 936. His later crowning as Emperor Otto I (later called "the Great") in 962 would mark an important step, since from then on the Empire -- and not the West-Frankish kingdom that was the other remainder of the Frankish kingdoms -- would have the blessing of the pope. Otto had gained much of his power earlier, when, in 955, the Magyars were defeated in the Battle of Lechfeld.

In contemporary and later writings, the crowning would be referred to as translatio imperii, the transfer of the Empire from the Romans to a new Empire. The German emperors thus thought of themselves as being in direct succession of those of the Roman empire; this is why they initially called themselves Augustus. Still, they did not call themselves "Roman" emperors at first, probably in order not to provoke conflict with the Roman emperor who still existed in Constantinople. The term imperator Romanorum only became common under Conrad II later.

At this time, the eastern kingdom was not so much "German" as rather a "confederation" of the old Germanic tribes of the Bavarians, Alamanns, Franks and Saxons. The Empire as a political union probably only survived because of the strong personal influence of King Henry the Saxon and his son, Otto. Although formally elected by the leaders of the Germanic tribes, they were actually able to designate their successors.

This changed after Henry II died in 1024 without any children. Conrad II, first of the Salian Dynasty, was then elected king in 1024 only after some debate. How exactly the king was chosen thus seems to be a complicated conglomeration of personal influence, tribal quarrels, inheritance, and acclamation by those leaders that would eventually become the collegiate of Electors.

Already at this time the dualism between the "territories", then those of the old tribes rooted in the Frankish lands, and the king/emperor, became apparent. Each king preferred to spend most time in his own homelands; the Saxons, for example, spent much time in palatinates around the Harz mountains, among them Goslar. This practice had only changed under Otto III (king 983, emperor 996-1002), who began to utilize bishopries all over the Empire as temporary seats of government. Also, his successors, Henry II, Conrad II, and Henry III, apparently managed to appoint the dukes of the territories. It is thus no coincidence that at this time, the terminology changes and the first occurrences of a regnum Teutonicum are found.

The glory of the Empire almost collapsed in the Investiture Controversy, in which Pope Gregory VII declared a ban on King Henry IV (king 1056, emperor 1084-1106). Although this was taken back after the 1077 Walk to Canossa, the ban had wide-reaching consequences. Meanwhile, the German dukes had elected a second king, Rudolf of Swabia, whom Henry IV could only defeat after a three-year war in 1080. The mythical roots of the Empire were permanently damaged; the German king was humiliated. Most importantly though, the church became an independent player in the political system of the Empire.

The Empire under the Staufen

Conrad III came to the throne in 1138, being the first of the Staufen dynasty, which was about to restore the glory of the Empire even under the new conditions of the 1122 Concordat of Worms. It was Frederick I "Barbarossa (king 1152, emperor 1155-1190) who first called the Empire "holy", with which he intended to address mainly law and legislation.

Also, under Barbarossa, the idea of the "Romanness" of the Empire culminated again, which seemed to be a attempt to justify the emperor's power independently of the (now strenghened) pope. An imperial assembly at the fields of Roncaglia in 1158 explicitly reclaimed imperial rights at the advice of quattuor doctores of the emerging judicial facility of the University of Bologna, citing phrases such as princeps legibus solutus ("the leader is not bound by law") from the Digestae of the Corpus Juris Civilis. That the Roman laws were created for an entirely different system and didn't fit the structure of the Empire was obviously secondary; the point here was that the court of the Emperor made an attempt to establish a legal constitution.

Imperial rights had been referred to as regalia since the Investiture Controversy, but were enumerated for the first time at Roncaglia as well. This comprehensive list included public roads, tariffs, coining, collecting punitive fees, and the investiture, the seating and unseating of office holders. These rights were now explicitly rooted in Roman Law, a far-reaching constitutional act; north of the Alps, the system was also now connected to feudal law, a change most visible in the withdrawal of the feuds of Henry the Lion in 1180 which lead to his public banning. Barbarossa thus managed for a time to more closely bind the stubborn Germanic dukes to the Empire as a whole.

Another important constitutional move at Roncaglia was the establishment of a new peace (Landfrieden) for all of the Empire, an attempt to (on the one hand) abolish private vendettas not only between the many local dukes, but on the other hand a means to tie the Emperor's subordinates to a legal system of jurisdiction and public persecution of criminal acts -- a predecessor concept of "rule of law", in modern terms, that was, at this time, not yet universally accepted.

In order to solve the problem that the emperor was (after the Investiture Controversy) no longer as able to use the church as a mechanism to maintain power, the Stauffers increasingly lended land to ministerialia, formerly unfree service men, which Frederick hoped would be more reliable than local dukes. Initially used mainly for war services, this new class of people would form the basis for the later knights, another basis of imperial power.

Another new concept of the time was the systematic foundation of new cities, both by the emperor and the local dukes. These were partly due to the explosion in population, but also to concentrate economic power at strategic locations, while formerly cities only existed in the shape of either old Roman foundations or older bishoprics. Cities that were founded in the 12th century include Freiburg, possibly the economic model for many later cities, and Munich.

The later reign of the last Staufer, Frederick II, was in many ways different from that of earlier Emperors. Still a child, he first reigned in Sicily, while in Germany, Barbarossa's son Philip of Swabia and Otto IV competed with him for the title of King of the Germans. After finally having been crowned emperor in 1220, he risked conflict with the pope when he claimed power over Rome; astonishingly to many, he managed to claim Jerusalem in a Crusade in 1228 while still under the pope's ban.

While Frederick brought the mythical idea of the Empire to a last highpoint, he was also the one to initiate the major steps that lead to its disintegration. On the one hand, he concentrated on establishing a -- for the times -- extraordinarily modern state in Sicily, with public services, finances, and jurisdiction. On the other hand, Frederick was the emperor who granted major powers to the German dukes in two far-reaching privileges that would never be reclaimed by the central power. In the 1220 Confoederatio cum princibus ecclesiasticis, Frederick basically gave up a number of regalia in favor of the bishops, among them tariffs, coining, and fortification. The 1232 Statutem in favorem principum mostly extended these privileges to the other (non-clerical) territories. Although many of these privileges had existed earlier, they were now granted globally, and once and for all, to allow the German dukes to maintain order north of the Alps while Frederick wanted to concentrate on his homelands in Italy. The 1232 document marked the first time that the German dukes were called domini terrae, owners of their lands, a remarkable change in terminology as well.

The rise of the territories after the Stauffen

After the death of Frederick II in 1250, none of the dynasties worthy of producing the king proved able to do so, and the leading dukes elected several competing kings. The time from 1246 (beginning with the election of Heinrich Raspe and William of Holland) from 1273, where Rudolph I of Habsburg was elected king, is commonly referred to as the Interregnum.

The difficulties in electing the king eventually led to the emergence of a fixed collegiate of electors, the Kurfürsten, whose composition and procedures were fixed in the Golden Bull of 1356. This development maybe symbolizes best the emerging duality between Kaiser und Reich, emperor and realm, who were no longer considered identical. This is also revealed in the way the post-Stauffen kings attempted to sustain their power. While earlier, the Empire's strength (and finances) greatly relied on the Empire's own lands, the so-called Reichsgut, which always belonged to the respective king (and included many Imperial Cities), its relevance faded after the 13th century (even though some fractions of it did remain until the Empire's end in 1806). Instead, the Reichsgut was increasingly pawned to local dukes, sometimes to raise money for the Empire, but more frequently as a reward for faithful duty or in an attempt to civilize stubborn dukes. It seems that the direct governance of the Reichsgut no longer matched the needs of either the king or the dukes.

Instead, the kings, beginning with Rudolph I of Habsburg, increasingly relied on the lands of their respective dynasties to support their power. As opposed to the Reichsgut, which was mostly scattered and difficult to administrate, the territories were comparably compact and thus easier to control. In 1282, Rudolph I thus lended his own Austria and the Steiermark to his own sons; Louis IV of Wittelsbach (king 1314, emperor 1328-1347) relied on his lands in Bavaria; Charles IV of Luxembourg drew strength from his own lands in Bohemia. Interestingly, it was thus increasingly in the king's own interest to strenghen the power of the territories, since the king profited from such a benefit in his own lands as well.

The 13th century also saw a general structural change in how land was administered. Instead of personal duties, money increasingly became the common means to represent economic value in agriculture. Peasants were increasingly committed to pay tributes for their lands; the concept of "property" more and more replaced more ancient forms of jurisdiction, although the two were still very much tied. In the territories (not at the level of the Empire), power became increasingly bundled: who owned the land had jurisdiction, from which other powers were derived. (It is important to note however that jurisdiction, at this time, was not assumed to include legislation, which practically did not exist until well into the 15th century. Court practice heavily relied on traditional customs or rules described as such.)

It is during this time also that the territories began to transform themselves into predecessors of modern states. The process varied greatly among the various lands and was most advanced in those territories that were most identical to the lands of the old Germanic tribes, such as in Bavaria; it was slower in those scattered parts that were founded through imperial privileges.

Imperial Reform

The "constitution" of the Empire was still largely unsettled at the beginning of the 15th century. Although some procedures and institutions had been fixed, for example by the Golden Bull of 1356, the rules of how the king, the electors, and the other dukes should cooperate in the Empire much depended on the personality of the respective king. It therefore proved somewhat fatal that Sigismund of Luxemburg (king 1410, emperor 1433-1437) and Frederick III (king 1440, emperor 1452-1493) neglected the old core lands of the empire and mostly resided in their own lands. Without the presence of the king, the old institution of the Hoftag, the assembly of the realm's leading men, deteriorated. The Reichstag as a legislative organ of the Empire did not exist yet. Even worse, dukes often went into feuds against each other that, more often than not, escalated into local wars.

At the same time, the church was in crisis too. The conflict between several competing popes was only resolved at the Council of Constance (1414-1418); after 1419, much energy was spent on fighting the heresy of the Hussites.

