EAN: 9780691181639

SHADOW EMPIRES - THOMAS J BARFIELD GEBUNDEN

An original study of empire creation and its consequences  from ancient through early modern
times The world’s first great empires established by the ancient Persians  Chinese  and Romans
are well known  but not the empires that emerged on their margins in response to them over the
course of 2 500 years. These counterempires or shadow empires  which changed the course of
history  include the imperial nomad confederacies that arose in Mongolia and extorted resources
from China rather than attempting to conquer it  as well as maritime empires such as ancient
Athens that controlled trade without seeking territorial hegemony. In Shadow Empires  Thomas
Barfield identifies seven kinds of counterempire and explores their rise  politics  economics 
and longevity. What all these counterempires had in common was their interactions with existing
empires that created the conditions for their development. When highly successful  these
counterempires left the shadows to become the world’s largest empires—for example  those of the
medieval Muslim Arabs and of the Mongol heirs of Chinggis Khan. Three former shadow
empires—Manchu Qing China  Tsarist Russia  and British India—made this transformation in the
late eighteenth century and came to rule most of Eurasia. However  the DNA of their origins
endured in their unique ruling strategies. Indeed  world powers still use these strategies
today  long after their roots in shadow empires have been forgotten. Looking afresh at the
histories of important types of empires that are often ignored  Shadow Empires provides an
original account of empire formation from the ancient world to the early modern period.

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