In the long span of human history to the twentieth century, almost all great leaders of empires and states were men, with few exceptions. One of them was Heavenly Empress Wu Zetian. She is the only female ruler in history to have replaced a powerful dynasty with her own in a major country and crowned herself emperor of China. This book is about how this daughter of a concubine, who began life in the palace as a lowly concubine of Emperor Taizong (see Heavenly Khan) at a very young age, overcame all obstacles in a man-dominated world and rose to the summit of power in medieval China.
Empires--vast states of territories and peoples united by force and ambition--have dominated the political landscape for more than two millennia. Empires in World History departs from conventional Eur
Empires--vast states of territories and peoples united by force and ambition--have dominated the political landscape for more than two millennia. Empires in World History departs from conventional Eur
The confrontation between Spain and the Dutch Republic was a key factor in European and world history. In this collection, Jonathan Israel explores the various aspects of this many-sided struggle, at
Dramatic alterations in political power have corrected the once prevalent vision of a European-centered world. While the centers of European culture flourished, decayed and sprouted in turn, empires i
Epic: Empires focuses on 12 of the biggest and most incredible empires in the history of the world, from the first Babylonian Empire, founded in 1792 BCE, to the British Empire, which ended formally i
Epic: Empires focuses on 12 of the biggest and most incredible empires in the history of the world, from the first Babylonian Empire, founded in 1792 BCE, to the British Empire, which ended formally i
Written by an expert team of scholars this first volume examines war and resistance, different engines of economic performance and social and geographical mobility in the Mediterranean, slavery and social control, lived experience and the imperial discourses of race and identity, and the geographical and ecological settings in which the cultural histories of the Roman world played out. Together these chapters offer a bold new account of the Roman Empire, juxtaposing key topics that are not always considered together under the rubric of “culture.” A Cultural History of Western Empires in Antiquity examines the cultural history of ancient Mediterranean empires, and focuses on the Roman Empire; the prototypical empire in western history and imagination. A wide-ranging introduction examines the nexus of state-formation and culture in the ancient Mediterranean world, from the rise of civilization in Mesopotamia to the fall of the Roman Empire in late antiquity. Richly-illustrate
European overseas trade and diplomacy in some parts of the world went hand in hand with colonization and conquest in others areas. As the introduction to this third volume explains, and the eight expertly written chapters assembled here detail, these were not divergent but intricately connected activities. Through detailed attention to Renaissance literature, travel books, political, scientific and commercial writing, they show how European contact with Asia, the Americas and Africa spurred innovations in warfare, seafaring, and accounting. Demanding the creation of international law, and new labour practices at home and abroad, this contact overhauled previous conceptions of nature, race and sexuality and shaped debates on religion, politics, and power. Renaissance culture, in all its diversity and dynamism, was both the midwife of empire and its progeny. A Cultural History of Western Empires in the Renaissance offers a new understanding of Renaissance culture, commonly understood as
This volume explores a world that thought deeply about imperial power and emperors but one that perhaps never had an “empire” of its own. These synthetic essays from experts across a wide variety of disciplines mine the intellectual world of this period and begin to demolish the myth of the so-called “Dark Ages,” showing how the European Middle Ages were illuminated by vigorous debates that echo today. The story of medieval Western empires is both familiar and foreign. It is a story about politics, culture, religion, society, gender, sex, and economics, and how porous the boundaries between those categories can often be. A Cultural History of Western Empires in the Middle Ages offers a detailed and highly-illustrated account of how we got to where we are, as well as the dangers of not fully understanding why those origins matter.
How did empires rule different peoples across vast expanses of space and time? And how did small numbers of imperial bureaucrats govern large numbers of subordinated peoples? Empires and Bureaucracy in World History seeks answers to these fundamental problems in imperial studies by exploring the power and limits of bureaucracy. The book is pioneering in bringing together historians of antiquity and the Middle Ages with scholars of post-medieval European empires, while a genuinely world-historical perspective is provided by chapters on China, the Incas and the Ottomans. The editors identify a paradox in how bureaucracy operated on the scale of empires and so help explain why some empires endured for centuries while, in the contemporary world, empires fail almost before they begin. By adopting a cross-chronological and world-historical approach, the book challenges the abiding association of bureaucratic rationality with 'modernity' and the so-called 'Rise of the West'.
How did empires rule different peoples across vast expanses of space and time? And how did small numbers of imperial bureaucrats govern large numbers of subordinated peoples? Empires and Bureaucracy in World History seeks answers to these fundamental problems in imperial studies by exploring the power and limits of bureaucracy. The book is pioneering in bringing together historians of antiquity and the Middle Ages with scholars of post-medieval European empires, while a genuinely world-historical perspective is provided by chapters on China, the Incas and the Ottomans. The editors identify a paradox in how bureaucracy operated on the scale of empires and so help explain why some empires endured for centuries while, in the contemporary world, empires fail almost before they begin. By adopting a cross-chronological and world-historical approach, the book challenges the abiding association of bureaucratic rationality with 'modernity' and the so-called 'Rise of the West'.
Advances an interesting perspective in world history, arguing that institutions and culture - and not just the global economy - serve as important elements of international order. Focusing on colonial legal politics and the interrelation of local and indigenous cultural contests and institutional change, the book uses case studies to trace a shift in plural legal orders - from the multicentric law of early empires to the state-centered law of the colonial and postcolonial world. In the early modern world, the special legal status of cultural and religious others itself became an element of continuity across culturally diverse empires. In the nineteenth century, the state's assertion of a singular legal authority responded to repetitive legal conflicts - not simply to the imposition of Western models of governance. Indigenous subjects across time and in all settings were active in making, changing, and interpreting the law - and, by extension, in shaping the international order.
Born in Rome around 100 B.C., Gaius Julius Caesar grew up to lead of one of the world's greatest empires. A boy of fierce drive and ambition, he was tutored from the age of six. The teenage Gaius beca
The era from 1400 to 1800 saw intense biological, commercial, and cultural exchanges, and the creation of global connections on an unprecedented scale. Divided into two books, Volume 6 of the Cambridge World History series considers these critical transformations. The first book examines the material and political foundations of the era, including global considerations of the environment, disease, technology, and cities, along with regional studies of empires in the eastern and western hemispheres, crossroads areas such as the Indian Ocean, Central Asia, and the Caribbean, and sites of competition and conflict, including Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Mediterranean. The second book focuses on patterns of change, examining the expansion of Christianity and Islam, migrations, warfare, and other topics on a global scale, and offering insightful detailed analyses of the Columbian exchange, slavery, silver, trade, entrepreneurs, Asian religions, legal encounters, plantation economies, earl