With these drastic changes, much discussion emerged in the 15th century about the Empire itself. Rules from the past no longer adequately described the structure of the time, and a reinforcement of earlier Landfrieden was urgently called for. During this time, the concept of "reform" emerges, in the original sense of the latin verb re-formare, to regain an earlier shape that had been lost.

When Frederick III needed the dukes to finance war against Hungaria in 1486 and at the same time had his son, later Maximilian I elected king, he was presented with the dukes' united demand to participate in an Imperial Court. For the first time, the assembly of the electors and other dukes was now called Reichstag (to be joined by the Imperial Cities later). While Frederick refused, his more conciliant son finally convoked the Reichstag at Worms in 1495, after his father's death in 1493. Here, the king and the dukes agreed on four bills, commonly referred to as the Reichsreform (Imperial Reform): a set of legal acts to give the disintegrating Empire back some structure. Among others, this act produced the Imperial Circle Estates and the Reichskammergericht, (Imperial Chamber Court); structures that would -- to a degree -- persist until the end of the Empire in 1806.

However, it should take a few more decades until the new regulation was universally accepted and the new court began to actually function; only in 1512 would the Imperial Circles be finalized. The king also made sure that his own court, the Reichshofrat, continued to function in parallel to the Reichskammergericht. It is interesting to note that in this year, the Empire also receives its new title, the ''Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation'\' ("Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation").

Crisis after Reformation

When Martin Luther in 1517 initiated what would later be known as the Reformation, many local dukes saw the chance to oppose the Emperor. After a century of quarrels, this conflict -- among others -- eventually lead to the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), devastating most of Europe.

After the Peace of Westphalia

The actual end of the empire came in several steps. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which gave the territories almost complete sovereignty, even allowing them to form independent alliances with other states; the Empire was only a mere conglomeration of largely independent states. any more.

The implosion of the Empire

The Empire was formally dissolved on August 6, 1806 when the last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (from 1804, Emperor Francis I of Austria) resigned. Francis II's family continued to be called Austrian emperors until 1918.

Analysis

It has been said that modern history of Germany was primarily predetermined by three factors: the Reich, the Reformation, and the later dualism between Austria and Prussia.[1] Many attempts have been made to explain why the Reich never managed to gain a strong central power over the territories, as opposed to neighboring France. Some reasons include:

German Third Reich

After the unification of Germany as a nation state in 1871 (see German Empire), the Holy Roman Empire was sometimes known as the First Reich. Nazi Germany then referred to itself as the Third Reich, counting the 1871 Empire as the second, to connect itself with the resurrection of an allegedly better past.

Related articles

References

  1. Heinrich August Winkler, Der lange Weg nach Westen, Vol. 1: Deutsche Geschichte vom Ende des Alten Reiches bis zum Ende der Weimarer Republik, ISBN 3-406-46001-1, p. 5.
  2. The Holy Roman Empire by James Bryce ISBN 0333036093

External link

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Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire Series

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Galactic Empire Series is three novels by Isaac Asimov:

They are only very loosely connected, if at all. Their only common point is Asimov's idea of a future galactic empire, and this is barely mentioned in Pebble in the Sky.

Asimov later integrated them into his all-engulfing Foundation series. Some contortion was required to explain how the robots of the Elijah Baley novels are almost completely absent from the Empire novels. In reality, this was due to the magazine editor Asimov worked with at the time (John W. Campbell) disliking robots in science fiction, and discouraging (forbidding?) Asimov from including them.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire Series."

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Mongol Empire

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan (1165-1227) in 1206. It was one of the most vast empires in human history stretching from Korea to Europe. The Mongol Empire was always an extremely decentralized state as no one person could easily govern it all. Because of this not long after the early conquests the Empire split into a number of smaller khanates. Some of these decendent empires had large impacts such as the Mongol founded Yuan Dynasty in China, and the Golden Horde that controlled Central Asia and Russia.

See also: List of Mongol Khan, Mongols

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mongol Empire."

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Roman Empire

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Roman Empire, successor of the Roman Republic, controlled the Mediterranean world and much of Northern Europe after 31 B.C The last Roman emperor in the western half of the empire was deposed in 476. The eastern part of the empire continued without interruption, but with gradually shrinking territory, until 1453 when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks (See Byzantine Empire). Successor states in the west (the Frankish kingdom and the Holy Roman Empire) and the east (the Russian czars) used titles adopted from Roman practices well into the modern period.

The Roman Empire's influence on government, law, architecture, and many other aspects of life remains inescapable. See also: Roman culture

The rise of Augustus

As the Roman Republic (509 B.C - 31 B.C) came to an end, Gaius Octavius, great-nephew of Julius Caesar, solidified his position by his defeat of his only rival for power, Mark Antony, in the battle of Actium the following year. He had his work cut out for him; years of civil war had left Rome in a state of near-lawlessness. Moreover, Rome was not prepared to accept the control of a despot.

Octavius (or Octavian) was clever. First, he disbanded his armies, and held elections. Octavian was chosen for the powerful position of Consul. In 27 B.C, he officially returned power to the Senate of Rome, and offered to relinquish his own military supremacy and hegemony over Egypt. Not only did the senate turn him down, he was also given control of Spain, Gaul and Syria. Shortly thereafter, the Senate gave him the name Augustus.

Augustus knew that the power he needed to rule absolutely could not be derived from his Consulship, however. In 23 B.C, he renounced this office in favor of two other powers. First, he was granted the office of a tribune, which allowed him to convene the senate at will and lay business before it. Since the tribuneship was an office traditionally associated with the people, this consolidated his power further. Second, he received new authority in the form of an "Imperial" power, which gave him supreme authority in all matters pertaining to territorial governance. 23 B.C. is the date on which Augustus is usually said to have assumed the mantle of Emperor of Rome. He more typically used a civilian title, however, Princeps, or "First Citizen."

As Emperor, Augustus organized the affairs of his empire with aplomb; it is largely due to his genius that the Roman Empire lasted for as long as it did. He established standardized minting and taxation; he created a civil service structure consisting of knights and freedmen (former slaves). He also provided retirement benefits for soldiers.

He was a master propagandist, and his patronage of the Roman writers Horace, Livy and (especially) Virgil allowed him to cement his position through use of poetry and prose. His use of games and special events to celebrate himself and his family cemented his popularity.

Augustus also founded the world's first fire brigade, and created a regular police force for Rome.

In fact, Augustus's control of power throughout the Empire was so absolute that it allowed him to name his successor, a custom which had been abandoned and derided in Rome since the foundation of the Republic. At first, indications pointed toward his sister's son Marcellus, who had been married to Augustus's daughter Julia. However, he died of food poisoning in 23 B.C. Reports of later historians that this poisoning, and other later deaths, were caused by Augustus's wife Livia Drusilla are inconclusive at best.

After the death of Marcellus, Augustus married his daughter to his right hand man, Marcus Agrippa. This union produced three children, Gaius Caesar, Lucius Caesar, and Postumus Agrippa (so named because he was born after Marcus Agrippa died). Augustus's intent to make the first two children his heirs was apparent when he adopted them as his own children. Augustus also showed favor to his stepsons (Livia's children from her first marriage) Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus and Tiberius Claudius, after they had conquered a large portion of Central Europe.

After Agrippa died in 12 B.C, Livia's son Tiberius divorced his own wife and married Agrippa's widow. Tiberius shared in Augustus's tribunical powers, but shortly thereafter went into retirement. After the early deaths of both Gaius and Lucius in AD 4 and AD 2. respectively, and the earlier death of his brother Drusus (9 BC), Tiberius was recalled to Rome, where he was adopted by Augustus.

On AD August 19, 14, Augustus died. Shortly thereafter, the senate voted him into the pantheon of Roman gods (or deified him). Postumus Agrippa and Tiberius had been named co-heirs. However, Postumus had been banished, and was put to death around the same time. Who ordered his death is unknown, but the way was clear for Tiberius to assume the same powers that his stepfather had.

The heirs of Augustus: the Julio-Claudian Line

Tiberius

The early years of Tiberius's reign were peaceful and relatively benign. Tiberius secured the power of Rome and enriched the treasury. However, Tiberius's reign soon became characterized by paranoia and slander. In 19, he was blamed for the death of his nephew, the popular Germanicus. In 23, his own son Drusus died. More and more, Tiberius retreated into himself. He began a series of treason trials and executions. He left power in the hands of the commander of the guard, Aelius Sejanus. Tiberius himself retired to live at his villa on the island of Capri in 26, leaving Sejanus in charge. Sejanus carried on the persecutions with relish. He also began to consolidate his own power; in 31, he was named co-consul with Tiberius and married Livilla, the emperor's niece. At this point, he was hoist by his own petard; the Emperor's paranoia, which he had so ably exploited for his own gain, was turned against him. Sejanus was put to death, along with many of his cronies, the same year. The persecutions continued apace until Tiberius's death in 37.

Caligula

At the time of Tiberius's death, most of the people who might have succeeded him had been brutally murdered. The logical successor (and Tiberius's own choice) was his grandnephew, Germanicus's son Gaius (better known as Caligula). Caligula started out well, by putting an end to the persecutions and burning his uncle's records. Unfortunately, he quickly lapsed into illness. The Caligula that emerged in late 37 may have suffered from epilepsy, and was more probably insane. He ordered his soldiers to invade Britain, but changed his mind at the last minute and had them pick sea shells on the northern end of France instead. It is believed he carried on incestuous relations with his sisters. He had ordered a statue of himself to be erected in the Temple at Jerusalem, which would have undoubtedly led to revolt had he not been dissuaded. In 41, Caligula was assassinated by the commander of the guard Cassius Chaerea. The only member left of the imperial family to take charge was another nephew of Tiberius's, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, better known as the emperor Claudius.

