Defining Empires
Historical Empires
Empire and Culture
Empire and Identity
Empire in the Modern World
100
This is one of the two defining characteristics of an empire, involving ruling over many culturally distinct peoples.
Answer: What is cultural diversity?
100
Question: Which was the first empire about which we have definitive information?
Answer: Akkadian Empire of Sargon the Great
Explanation: Around 2250 BC, Sargon conquered all Mesopotamian city-states and large surrounding territories.
100
Question: What is one reason empires deliberately spread a common culture?
Answer: To make life easier for rulers and ensure administrative standardization
Explanation: Standardization of language, currency, and laws made ruling large territories manageable.
100
Question: What word describes people who are not fully accepted in an empire, even if they follow the empire’s rules?
Answer: Barbarians, Outsiders
Explanation: Empires often treated some groups as outsiders, even if they adopted the empire’s language or customs.
100
Question: How did Europeans influence modern India during the colonial era?
Answer: Through governance, railroads, legal system, and the spread of Western culture
Explanation: Despite oppression, these structures laid the foundation for the modern Indian state.
200
Question: What is the minimum number of distinct peoples an empire must rule over to qualify as an empire?
Answer: Around 20 or more
Explanation: Two or three distinct peoples are not enough; an empire must govern a substantial number of culturally distinct groups.
200
Question: What modern countries did Sargon the Great’s empire include parts of?
Answer: Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Turkey
Explanation: His empire stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, covering most of today’s Iraq and Syria.
200
Question: Name one way British culture affected India.
Answer: Cricket, English language, railroads, or tea drinking
Explanation: Empires often bring their own customs, sports, and systems, some of which stay long after the empire ends.
200
Question: Who was the Indian law student treated as an outsider in British South Africa despite mastering English and Western customs?
Answer: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
200
Question: Why is it difficult to separate “good” culture from imperial legacies?
Answer: Most human cultures are partially shaped by imperial histories
Explanation: Rejecting all imperial influence would erase much of what constitutes current civilization.
300
Question: Besides ruling over many peoples, what is the second defining feature of an empire?
Answer: Flexible borders and potentially unlimited territorial expansion
Explanation: Empires can expand without fundamentally changing their structure or identity, unlike modern nation-states.
300
The Roman Empire fell in 476 AD to these groups of invaders.
Answer: Who are the Germanic tribes?
Explanation: The Roman Empire had been experiencing internal problems—political instability, economic troubles, and overextended borders—for centuries. During the 4th and 5th centuries AD, several Germanic tribes from northern and central Europe began moving into Roman territory.
300
Question: Which European languages spread because of empires in the Americas? Name two.
Answer: Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English
Explanation: Colonizers made people learn their language, so these languages became common across many countries.
300
Question: What happened to Numantians and other conquered peoples after the fall of the Western Roman Empire?
Answer: Their distinct cultures disappeared
Explanation: Empires often absorbed or erased the cultural identities of conquered peoples over centuries.
300
Question: Which imperial project has been described as possibly the first truly global empire?
Answer: The British Empire
Explanation: Its reach spanned the globe, spreading political, economic, and cultural systems worldwide.
400
Name one empire that was formed not by military conquest but by marriage alliances.
Answer: What is the Habsburg Empire?
Explanation: The Habsburgs, a powerful European dynasty, expanded their influence mostly through strategic marriages, not by waging wars. By marrying heirs and heiresses from other royal families, they gradually gained control over territories in Europe, including Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and parts of Italy.
400
Question: Which empire’s emperor famously claimed that “throughout the six directions…everything belongs to the emperor”?
Answer: The Chinese Empire, Qin Shi Huangdi
Explanation: This reflects the imperial idea of ruling over “All Under Heaven” for the welfare of all.
400
The Mauryan Empire’s mission included spreading this Asian religion to an “ignorant world.”
Answer: What is Buddhism?
400
Question: How did the Arab Empire integrate non-Arab subjects?
Answer: Many adopted Islam, Arabic, and hybrid imperial culture
Explanation: Over time, conquered peoples became culturally Arabized, even as they originally had distinct ethnic and religious identities.
400
Question: What common factor unites anti-colonial movements in the modern era?
Answer: Use of Western ideas such as self-determination and human rights
Explanation: Many colonized peoples drew on imperial culture to demand equality and independence.
500
Even a small empire could qualify if it subdued numerous distinct polities; the Athenian Empire ruled over more than a hundred of these.
Answer: What are city-states?
Explanation:
A city-state is a small, independent political entity consisting of a city and its surrounding territory. In ancient times, many regions—like Greece—were made up of multiple city-states, each with its own government, army, and laws.
The Athenian Empire didn’t control a vast landmass like Persia, but it ruled over more than a hundred city-states around the Aegean Sea through alliances, tribute, and military influence.
500
Question: Which empires spread culture and law to conquered peoples while also relying on military and administrative control? Guess two.
Answer: Roman, Chinese, Mauryan, Arab, British, Mughal
Explanation: These empires combined coercion (force) and cultural assimilation to govern and integrate diverse peoples.
500
Question: Give an example of a hybrid culture formed by empire.
Answer: Roman culture was heavily influenced by Greek culture
Explanation: Empires often adopted and blended cultural elements from conquered peoples, creating hybrid civilizations.
500
Question: What is the ultimate achievement of the Chinese Empire in terms of cultural assimilation?
Answer: The majority of China’s population identifies as Han Chinese
Explanation: Over 2,000 years, multiple ethnic groups were incorporated into a single dominant culture.
500
Question: What challenge arises when trying to reclaim an “authentic” pre-imperial culture?
Answer: Most pre-existing cultures were also shaped by older empires, making the idea of a “pure” culture impossible
Explanation: Cultural inheritance is cumulative; simplistically dividing history into oppressors and oppressed oversimplifies complex legacies.