Rise of Empires

The world’s ancient history was also dominated by many rulers who established their own empires and ruled decades after decades. Time witnessed the rise and fall of these great empires. The historians have analyzed that the empires grow out of power and influence, and they fall out due to some invasion taking advantage of their lack of power on dispersed territories. 

Anyway, if the rise and fall of the empires are studied closely, we will notice a different trend or pattern for each of these empires. In this very section, we are going to talk about the fall and rise of empires in good detail. 

What is an Empire?

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Empire refers to a centralized state form that exercises political control which consists of a large amount of territory that contains many diverse groups. The empire often displays a centralized power that rules from one or several capital cities. But we generally refer to an empire to be a single unit which is existed over a time period. The large empires are then divided into smaller manageable political units, which are usually called the provinces.

Next, we will talk about four different empires which were one of the greatest empires accounted worldwide, the empires discussed here are as follows:

• Achaemenid Persian Empire

• Maurya Indian Empire

• Han Dynasty – Chinese Empire

• Roman Empire 

We will analyze their growth pattern and try to understand their influential power. At the end of this content, we have also provided amazing facts on these empires.  First, we will start with the rise of Achaemenid Persia. 

The Rise of Achaemenid Persia 

Achaemenid Empire is typically a Persian empire. This is said to be one of the largest empires which the ancient world had ever seen. The empire extended from Anatolia and Egypt across western Asia to the northern part of India and entered Central Asia. 

The formation of the Achaemenid Empire began in the year 550 B.C., this empire started when the King Astyages of Media who dominated a major part of Iran and the eastern part of Anatolia (which is Turkey in the modern world) was defeated by the king’s southern neighbor, the Great King of Persia known as the Cyrus II in the year 559–530 B.C. This caused an effect on the balance of power in the near eastern land. This encouraged Lydians who were from the western part of Anatolia under their King Croesus to take advantage of the falling dynasty of Media, thereby they pushed eastward and clashed with the Persian forces. While, the Lydian army retreated for the winter season but the Persians advanced in attacking the Lydian capital in Sardis, after over two weeks the Lydians finally lost to the Persian forces. 

After the Lydians who later allied with Persia, the Babylonian empire was annexed by Persia. The Babylonian Empire controlled Mesopotamia and the eastern Mediterranean at that time. In the year of 539 B.C., the Persian forces had defeated the Babylonian army at the site known as Opis, which was on the eastern side of the Tigris. King Cyrus entered Babylon at the nick of the time and presented himself as their traditional Mesopotamian monarch. He had restored the temples to win the heart of the locals and released all the political prisoners of the empire. 

The last western power that remained undefeated by the Cyrus’ army was Egypt. Egypt was left to his son named Cambyses to rout the Egyptian forces in the eastern River Nile Delta in the year 525 B.C. After over ten days of revolting, Egypt’s ancient capital city called Memphis fell into the mighty hands of the Persians. In this manner, the Persians captured empires after empires. 

Maurya India 

Mauryan empire in ancient India is a state which is centered at the center of Patna which was later known as Pataliputra. It is situated near the meeting point of Son and Ganges River. Maurya India had lasted from about 321 to 185 BCE. Mauryan Empire was the first empire to engulf the Indian subcontinent. The Mauryan empire in India was a very efficient and mannerly organized autocracy system. It has a standing army with civil service forefront. 

Han China 

When the Qin Dynasty had finally collapsed in the year 207 BCE, there were eighteen separate kingdoms who had declared themselves as independent kingdoms. The Han and Chu states during that time emerged as the most powerful dynasties. The Han state later was the victor of the Chu-Han Contention, which was a four-year civil war. 

The Han Dynasty would become one of the most important and long-lasting dynasties in all of Chinese history. It would rule China for over four hundred years, from 206 BCE-220 CE, and ushered in a golden age of peace, prosperity, and development. Today, both the majority ethnic group in China and the Chinese script are called Han.

Roman Empire

During the start of the eighth century B.C. ancient Rome originally rose from a small town of central Italy’s Tiber River. The small town grew into an empire where at its peak rests continental Europe, Britain, and a large part of western Asia, northern Africa, and the Mediterranean islands. There were many legacies of the Roman dominance while the widespread use of the Romance languages (which includes Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Romanian) is being derived from the Latin language, the modern Western alphabet, and also the calendar with the emergence of Christianity became a major world religion.

After the passage of 450 years of being a republic, Rome became an empire in the rise of Julius Caesar’s and the empire fall in the first century B.C. The Roman Empire also celebrates the long and triumph rule of their first emperor, Augustus, who began Rome’s golden age of peace and prosperity. In contrast to this, the Roman Empire’s decline by the end of the fifth century A.D. is considered as one of the most dramatic wipes out in the history of human civilization.

There were many such empires that made their mark in world history. Our modern world honors their stories and studies them whole-heartedly as they gave us many inventions like coins, trading ideas, architectures, artifacts, and many such innovations. We truly feel with boundless gratitude to know about these great empires who once ruled this very land. This somewhere gives us a sense of ownness and pride to live in this land identified anciently by them. 

Did You Know?

1. The Persian gardens depict the rich architecture and design of Persia. The beautiful and lush green gardens were built originally to provide comfort from the harsh weather conditions.  

2. Chanakya’s was also known as Kautilya.  He first resided in the palace of King Dhana Nanda of the Nanda Dynasty, once he was insulted and thrown out of the Nanda kingdom by King Dhana Nanda. Chanakya vowed to take revenge and therefore he encouraged Chandragupta Maurya to revolt against King Dhana Nanda. Chandragupta won the battle and took over the Nanda Kingdom, this was the start of the expansion of the Mauryan empire. So, we see Chanakya had a great mastermind behind the growth of the Mauryan dynasty. 

3. The mighty and huge Han Empire was conquered by a simple peasant. 

4. In Rome, the women dyed their hair with goat fat and beech wood ashes, those where the most popular colors were red and blond.

5. The first shopping mall was built in Rome city between 107 and 110 AD. This was built by Emperor Trajan. In the shopping mall, a wide variety of goods and grocery items were sold.

6. Rome has a museum that is entirely dedicated to pasta.