Claudius

Claudius had long been considered a weakling and a fool by the rest of his family. He was, however, neither paranoid like his uncle Tiberius, nor insane like his nephew Caligula, and was therefore able to administrate with reasonable ability. He improved the bureaucracy and streamlined the citizenship and senatorial rolls. He also proceeded with the conquest and colonization of Britain (in 43), and incorporated more Eastern provinces into the empire. In Italy, he constructed a winter port at Ostia, thereby providing a place for grain from other parts of the Empire to be brought in inclement weather.

On the home front, Claudius was less successful. His wife Messalina cuckolded him; when he found out, he had her executed and married his niece, Agrippina the younger. She, along with several of his freedmen, held an inordinate amount of power over him, and very probably killed him in 54. Claudius was deified later that year. The death of Claudius paved the way for Agrippina's own son, the 16-year-old Lucius Domitus, or, as he was known by this time, Nero.

Nero

Initially, Nero left the rule of Rome to his mother and his tutors, particularly Lucius Annaeus Seneca. However, as he grew older, his desire for power increased; he had his mother and tutors executed. During Nero's reign, there were a series of riots and rebellions throughout the Empire: in Britain, Armenia, Parthia and Judaea. Nero's inability to manage the rebellions and his basic incompetence became evident quickly and in 68, even the Imperial guard renounced him. Nero committed suicide, and the year 69 (known as the Year of the Four Emperors) was a year of civil war, with the emperors Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian ruling in quick succession. By the end of the year, Vespasian was able to solidify his power as emperor of Rome.

The Flavian Emperors

Vespasian

Vespasian was a remarkably successful Roman general who had been given rule over much of the eastern part of the Roman Empire. He had supported the imperial claims of Galba; however, on his death, Vespasian became a major contender for the throne. After the suicide of Otho, Vespasian was able to hijack Rome's winter grain supply, placing him in a good position to defeat his remaining rival, Vitellius. On December 20, 69, some of Vespasian's partisans were able to occupy Rome. Vitellius was murdered by his own troops, and the next day, Vespasian was confirmed as Emperor by the Senate.

Vespasian was quite the autocrat, and gave much less credence to the Senate than his Julio-Claudian predecessors. This was typified by his dating his accession to power from July 1, when his troops proclaimed him emperor, instead of December 21, when the Senate confirmed his appointment. He would, in later years, expel dissident senators.

Vespasian was able to liberate Rome from the financial burdens placed upon it by Nero's excesses and the civil wars. By increasing tax rates dramatically (sometimes as much as doubling them) he was able to build up a surplus in the treasury and embark on public works projects. It was he who first commissioned the Roman Colosseum; he also built a forum whose centerpiece was a temple to Peace.

Vespasian was also an effective emperor for the provinces. His generals quelled rebellions in Syria and Germany. In fact, in Germany he was able to expand the frontiers of the empire, and a great deal more of Britain was brought under Roman rule. He also extended Roman citizenship to the inhabitants of Spain.

Another example of his monarchical tendencies was his insistence that his sons Titus Flavius and Domitian would succeed him; the imperial power was not seen as hereditary at this point. Titus, who had some military successes early in Vespasian's reign, was seen as the heir presumptive to the throne; Domitian was seen as somewhat less disciplined and responsible. Titus joined his father in the offices of censor and consul and helped him reorganize the senatorial rolls. Upon Vespasian's death in 79, Titus was immediately confirmed as Emperor.

Titus

Titus's short reign was marked by disaster: in 79, Vesuvius erupted in Pompeii, and in 80, a fire decimated much of Rome. His generosity in rebuilding after these tragedies made him very popular. Titus was very proud of his work on the vast amphitheater begun by his father. He held the opening ceremonies in the still unfinished edifice during the year 80, celebrating with a lavish show that featured 100 gladiators and lasted 100 days. However, it was during Domitian's reign that the Colosseum was completed. Titus died in 81, at the age of 41; it was rumored that his brother Domitian murdered him in order to become his successor.

Domitian

Domitian did not live up to the good name left for the family by his father and elder brother. While his offenses may have been exaggerated by hostile later generations, it is clear that he did not like to share power. It had become accepted by Domitian's time that the emperor would simultaneously hold many of the magistracies established during Republican times (for instance the censorship and the tribunate), but it was still customary for other politicians to have those powers as well. Domitian wanted to claim authority for himself alone, causing him to alienate the Senate as well as the people.

See also: Roman Emperors, Five good emperors, Pax romana, Byzantine Empire, Roman currency, Roman place names and Byzantine Emperors.

Ancient Historians of the Empire

Writing in Latin

Livy - his history is of the Roman Republic, but he wrote during the reign of Augustus
Suetonius
Tacitus
Ammianus Marcellinus

Writing in Greek

Eusebius of Caesarea
Sozomen

Latin Literature of the Empire

Apuleius
Augustine of Hippo
Horace
Virgil

18th and 19th century histories

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon (1776 - 1788)

Modern histories of the Roman Empire

nds:Römsche Riek simple:Roman Empire

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Roman Empire."

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Second French Empire

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

 This article is part of the
History of France series.
 Gaul
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The Second French Empire or Second Empire was the imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second republic and the Third Republic, in France.

Steps towards Empire

The anti-parliamentary constitution instituted by Napoleon III on January 14, 1852 was largely a repetition of that of the year VIII. All executive power was entrusted to the head of state, who was solely responsible to the people, now powerless to exercise any of their rights. He was to nominate the members of the council of state, whose duty it was to prepare the laws, and of the senate, a body permanently established as a constituent part of the empire. One innovation was made, namely, that the Legislative Body was elected by universal suffrage, but it had no right of initiative, all laws being proposed by the executive power. This new political change was rapidly followed by the same consequence as had attended that of Brumaire. On December 2, 1852, France, still under the effect of the "Napoleonic virus", and the fear of anarchy, conferred almost unanimously by a plebiscite the supreme power, with the title of emperor, upon Napoleon III.

Ideals of Napoleon III

Although the machinery of government was almost the same under the Second Empire as it had been under the First, its founding principles were different. The function of the Empire, as he loved to repeat, was to guide the people internally towards justice and externally towards perpetual peace. Holding his power by universal suffrage, and having frequently, from his prison or in exile, reproached former oligarchical governments with neglecting social questions, he set out to solve them by organising a system of government based on the principles of the "Napoleonic Idea", i.e. of the emperor, the elect of the people as the representative of the democracy, and as such supreme; and of himself, the representative of the great Napoleon I of France, "who had sprung armed from the French Revolution like Minerva from the head of Jove," as the guardian of the social gains of the revolutionary period.

Napoleon III soon proved that social justice did not mean liberty. He acted in such a way that the principles of 1848 which he had preserved became a mere sham. He paralysed all those active national forces which create public spirit, such as parliament, universal suffrage, the press, education and associations. The Legislative Body was not allowed to elect its own president or to regulate its own procedure, or to propose a law or an amendment, or to vote on the budget in detail, or to make its deliberations public. Similarly, universal suffrage was supervised and controlled by means of official candidature, by forbidding free speech and action in electoral matters to the Opposition, and by a skilful adjustment of the electoral districts in such a way as to overwhelm the Liberal vote in the mass of the rural population. The press was subjected to a system of cautionnements, i.e. "caution money", deposited as a guarantee of good behaviour, and avertissements, i.e. requests by the authorities to cease publication of certain articles, under pain of suspension or suppression; while books were subject to a censorship.

In order to counteract the opposition of individuals, a surveillance of suspects was instituted. Felice Orsini's attack on the emperor in 1858, though purely Italian in its motive, served as a pretext for increasing the severity of this régime by the law of general security (sûreté générale) which authorised the internment, exile or deportation of any suspect without trial. In the same way public instruction was strictly supervised, the teaching of philosophy was suppressed in the lycées, and the disciplinary powers of the administration were increased.

For seven years France had no political life. The Empire was carried on by a series of plebiscites. Up to 1857 the Opposition did not exist; from then till 1860 it was reduced to five members: Darimon, Emile Ollivier, Hénon, Jules Favre and Ernest Picard. The royalists waited inactive after the new and unsuccessful attempt made at Frohsdorf in 1853, by a combination of the legitimists and Orleanists, to re-create a living monarchy out of the ruin of two royal families.

Prosperity and Culture

But it was not enough to abolish liberty by conjuring up the spectre of demagogy. It had to be forgotten, the great silence had to be covered by the noise of festivities and material enjoyment, the imagination of the French people had prosperity to be distracted from public affairs by the taste for work, the love of gain, the passion for good living. The success of the imperial despotism, as of any other, despotism, was bound up with that material prosperity which would make all interests dread the thought of revolution. Napoleon III, therefore, looked for support to the clergy, the great financiers, industrial magnates and landed proprietors.

He revived on his own account the "Let us grow rich" of 1840. Under the influence of the Saint-Simonians and men of business great credit establishments were instituted and vast public works entered upon: the Credit foncier de France, the Credit mobilier, the conversion of the railways into six great companies between 1852 and 1857. The rage for speculation was increased by the inflow of Californian and Australian gold, and consumption was facilitated by a general fall in prices between 1856 and 1860, due to an economic revolution which was soon to overthrow the tariff wall, as it had done already in England. Thus French activity flourished exceedingly between 1852 and 1857, and was merely temporarily checked by the crisis of 1857.

The Exposition Universelle (1855) was its culminating point. The great enthusiasms of the romantic period were over; philosophy became sceptical and literature merely entertainment. The festivities of the court at Compiègne set the fashion for the bourgeoisie, satisfied with this energetic government which kept such good guard over their bank balances.

