13 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
King of Macedon — who conquered Persia, Egypt, and the borders of India in 13 years before his death at 32 — creating the largest empire the ancient world had seen — whose conquests spread Greek culture (Hellenism) across three continents.
First Roman Emperor (27 BC–14 AD) — who ended the Roman Republic's civil wars, created the Principate (the constitutional fiction of restored Republic masking autocracy), commissioned the Aeneid and the Augustan age of Latin literature, and extended Roman rule to its greatest stable extent.
German-born Empress of Russia (1762–1796) — who seized power from her incompetent husband Peter III, expanded Russia's borders by 200,000 square miles, corresponded with Voltaire, Diderot, and d'Alembert, founded the Hermitage Museum, and made Russia a European power — the most successful female ruler in European history.
King of the Franks and first Holy Roman Emperor (800 AD) — who unified most of Western Europe through conquest and Christian conversion, standardized weights and measures and coinage, promoted literacy and learning (Carolingian Renaissance), and whose kingdom became the predecessor to both France and Germany.
J.H. Elliott's 2006 comparison of the British and Spanish empires in the Americas — arguing that the contrasting approaches to colonization (Spanish direct administration vs. English settler colonialism) created the divergent outcomes that explain North-South American differences.
Founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire — who unified the Mongol tribes, conquered China, Central Asia, Persia, and Russia, creating the largest contiguous land empire in history — whose descendants ruled from the Pacific to Eastern Europe.
British historian at Oxford who wrote The Empire Project, Unfinished Empire, and After Tamerlane — arguing that the British Empire was one of several competing imperialisms in a multipolar world, not simply a Western domination story — offering a global perspective on empire and decolonization.
British sociologist at the University of Virginia who wrote Visions of Empire, The Making of English National Identity, and 1989: Revolutionary Ideas and Ideals — examining how empires construct and project their identities, particularly the British Empire's self-presentation.
Tenth Mansa (Emperor) of the Mali Empire — whose 1324 pilgrimage to Mecca (with 60,000 people and 12,000 slaves each carrying 4 pounds of gold) literally crashed the gold market in Cairo and introduced the world to West African wealth — the wealthiest individual in history by most estimates.
Scottish historian at Hoover Institution — author of The Pity of War, Empire, The Ascent of Money, Civilization, and Kissinger — the most commercially successful academic historian of his generation — whose rehabilitation of British imperialism and contrarian geopolitical views make him consistently controversial.
British writer born in India who wrote The Jungle Book, Kim, Just So Stories, If, and The White Man's Burden — the most popular English-language poet of his era and the Nobel laureate who most fully articulated the British imperial consciousness — now a contested figure because of his celebration of empire.
Krishan Kumar's 2017 comparative study of how empires — Roman, Ottoman, Habsburg, British, Russian/Soviet, American — constructed and projected their ruling identities, arguing that imperial identity differs fundamentally from national identity.
Peter Turchin's 2006 application of his cliodynamics framework to the rise and fall of empires — arguing that cooperation (asabiyya) and geographic frontiers between civilizations drive imperial expansion, and that internal factional conflict drives collapse.