If the Empire was strong, the Emperor was weak. At once headstrong and a dreamer, he was full of rash plans, but irresolute in carrying them out. An absolute despot, he remained what his life had made him. In his opinion the artificial work of the Congress of Vienna, involving the downfall of his own family and of France, invited destruction, and Europe should be organised as a collection of great industrial states, united by communities of interests and bound together by commercial treaties, and expressing this unity by periodical congresses presided over by himself, and by universal exhibitions. In this way he would reconcile the revolutionary principle of the supremacy of the people with historical tradition, a thing which neither the Restoration nor the July monarchy nor the Republic of 1848 had been able to achieve. Universal suffrage, the organisation of Romanian, Italian and German nationality, and commercial liberty; this was to be the work of the Revolution.

Foreign Affairs

The Crimean War

But the creation of great states side by side with France brought with it the necessity for looking for territorial compensation elsewhere, and consequently for violating the principle of nationality and abjuring his system of economic peace. Napoleon III's foreign policy was as contradictory as his policy in home affairs, L'Empire, c'est la paix, was his cry; and he proceeded to make war.

So long as his power was not yet established, Napoleon III made especial efforts to reassure European opinion, which had been made uneasy by his previous protestations against the treaties of 1815. The Crimean War, in which, supported by England and the king of Sardinia, he upheld against Russia the policy of the integrity of the Turkish empire, a policy traditional in France since the days of Francis I, won him the adherence both of the old parties and the Liberals. And this war was the prototype of all the rest. It was entered upon with no clearly defined military purpose, and continued in a hesitating way. This was the cause, after the victory of the allies at the Battle of Alma (September 14, 1854), of the long and costly siege of Sevastopol (September 8, 1855).

Napoleon III, whose joy was at its height owing to the signature of a peace which excluded Russia from the Black Sea, and to the birth of Eugene Bonaparte, which ensured the continuation of his dynasty, thought that the time had arrived to make a beginning in applying his system. Count Walewski, his minister for foreign affairs, gave a sudden and unexpected extension of scope to the deliberations of the Congress of Paris (1856) by inviting the plenipotentiaries to consider the questions of Greece, Rome, Naples, etc. Cavour and Piedmont immediately benefited by it, for thanks to Napoleon III they were able to lay the Italian question before an assembly of diplomatic Europe, and before Napoleon in particular.

The Italian Question

It was not Orsini's attack on January 14, 1858 which brought the question of Italian unification before Napoleon. It had never ceased to occupy him since he had taken part in the patriotic conspiracies in Italy in his youth. The triumph of his armies in the East now gave him the power necessary to accomplish this mission upon which he had set his heart. The suppression of public opinion made it impossible for him to be enlightened as to the conflict between the interests of the country and his own generous visions. The sympathy of all Europe was with Italy, torn for centuries past between so many masters; under Alexander II, Russia, won over since the interview of Stuttgart by the emperor's generosity rather than conquered by armed force, offered no opposition to this act of justice; while England applauded it from the first.

The emperor, divided between the empress Eugénie, who as a Spaniard and a devout Catholic was hostile to anything which might threaten the papacy, and Prince Napoleon, who as brother-in-law of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy favoured the cause of Piedmont, hoped to conciliate both sides by setting up an Italian federation, intending to reserve the presidency of it to Pope Pius IX as a mark of respect to the moral authority of the Church. Moreover, the very difficulty of the undertaking appealed to the emperor, elated by his recent success in the Crimea. At the secret meeting between Napoleon and Count Cavour (July 20, 1858) the eventual armed intervention of France, demanded by Orsini before he mounted the scaffold, was promised.

The ill-advised Austrian ultimatum demanding the immediate cessation of Piedmont's preparations for war precipitated the Italian expedition. On May 3, 1859 Napoleon declared his intention of making Italy "free from the Alps to the Adriatic." As he had done four years ago, he plunged into the war with no settled scheme and without preparation; he held out great hopes, but without reckoning what efforts would be necessary to realise them. Two months later, in spite of the victories of Montebello, Magenta and Solferino, he suddenly broke off, and signed the patched-up peace of Villafranca with Francis Joseph (July 9, 1859). Austria ceded Lombardy to Napoleon III, who in turn ceded it to Victor Emmanuel; Modena and Tuscany were restored to their respective dukes, and the Romagna to the pope, now president of an Italian federation. The mountain had brought forth a mouse.

The reasons for this breakdown on the part of the emperor in the midst of his apparent triumph were many. Neither Magenta nor Solferino had been decisive battles. Further, his idea of a federation was menaced by the revolutionary movement which seemed likely to drive out all the princes of central Italy, and to involve him in an unwelcome dispute with the French clerical party.

Moreover, Napoleon had forgotten to reckon with the German Confederation, which was bound to come to the assistance of Austria. The mobilisation of Prussia on the Rhine, combined with military difficulties and the risk of a defeat in Venetian territory, rather damped his enthusiasm, and decided him to put an end to the war.

The armistice fell upon the Italians as a bolt from the blue, convincing them that they had been betrayed; on all sides despair drove them to sacrifice their jealously guarded independence to national unity. On the one hand the Catholics were agitating throughout all Europe to obtain the independence of the papal territory; and the French republicans were protesting, on the other hand, against the abandonment of those revolutionary traditions, the revival of which they had hailed so enthusiastically.

The emperor, unprepared for this turn of events, attempted to resolve the confusion by suggesting another congress of the Powers, to reconcile dynastic interests with those of the people. After a while he gave up the attempt and resigned himself to the position, his actions having had more wide-reaching results than he had wished. The Treaty of Zürich proclaimed the fallacious principle of non-intervention (November 10, 1859); and then, by the Treaty of Turin of May 24, 1860, Napoleon threw over his ill-timed confederation. He conciliated the mistrust of Great Britain by replacing Walewski, who was hostile to his policy, by Thouvenel, an anti-clerical and a supporter of the English alliance, and he counterbalanced the increase of the new Italian kingdom by the acquisition of Nice and Savoy. Napoleon, like all French governments, only succeeded in finding a provisional solution for the Italian problem.

This solution would only hold good so long as the emperor was in a powerful position. Now this Italian war, in which he had given his support to revolution beyond the Alps, and, though unintentionally, compromised the temporal and propower of the popes, had given great offence to the Catholics, to whose support the establishment of the Empire was largely due.

A keen Catholic opposition sprang up, voiced in Louis Veuillot's paper the Univers, and was not silenced even by the Syrian expedition (1860) in favour of the Catholic Maronites, who were being persecuted by the Druses. On the other hand, the commercial treaty with Great Britain which was signed in January 1860, and which ratified the free trade policy of Richard Cobden and Michel Chevalier, had brought upon French industry the sudden shock of foreign competition. Thus both Catholics and protectionists made the discovery that moral absolutism may be an excellent thing when it serves their ambitions or interests, but a bad thing when it is exercised at their expense.

But Napoleon, in order to restore the prestige of the Empire before the newly-awakened hostility of public opinion, tried to gain from the Left the support which he had lost from the Right. After the return from Italy the general amnesty of August 16, 1859 had marked the evolution of the absolutist empire towards the liberal, and later parliamentary empire, which was to last for ten years.

Napoleon began by removing the gag which was keeping the country in silence. On November 24, 1860, - by a coup d'etat matured during his solitary meditations, like a conspirator in his love of hiding his mysterious thoughts even from his ministers, he granted to the Chambers the right to vote an address annually in answer to the speech from the throne, and to the press the right of reporting parliamentary debates. He counted on the latter concession to hold in check the growing Catholic opposition, which was becoming more and more alarmed by the policy of laissez faire practised by the emperor in Italy.

The government majority already showed some signs of independence. The right of voting on the budget by sections, granted by the emperor in 1861, was a new weapon given to his adversaries. Everything conspired in their favour: the anxiety of those candid friends who were calling attention to the defective budget; the commercial crisis, aggravated by the American Civil War; and above all, the restless spirit of the emperor, who had annoyed his opponents in 1860 by insisting on an alliance with Great Britain in order forcibly to open the Chinese ports for trade, in 1863 by his ill-fated attempt to put down a republic and set up a Latin empire in Mexico in favour of the archduke Maximilian of Austria, and from 1861 to 1863 by embarking on colonising experiments in Cochin China and Annam. Similar inconsistencies occurred in the emperor's European policies. The support which he had given to the Italian cause had aroused the eager hopes of other nations. The proclamation of the kingdom of Italy on February 18, 1861 after the rapid annexation of Tuscany and the kingdom of Naples had proved the danger of half-measures. But when a concession, however narrow, had been made to the liberty of one nation, it could hardly be refused to the no less legitimate aspirations of the rest.

In 1863 these "new rights" again clamoured loudly for recognition: in Poland, in Schleswig and Holstein, in Italy, now indeed united, but with neither frontiers nor capital, and in the Danubian principalities. In order to extricate himself from the Polish impasse, the emperor again had recourse to his expedient - always fruitless because always inopportune - of a congress. He was again unsuccessful: England refused even to admit the principle of a congress, while Austria, Prussia and Russia gave their adhesion only on conditions which rendered it futile, i.e. they reserved the vital questions of Venetia and Poland.

Thus Napoleon had yet again to disappoint the hopes of Italy, let Poland be crushed, and allow Germany to triumph over Denmark in the Schleswig-Holstein question. These inconsistencies resulted in a combination of the opposition parties, Catholic, Liberal and Republican, in the Union libérale. The elections of May-June 1863 gained the Opposition forty seats and a leader, Adolphe Thiers, who at once urgently gave voice to its demand for "the necessary liberties".

It would have been difficult for the emperor to mistake the importance of this manifestation of French opinion, and in view of his international failures, impossible to repress it. The sacrifice of Persigny, minister of the interior, who was responsible for the elections, the substitution for the ministers without portfolio of a sort of presidency of the council filled by Eugène Rouher, the "Vice-Emperor", and the nomination of Jean Victor Duruy, an anti-clerical, as minister of public instruction, in reply to those attacks of the Church which were to culminate in the Syllabus of 1864, all indicated a distinct rapprochement between the emperor and the Left.

But though the opposition represented by Thiers was rather constitutional than dynastic, there was another and irreconcilable opposition, that of the amnestied or voluntarily exiled republicans, of whom Victor Hugo was the eloquent mouthpiece. Thus those who had formerly constituted the governing classes were again showing signs of their ambition to govern. There appeared to be some risk that this movement among the bourgeoisie might spread to the people. As Antaeus recruited his strength by touching the earth, so Napoleon believed that he would consolidate his menaced power by again turning to the labouring masses, by whom that power had been established.

His industrial policy was conceived as much from motives of interest as from sympathy, out of opposition to the bourgeoisie, which was ambitious of governing or desirous of his overthrow. His course was all the easier, since he had policy only to exploit the prejudices of the working classes. They had never forgotten the loi Le Chapelier of 1791, which by forbidding all combinations among the workmen had placed them at the mercy of their employers, nor had they forgotten how the limited suffrage had conferred upon capital a political monopoly which had put it out of reach of the law, nor how each time they had left their position of rigid isolation in order to save the Charter or universal suffrage, the triumphant bourgeoisie had repaid them at thc last with neglect. The silence of public opinion under the Empire and the prosperous state of business had completed the separation of the labour party from the political parties. The visit of an elected and paid labour delegation to the Universal Exhibition of 1862 in London gave the emperor an opportunity for re-establishing relations with that party, and these relations were to his mind all the more profitable, since the labour party, by refusing to associate their social and industrial claims with the political ambitions of the bourgeoisie, maintained a neutral attitude between the parties, and could, if necessary, divide them, while by its keen criticism of society it aroused the conservative instincts of the bourgeoisie and consequently checked their enthusiasm for liberty.

A law of May 23, 1863 gave the workmen the right, as in England, to save money by creating co-operative societies. Another law, of May 25, 1864, gave them the right to enforce better conditions of labour by organising strikes. Still further, the emperor permitted the workmen to imitate their employers by establishing unions for the permanent protection of their interests. And finally, when the ouvriers, with the characteristic French tendency to insist on the universal application of a theory, wished to substitute for the narrow utilitarianism of the English trade unions the ideas common to the wage-earning classes of the whole world, he put no obstacles in the way of their leader Tolain's plan for founding an International Association of Workers (Société Internationale des Travailleurs). At the same time he encouraged the provision made by employers for thrift and relief and for improving the condition of the working classes.

Assured of support, the emperor, through Rouher, a supporter of the absolutist régime, refused all fresh claims on the part of the Liberals. He was aided by the cessation of the industrial crisis as the American Civil War came to an end, by the apparent closing of the Roman question by the convention of September 15, which guaranteed to the papal states the protection of Italy, and finally by the treaty of October 30, 1864, which temporarily put an end to the crisis of the Schleswig-Holstein question.

After 1865 the temporary agreement which had united Austria and Prussia for the purpose of administering the conquered duchies gave way to a silent antipathy. Although the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 was not unexpected, its rapid termination and outcome came as a severe shock to France. Napoleon had hoped to gain fresh prestige for his throne and new influence for France by an intervention at the proper moment between combatants equally matched and mutually exhausted. His calculations were upset and his hopes dashed by the Battle of Sadowa (Koniggratz) on July 4, 1866. The Treaty of Prague put an end to the secular rivalry of Habsburg and Hohenzollern for the hegemony of Germany, which had been France's opportunity; and Prussia could afford to humour the just claims of Napoleon by establishing between her North German Confederation and the South German states the illusory frontier of the Main. The belated efforts of the French emperor to obtain "compensation" on the left bank of the Rhine at the expense of the South German states, made matters worse. France realised with an angry surprise that on her eastern frontier had arisen a military power by which her influence, if not her existence, was threatened; that in the name of the principle of nationality unwilling populations had been brought under the sway of a dynasty by tradition militant and aggressive, by tradition the enemy of France; that this new and threatening power had destroyed French influence in Italy, which owed the acquisition of Venetia to a Prussian alliance and to Prussian arms; and that all this had been due to Napoleon, outwitted and outmanoeuvred at every turn, since his first interview with Otto von Bismarck at Biarritz in October 1865.

All confidence in the excellence of imperial régime vanished. Thiers and Jules Favre as representatives of the Opposition denounced the blunders of 1866. Emile Ollivier split the official majority by the amendment of the 45, and made it understood that a reconciliation with the Empire would be impossible until the emperor granted entire liberty. The recall of French troops from Rome, in accordance with the convention of 1864, led to further attacks by the Ultramontane party, who were alarmed for the papacy. Napoleon III felt the necessity for developing "the great act of 1860" by the decree January 19, 1867. In spite of Rouher, by a secret agreement with Ollivier, the right of interpellation was restored to the Chambers. Reforms in press supervision and the right of holding meetings were promised. In vain did Rouher try to meet the Liberal opposition by organising a party for the defence of the Empire, the Union dynastique. The rapid succession of international reverses prevented him from effecting anything.

The year 1867 was particularly disastrous for the Empire. In Mexico the greatest idea of the reign ended in a humiliating withdrawal before the ultimatum of the United States, while Italy, relying on her new alliance with Prussia and already forgetful of her promises, was mobilising the revolutionary forces to complete her unity by conquering Rome. The chassepots of Mentana were needed to check the Garibaldians. And when the imperial diplomacy made a belated attempt to obtain from the victorious Bismarck those territorial compensations on the Rhine, in Belgium and in Luxembourg, which it ought to have been possible to exact from him earlier at Biarritz, - Benedetti added to the mistake of asking at the wrong time the humiliation of obtaining nothing.

Napoleon did not confess his weakness. France, reduced to a state of weakness, courted the mockery of Europe by a display of the external magnificence which concealed her decline. In the Paris transformed by Baron Haussmann, a city of pleasure and frivolity, the opening of the Universal Exhibition (1867) was marked by Berezowski's attack on Tsar Alexander II of Russia, and its success was clouded by the tragic fate of the unhappy emperor Maximilian of Mexico. Thiers exclaimed, "There are no blunders left for us to make." The emperor managed to commit still more, and the consequences were irreparable. Old, infirm and embittered, keeping his ministers in suspense by the uncertainty and secrecy of his plans, surrounded by people whose sole concern was pleasure, and urged on by a growing opposition, there were now two courses open to Napoleon III: either to arrange a peace which should last, or to prepare for a decisive war.

Napoleon drifted in the direction of war, without making the necessary preparations. Count Beust unsuccessfully revived, on behalf of the Austrian government, the project abandoned by Napoleon since 1866 of a settlement on the basis of the status quo with reciprocal disarmament. Napoleon refused, on hearing from Colonel Stoffel, his military attaché at Berlin, that Prussia would not agree to disarmament; but he was more anxious than he was willing to show. A reconstitution of the military organisation seemed to him to be necessary. This Marshal Niel was unable to obtain either from the Bonapartist Opposition, who feared the electors, whose old patriotism had given place to a commercial spirit, or from the Republican opposition, who were unwilling to strengthen the despot. Both parties were blinded by political interest to the outside dangers.

The emperor was abandoned by men and disappointed by events. He had vainly hoped that, though by granting the freedom of the press and authorising meetings, he had conceded the right of speech, he would retain the right of action; but he had played into the hands of his enemies. Victor Hugo's Châtiments, Rochefort's Lanterne, the subscription for the monument to Baudin, the deputy killed at the barricades in 1851, followed by Léon Gambetta's speech against the Empire on the occasion of the trial of Delescluze, soon showed that the republican party was irreconcilable.

On the other hand, the Ultramontane party were becoming discontented, while the industries formerly protected were dissatisfied with free trade reform. The working classes had abandoned their political neutrality, which had brought them nothing but unpopularity, and gone over to the enemy. Despising Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's impassioned attack on the slavery of communism, they had gradually been won over by the collectivist theories of Karl Marx and the revolutionary theories of Mikhail Bakunin, as set forth at the congresses of the International. At these Labour congresses, the fame of which was only increased by the fact that they were forbidden, it had been affirmed that the social emancipation of the worker was inseparable from his political emancipation. The union between the internationalists and the republican bourgeois became an accomplished fact.

The Empire, taken by surprise, sought to curb both the middle classes and the labouring classes, and forced them both into revolutionary actions. There were multiple strikes. The elections of May 1869, which took place during these disturbances, inflicted upon the Empire a serious moral defeat. In spite of the revival by the government of the cry of the "red terror", Ollivier, the advocate of conciliation, was rejected by Paris, while 40 irreconcilables and 116 members of the Third Party were elected. Concessions had to be made to these, so by the senatus-consulte of September 8, 1869 a parliamentary monarchy was substituted for personal government. On January 2, 1870 Ollivier was placed at the head of the first homogeneous, united and responsible ministry.

But the republican party, unlike the country, which hailed this reconciliation of liberty and order, refused to be content with the liberties they had won; they refused all compromise, declaring themselves more than ever decided upon the overthrow of the Empire. The murder of the journalist Victor Noir by Pierre Bonaparte, a member of the imperial family, gave the revolutionaries their long desired opportunity (January 10). But the émeute ended in a failure, and the emperor was able to answer the personal threats against him by the overwhelming victory of the plebiscite of May 8, 1870.

This success, which should have consolidated the Empire, determined its downfall. It was thought that a diplomatic success would make the country forget liberty in favour of glory. It was in vain that after the parliamentary revolution of January 2, 1870, Comte Daru revived, through Lord Clarendon, Count Beust's plan of disarmament after the Battle of Königgratz. He met with a refusal from Prussia and from the imperial entourage. The Empress Eugénie was credited with the remark, "If there is no war, my son will never be emperor."

Franco-Prussian War

The desired pretext was offered on July 3, 1870 by the candidature of a Hohenzollern prince for the throne of Spain. To the French people it seemed that Prussia was reviving against France the traditional policy of the Habsburgs. France, having rejected for dynastic reasons the candidature of a Frenchman, the duc de Montpensier, was threatened with a German prince. Never had the emperor, now both physically and morally ill, had greater need of statesmanlike advice and the support of an enlightened public opinion. He could find neither.

Ollivier's Liberal ministry, wishing to show itself as jealous for national interests as any absolutist ministry, bent upon doing something great, and swept away by the force of that opinion which it had itself set free, at once accepted the war as inevitable, and prepared for it with a light heart, In face of the decided declaration of the duc de Gramont, the minister for foreign affairs, before the Legislative Body of July 6, 1870, Europe, in alarm, supported the efforts of French diplomacy and obtained the withdrawal of the Hohenzollern candidature. This did not suit the views either of the war party in Paris or of Bismarck, who wanted the other side to declare war. Gramont's ill-advised action in demanding from King Wilhelm I of Germany a guarantee of future conduct, gave Bismarck his opportunity, and the king's refusal was transformed into an insult by the "editing" of the Ems telegram. The chamber, in spite of the desperate efforts of Thiers and Gambetta, now voted by 246 votes to 10 in favour of the war.

France was isolated, as much through the duplicity of Napoleon as through that of Bismarck. The disclosure to the diets of Munich and Stuttgart of the written text of the claims laid by Napoleon on the territories of Hesse and Bavaria had since August 22, 1866 estranged southern Germany from France, and disposed the southern states to sign the military convention with Prussia. Owing to a similar series of blunders, the rest of Europe had become hostile. Russia, which it had been Bismarck's study both during and after the Polish insurrection of 1863 to draw closer to Prussia, learnt with annoyance, by the same indiscretion, how Napoleon was keeping his promises made at Stuttgart. The hope of gaining a revenge in the East for her defeat of 1856 while France was in difficulties made her decide on a benevolent neutrality. The disclosure of Benedetti's designs of 1867 on Belgium and Luxembourg equally ensured an unfriendly neutrality on the part of Great Britain.

The emperor counted on the alliance of Austria and Italy, for which he had been negotiating since the Salzburg interview (August 1867). Austria, having suffered at his hands in 1859 and 1866, was not ready and asked for a delay before joining in the war; while the hesitating friendships of Italy could only be won by the evacuation of Rome. The chassepots of Mentana, Rouher's "Never", and the hostility of the Catholic empress to any secret article which should open to Italy the gates of the Italian capital, deprived France of her last friend.

Marshal Leboeuf's armies were no more effective than Gramont's alliances. The incapacity of the higher officers of the French army, the lack of preparation for war at headquarters, the irresponsibility of the field officers, the absence of any contingency plan, and the reliance on chance, previously a successful strategy for the emperor, instead of on scientific warfare, were all apparent as early as the insignificant engagement of Saarbrucken. Thus the French army proceeded by disastrous stages from Weissenburg, Forbach, Froeschweiler, Borny, Gravelotte, Noisseyule and Saint-Privat to the siege of Metz and the slaughter at Illy.

By the capitulation of Sedan the Empire lost its only support, the army. Paris was left unprotected and emptied of troops, with a woman at the Tuileries, a terrified Assembly at the Palais-Bourbon, a ministry, that of Palikao, without authority, and leaders of the Opposition who fled as the catastrophe approached. On September 4, 1870 the republican deputies of Paris at the hotel de ville constituted a provisional government. The Empire had fallen, the emperor was a prisoner in Germany, and France now embarked on the era of the Third Republic.

Original text from 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica. Please update as needed.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Second French Empire."

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Abbreviations & Acronyms: Empire

The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted.
EntrySourceExpressionField

EMPIRE

EnglishEarly Manned Planetary Interruptionless Round-Trip ExpeditionGeography
EMBEnglishEmpire Marketing BoardN/A

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Synonym: Empire

Synonym: conglomerate (n). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Empire

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Authority

Hold, grasp; grip, gripe; reach; iron sway; (severity); fangs, clutches, talons; rod of empire; (scepter).

Government

Command, empire, sway, rule; dominion, domination; sovereignty, supremacy, suzerainty; lordship, headship; chiefdom; seigniory, seigniority.

National government, nation, state, country, nation-state, dominion, republic, empire, union, democratic republic; kingdom, principality.

Property

Territory, state, kingdom, principality, realm, empire, protectorate, sphere of influence.

Ownership, proprietorship, lordship; seignority; empire; (dominion).

Scepter

Noun: scepter, regalia, caduceus; Mercury's rod, Mercury's staff, Mercury's wand; rod of empire, mace, fasces, wand; staff, staff of office; baton, truncheon; flag; (insignia); ensign of authority, emblem of authority, badge of authority, insignia of authority.

Sequence

Phrase: vestigia nulla retrorsum; "westward the course of empire takes its way".

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Empire

English words defined with "empire": Byzantine empire ♦ Eastern Roman Empire, Egyptian Empire ♦ Greek Empire ♦ Holy Roman Empire ♦ Ottoman Empire ♦ Persian Empire ♦ Roman Empire ♦ Turkish Empire ♦ Western empire. (references)
Specialty definitions using "empire": A.E.I.O.U, Access, Accession, Arbaces, Asnapper, Augsburg Confession, Augustan History, Aulic Council, Avienus, Azuriel ♦ Banka drill, Begtashi, BISMARCK, Byzantines ♦ Cabbage, Calah, Compound Subjects, Cross and Ball ♦ Double-headed Eagle, Dying Sayings ♦ Evil Empire ♦ Fifteen decisive Battles ♦ games, Great Mogul ♦ Halloween Documents, Hesychasts, Huniades, Hunniades ♦ INADMISSIBLE, I'ran ♦ Janissaries ♦ Kissing under the Mistletoe, Koa ♦ Leilah, Little Englanders, Little-Endians, Lower Empire ♦ Madoc, Mexitli, Microsoft, Milan Decree, Mutantur ♦ Nabob', Nizam', Notarica ♦ O'riel, Othman, Osman ♦ Paulicians, Pigeon-English, Poets ♦ Reculer pour Mieux Sauter, Red Button, Royal Titles ♦ Seiks, Seleucidae, SHAMPOO, Sick Man, Sit Upon, spiffy, Sublime Port, Sublime Porte ♦ Tiglath-Pileser I. ♦ vannevar ♦ White Water-lotus ♦ Zenchis Khan. (references)
Etymologies containing "empire": Rix-dollar. (references)
Non-English Usage: "Empire" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses.

French (action, empire, influence, rule, sway).

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Modern Usage: Empire

DomainUsage

Screenplays

you have all served in public capacties in my terrestrail empire. Your seed like yourselves will pay deference to the ultimate dynasty which I alone have created (Moonraker; writing credit: Christopher Wood)

The entire British empire was built on cups of tea, and if you think I'm going to war without one, mate, you're mistaken (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; writing credit: Guy Ritchie)

I'd hoped Scott would look up to me, run the business of the family, head an evil empire just like his dear old dad, give him my love and the things I never had. Scott would think I was a cool guy, return the love I have, make me want to cry, be evil, but have my feelings too, change my life with Oprah and Maya Angelou (Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me; writing credit: Mike Myers)

I remember once going on a school trip to the top of the Empire State Building (Kalifornia; writing credit: Tim Metcalfe. Starring Brad Pitt as Early Grayce, Juliette Lewis as Adele Corners, David Duchovny as Brian Kessler, and Michelle Forbes as Carrie Laughlin.)

Why doesn't he go to the top of the Empire State Building and shoot student nurses (Look Who's Talking Too; writing credit: Amy Heckerling)

Lyrics

He was sitting in the lounge of the Empire Hotel (RAISED ON ROBBERY; performing artist: Joni Mitchell)

I thought this place was an empire (If You're Gone; performing artist: Matchbox 20)

Clever

Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings -- they did it by killing all those who opposed them. (references; author: unknown)

Movie/TV Titles

Empire (1964)

The Empire and the Beauty (1964)

L' Empire sonhrai (1963)

Empire (1962)

The Wet Destruction of the Atlantic Empire (1961)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Empire

DomainTitle

References

  • British Empire Securities and General Trust Plc: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)

  • Empire Ab: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)

  • Empire Banc Corporation: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)

  • Empire Company Limited: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)

  • Empire District Electric Company: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)

    (more reference examples)

  

Books

  • Decolonisation and the British Empire, 1775-1997 (reference)

  • The End of Empire in French West Africa: France's Successful Decolonization (reference)

  • Empire by Default: The Spanish-American War and the Dawn of the American Century (reference)

  • Imperial Delhi: The British Capitol of the Indian Empire (reference)

  • Dervish: The Rise and Fall of an African Empire (reference)

    (more book examples)

  

Periodicals

  

Theater & Movies

  

Music

  

High Tech

  

Consumer Goods

  • KitchenAid KFP600 11-Cup Ultra Power Food Processor, Empire Red (reference)

  • KitchenAid KP2671XGN Professional 6-Quart Stand Mixer, Empire Green (reference)

  • Empire Level 1140 16" x 24" Aluminum Professional Framing Square (reference)

  • Empire Level 6830 300' Open Reel Fiberglass Measuring Tape (reference)

    (more baby examples; more wireless phone examples; more garden examples; more kitchen examples; more tool examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Empire

Photos:
Empire

More pictures...

Illustrations:
Empire

More pictures...

Computer Images:
Empire

More pictures...

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Photo Album: Empire

ThumbnailDescription & CreditThumbnailDescription & Credit

The Empire State Building in the late afternoon sun. In: "Flug Und Wolken", Manfred Curry, Verlag F. Bruckmann, Munchen, 1932. Credit: America's Coastlines.

The 45,000-acres of public land in southeastern Pima County and northeastern Santa Cruz County, are home to the Empire and Cienega ranches. Credit: Unknown.

The Empire and Cienega ranches, along with portions of the adjacent Rose Tree Ranch, were acquired by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in June 1988. BLM's acquisition included rolling grasslands and woodlands. Credit: Unknown.

"Religious fervor is mirrored on the face of a Black Muslim woman, one of some 10,000 listening to Elijah Muhammad deliver his annual Savior's Day message in Chicago. The city is headquarters for the Black Muslims. Their $75 million empire includes a mosque, newspaper, university, restaurants, real estate, bank, and variety of retail stores. Muhammad died February 25, 1975." By John H. White, Chicago, Illinois, March 1974. Credit: National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Westerward the march of empire takes it flight. Credit: Library of Congress.

The future of my empire points to the sea--Kaiser W. Credit: Library of Congress.

Empire Coal & Coke Company, tipple and loading booms, Landgraff, West Virginia. Credit: Library of Congress.

The Empire State Express, one of the fastest trains in the world, speeds along the east bank of the Hudson River in ... New York ... Credit: Library of Congress.

Str. United Empire. Credit: Library of Congress.

Empire Theatre, Detroit, Mich. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Digital Photo Gallery: Empire
 

"Empire State Building" by Robert Schöller
Commentary: "Empire State Building in New York."		"Empire state bldg." by Henry Yao
Commentary: "Picture taken at 34th st. between 6th and 7th."

Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers.

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Familiar Quotations: Empire

AuthorQuotation

George Berkeley

Westward the course of empire takes its way.

John Dryden

All empire is no more than power in trust.

Ludwig Boerne

The Holy Roman Empire -- neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Man who man would be, must rule the empire of himself.

Peter The Great

I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself.

Publilius Syrus

The empire of custom is most mighty.
Powerful indeed is the empire of habit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

An empire is an immense egotism.

Steele

To give pain is the tyranny; to make happy, the true empire of beauty.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Historic Usage: Empire

AuthorDateQuotation

John Locke

1690

Thus, notwithstanding whatever title the kings of Assyria had over Judah, by the sword, God assisted Hezekiah to throw off the dominion of that conquering empire. (Second Treatise of Government)

Treaty of Versailles

1919

All appeals to the Court of the Empire against decisions of the Courts of Alsace-Lorraine shall be suspended. (reference)

Winston S. Churchill

1946

This means a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States. ("Iron Curtain" Speech)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Use in Literature: Empire

TitleAuthorQuote

Les Miserables

Hugo, Victor

Some time after the elevation of M. Myriel to the episcopacy, the emperor made him a baron of the empire, at the same time with several other bishops

Gulliver's Travels

Swift, Jonathan

Flimnap, the Treasurer, is allowed to cut a caper on the straight rope, at least an inch higher than any other lord in the whole empire.

Walden

Thoreau, Henry David

If your trade is with the Celestial Empire, then some small counting house on the coast, in some Salem harbor, will be fixture enough

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Empire

SubjectTopicQuote

Health

It devastated the invaders of the Roman Empire. (references)

Business

Prior to independence, Uzbekistan was just a small part of the giant Soviet industrial empire and Uzbekistan’s primary role was to provide agricultural products. (references)

Civil Liberties

Turkey

The Vakiflar, which dates back to the Ottoman Empire, must approve the operation of churches, monasteries, synagogues, schools, and charitable religious foundations, such as hospitals and orphanages. (references)

Russia

The action was taken ostensibly over a $6,675 (19,277 rubles) tax bill that had been paid in September 2000. In April on the basis of an article in the civil code that prohibits companies from showing a negative balance for more than 2 years, the majority stockholder won a suit to close down the heavily indebted Segodnya newspaper--the flagship of the Gusinskiy media empire. (references)

Economic History

Bulgaria

Independence: 1908 (from the Ottoman Empire). (references)

Lexicography

Devil's Dictionary

CABBAGE, n. A familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head. The cabbage is so called from Cabagius, a prince who on ascending the throne issued a decree appointing a High Council of Empire consisting of the members of his predecessor's Ministry and the cabbages in the royal garden. When any of his Majesty's measures of state policy miscarried conspicuously it was gravely announced that several members of the High Council had been beheaded, and his murmuring subjects were appeased.

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Spoken Usage: Empire

SpeakerPhrase(s)

Rush Limbaugh

Imagine if Canada's neighbors were Iraq or Nazi Germany or the USSR or imperial Japan or any powerful empire.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Speeches: Empire

SpeakerTermPhrase(s)

John Adams

1797-1801Even this formality is not necessary in an empire.

Andrew Jackson

1829-1837With the Empire of the Russias our political connection is of the most friendly and our commercial of the most liberal kind.

Ronald Reagan

1981-1989But the United States is unique because we are an empire of ideals.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Usage Frequency: Empire

"Empire" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 80.26% of the time. "Empire" is used about 3,648 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words		Rank in English
Noun (singular)80.26%2,9283,189
Noun (proper)19.74%7209,344
                    Total100.00%3,648N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Derived & Related Names: Empire

The following table summarizes names derived from the word "empire".
 
NameGenderLanguageMeaning
IradN/ABiblical

Heap of empire

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

 

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Usage in Company Names: Empire

CountryNameCountryName
Canada

Empire Company Limited

Philippines

Empire East Land Holdings Inc.

Sweden

Empire Ab

United Kingdom

British Empire Securities and General Trust Plc

USA

Empire Banc Corporation

 (more examples...)  

Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.

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Cities: Empire


1. Empire, AL
Zip Code(s): 35063
Country: USA

2. Empire, CO (town, FIPS 24620)
Location: 39.75970 N, 105.68260 W
Population (1990): 401 (222 housing units)
Area: 0.7 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Country: USA

3. Empire, LA (CDP, FIPS 23725)
Location: 29.41189 N, 89.61061 W
Population (1990): 2654 (979 housing units)
Area: 13.8 sq km (land), 6.1 sq km (water)
Country: USA

4. Empire, MI (village, FIPS 25980)
Location: 44.81317 N, 86.05894 W
Population (1990): 355 (244 housing units)
Area: 2.3 sq km (land), 0.2 sq km (water)
Zip Code(s): 49630
Country: USA

5. Empire, NV
Zip Code(s): 89405
Country: USA

6. Empire, OH (village, FIPS 25368)
Location: 40.51096 N, 80.62502 W
Population (1990): 364 (147 housing units)
Area: 0.8 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Country: USA

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Expression: Empire

Expressions using "empire": Ban of the empire ♦ british empire ♦ Byzantine empire ♦ celestial empire ♦ eastern empire ♦ eastern Roman Empire ♦ egyptian Empire ♦ Empire City ♦ empire day ♦ Empire Landing ♦ Empire State ♦ Empire State of the South ♦ Empire State of the West ♦ empire style ♦ evil Empire ♦ Greek Empire ♦ hohenzollern empire ♦ holy roman empire ♦ later roman empire ♦ moghul empire ♦ mogul empire ♦ ottoman Empire ♦ persian empire ♦ publishing empire ♦ Quantas Empire Airways Ltd ♦ rise and fall of an empire ♦ rod of empire ♦ roman empire ♦ swedish empire style ♦ The Circles of the Holy Roman Empire ♦ the german empire ♦ the inca empire ♦ turkish Empire ♦ western empire. Additional references.

Hyphenated Usage

Beginning with "empire": empire-builder, empire-builders, empire-building, Empire-commonwealth, empire-line, empire-orientated, empire-wide.

Ending with "empire": ex-empire.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Empire

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day		ExpressionFrequency
per Day

age of empire

6,344

empire blue cross

256

empire state building

2,277

empire magic

246

empire earth

1,707

adult dvd empire

235

empire

1,473

empire juneau

233

age of empire 2

1,242

age of empire cheat code

193

age of empire cheat

889

byzantine empire

174

roman empire

809

age cheat empire ii

173

age of empire 2 cheat

702

empire state

167

cheat earth empire

625

age of empire download

166

dvd empire

567

empire strike back

165

age of empire ii

505

cheat code earth empire

160

empire carpet

473

empire maker

142

empire theatres

456

age of empire 2 cheat code

132

empire record

436

age empire online play

121

empire theater

427

microsoft age of empire ii

120

empire state college

412

fall of roman empire

120

empire state game

362

microsoft age of empire

118

ottoman empire

292

inland empire

117

empire blue cross and blue shield

280

age of empire code

114

empire restaurant

273

roman empire map

114
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Empire

Language Translations for "empire"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Albanian

  

perandori (reich), në stil ampir. (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏سيطرة (ascendant, clutch, command, control, dominance, domination, government, gripe, hand, hegemony, hold, mastery, overriding, predominance, predomination, prevalence, reign, restraint, rule, ruling, weight), ‏سلطة إمبراطورية, ‏إمبراطورية. (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

господство (ascendancy, command, dominance, domination, hegemony, lordship, mastership, mastery, rule, supremacy), владичество (mastery, sway), влияние (action, coloring, colouring, credit, dominance, domination, drag, effect, force, grip, gripe, hold, impact, influence, interest, leaven, prestige, pull, punch, purchase, reach, stimulus, sway), ампир, имперски (imperial), империя. (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

帝國 (imperial), 帝国. (various references)

   

Czech

  

impérium, císařství, říše (realm). (various references)

   

Danish

  

kejserrige. (various references)

   

Dutch

  

imperium. (various references)

   

Esperanto

  

imperio. (various references)

   

Faeroese

  

heimsveldi. (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

فرمانروایی . (various references)

   

Finnish

  

keisarikunta. (various references)

   

French

  

empire. (various references)

   

German

  

reich (abundant, affluent, affluently, bounteous, bountiful, copious, costly, domain, expensive, fertile, heavy, kingdom, large, lavish, lavishly, luxuriant, opulent, ornate, prolific, prosperous, reach, realm, rich, richly, state, substantial, sumptuous, wealthily, wealthy, well-off, wide), Kaisertum, Kaiserreich. (various references)

   

Greek 

  

αυτοκρατορία (autocracy, imperialism). (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

מלכות (crown, kinghood, kingship, monarchy, royalty), קיסרות, אימפריה. (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

birodalom (realm, rise and fall of an empire). (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

kerajaan (kingdom, monarchy, realm). (various references)

   

Italian

  

impero. (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

帝国 (imperial). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

エンパイア , ていこく (appointed time, imperial, schedule, timetable). (various references)

   

Korean 

  

제국 (Imperial). (various references)

   

Manx

  

smaght (castigation, chastisement, command, control, correction, discipline, good order, restraint, restriction, subjection), mainshtyraght (bossiness, command, superiority), impiraght. (various references)

   

Norwegian

  

verdensrike. (various references)

   

Papiamen

  

imperio. (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

empireay.(various references)

   

Portuguese

  

império. (various references)

   

Romanian

  

stãpânire (authority, command, continence, control, demesne, dominance, domination, dominion, enjoyment, government, grip, hand, holding, keeping, lordship, masterdom, mastery, ownership, possession, reign, rule, sovereignty, sway), imperiu (domination, dominion, reign, rule), împãrãţie (kingdom). (various references)

   

Russian 

  

империя. (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

imperija, carstvo (realm). (various references)

   

Spanish

  

imperio (imperial, sway). (various references)

   

Swedish

  

kejsardöme, rike (country, kingdom, land, realm), imperium. (various references)

   

Thai

  

เครือบริษัทที่ยิ่งใหญ่, อาณาจักร (land). (various references)

   

Turkish

  

saray tarzında, imparatorluk ile ilgili, imparatorluk (imperial), ímparatorluk. (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

імперія, верховна влада (overrule, scepter, sceptre, sovereignty, supremacy). (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

đế quốc. (various references)

   

Welsh

  

ymerodraeth. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Empire

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Latin500 BCE-Modern

imp., imperium. (various references)

German100 BCE-Modern

Reich. (various references)

Old French900-1400

empire. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Bible Trace: Empire

LanguageDateSourceActs Chapter 24, Verse 5
Greek (transliterated)250 BCSeptuagintEuronteV gar ton andra touton loimon kai kinounta stasin pasin toiV ioudaioiV toiV kata thn oikoumenhn prwtostathn te thV twn nazwraiwn airesewV
Latin405VulgateInvenimus hunc hominem pestiferum et concitantem seditiones omnibus Iudaeis in universo orbe et auctorem seditionis sectae Nazarenorum
Middle English1395WyclifWe han foundun this wickid man stirynge dissencioun to alle Jewis in al the world, and auctour of dissencioun of the secte of Nazarenus; and he also enforside to defoule the temple;
Renaissance English1526TyndaleWe have founde this ma a pestilent felowe and a mover of debate vnto all the Iewes thorowe out the worlde and a mayntayner of ye secte of the Nazarites
Jacobean English1611King JamesFor we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes:
Victorian English1833WebsterFor we have found this a pestilent man, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ring-leader of the sect of the Nazarenes:
Basic English1964OgdenFor this man, in our opinion, is a cause of trouble, a maker of attacks on the government among Jews through all the empire, and a chief mover in the society of the Nazarenes:

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Matched Bible Translations: Empire

LanguageActs Chapter 24, Verse 5
AlbanianNe kemi gjetur se ky njeri është një murtajë dhe shkakton trazira midis gjithë Judenjve që janë në botë dhe është kryetari i sektit të Nazarenasve.
CebuanoKay among nakita nga maoy usa ka samokan kining tawhana, tig-ugda ug mga kagubot sa tanang mga Judio sa tibuok kalibutan, ug pangulo sa pundok sa mga Nazareno.
Chinese我 們 看 這 個 人 、 如 同 瘟 疫 一 般 、 是 鼓 動 普 天 下 眾 猶 太 人 生 亂 的 、 又 是 拿 撒 勒 教 黨 裡 的 一 個 頭 目 ．
CroatianUtvrdismo da je ovaj èovjek kuga, da pokreæe bune meðu svim Židovima po svijetu, da je kolovoða nazaretske sljedbe,
DanishVi have nemlig fundet, at denne Mand er en Pest og en Oprørsstifter iblandt alle Jøderne hele Verden over, samt er Fører for Nazaræernes Parti,
DutchWant wij hebben dezen man bevonden te zijn een pest, en een, die oproer verwekt onder al de Joden, door de ganse wereld, en een oppersten voorstander van de sekte der Nazarenen.
FinnishMe olemme havainneet, että tämä mies on ruttotauti ja metelinnostaja kaikkien koko maailman juutalaisten keskuudessa ja nasaretilaisten lahkon päämies,
FrenchNous avons trouvé cet homme, qui est une peste, qui excite des divisions parmi tous les Juifs du monde, qui est chef de la secte des Nazaréens,
GermanWir haben diesen Mann gefunden schädlich, und der Aufruhr erregt allen Juden auf dem ganzen Erdboden, und einen vornehmsten der Sekte der Nazarener,
Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hariKami dapati orang ini pengacau yang berbahaya. Di mana-mana ia menimbulkan keributan di antara orang-orang Yahudi dan ia menjadi pemimpin gerakan orang-orang Nazaret.
Indonesian-Terjemahan LamaKarena orang ini hamba sekalian dapati seperti sampar, yaitu seorang penggerak huru-hara kepada sekalian orang Yahudi di seluruh dunia, dan menjadi kepala mazhab Nasrani,
ItalianAbbiamo scoperto che quest'uomo è una peste, fomenta continue rivolte tra tutti i Giudei che sono nel mondo ed è capo della setta dei Nazorei.
LatvianMçs atradâm, ka ðis cilvçks ir mçris un nemiera cçlâjs starp visiem jûdiem visâ pasaulç un Nâcarieða sektas vadîtâjs,
MaoriI mau hoki i a matou te koroke nei, he tangata whakatutehu, e whakaoho ana i nga Hurai katoa o te ao, ko ia hoki te tino take o te titorehanga ki ta nga Nahareti:
NorwegianFor vi har funnet at denne mann er en pest og en opvigler blandt alle jøder rundt om i verden og en leder for nasareernes sekt;
PortugueseTemos achado que este homem é uma peste, e promotor de sedições entre todos os judeus, por todo o mundo, e chefe da seita dos nazarenos;   
RumanianAm gqsit pe omul acesta, care este o ciumq: pune la cale rqzvrqtiri printre toyi Iudeii de pe tot pqmkntul, este mai marele partidei Nazarinenilor,
ShuarJu aishman Papru, sunkura utsukratniua Núniniaiti. Niisha Ashí nunkanam mesetan najanatniun Israer aentsun Ikiakáiniaiti. Tura Jesusa aentsri, Nasarénu tuinia nuna uuntrinti.
SpanishPorque hemos hallado que este hombre es una plaga, y es promotor de sediciones entre los judíos de todo el mundo y cabecilla de la secta de los nazarenos.
SwahiliTumegundua kwamba mtu huyu ni wa hatari mno. Yeye huanzisha ghasia kati ya Wayahudi kila mahali duniani na pia ni kiongozi wa kile chama cha Wanazareti.
Uma"Ta'uli' -mi-hawo, Paulus toei-e mai, tauna to mpobalinai' ngata. Hiapa-apa-i mpo'usoki to Yahudi mpo'ewa topoparenta. Pai' hi'a toe-mi pangkeni-ra to mpotuku' tudui' -na Yesus to Nazaret.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Empire

Derivations

Words beginning with "empire": empires. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Empire" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Ebmeier, emie, emip, Emira, emire, emired, emiri, empate, empede, empeiria, emper, empiry, empor, emporer, empri, emprive, empyrea, enmire, enpire, enpure, epare, Impire, impyre, Lempriere, mephile, vempire. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Empire"

Words rhyming with "empire" (pronounced 'Em"pire'): Pompire. (additional references)

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Anagrams: Empire

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Direct Anagrams: epimer, premie.

Words within the letters "e-e-i-m-p-r"

-1 letter: prime.

-2 letters: emir, mere, mire, peer, peri, perm, pier, pree, prim, rime, ripe.

-3 letters: eme, ere, imp, ire, mir, pee, per, pie, ree, rei, rem, rep, rim, rip.

-4 letters: em, er, me, mi, pe, pi, re.

 Words containing the letters "e-e-i-m-p-r"
 

+1 letter: demirep, empires, emprise, emprize, emptier, epiderm, epimere, epimers, hempier, impeder, imprese, preemie, premier, premies, premise, spireme.

 

+2 letters: demireps, emperies, emprises, emprizes, emptiers, epiderms, epimeres, epimeric, hemipter, impeders, impeller, impreses, moperies, periblem, periderm, perineum, preemies, premedic, premiere, premiers, premised, premises, premixed, premixes, promisee, reimpose, simpered, simperer, spermine, spiremes.

 

+3 letters: deperming, distemper, ephemerid, ephemeris, epidermal, epidermic, epidermis, epimerase, expertism, hemipters, hyperemia, hyperemic, impearled, impellers, imperfect, imperiled, impetrate, impowered, imprecate, imprecise, impregned, impressed, impresses, peperomia, periblems, periderms, perimeter, peristome, permitted, permittee, permitter, phlegmier, pimpernel, premedics, premiered, premieres, premisses, pretermit, primeness, promisees, recompile, reimposed, reimposes, repairmen, simperers, spermines, tempering, temporise, temporize, whimpered.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern 		5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Slideshow
7. Images: Photo Album
8. Images: Digital Art 		9. Quotations: Familiar
10. Quotations: Historic
11. Quotations: Fiction
12. Quotations: Non-fiction 		13. Quotations: Spoken
14. Quotations: Speeches
15. Usage Frequency
16. Names: Derived from 		17. Names: Company Usage
18. Cities
19. Expressions
20. Expressions: Internet 		21. Translations: Modern
22. Translations: Ancient
23. Bible Trace
24. Abbreviations 		25. Acronyms
26. Derivations
27. Rhymes
28. Anagrams 		29. Bibliography


  

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