Imperial Visions

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the Imperial Visions lecture notes, including definitions of empire, acculturation/assimilation, Mandate of Heaven, and the long-lasting legacies of imperial rule.

Numantia

A Celtiberian mountain town in northern Iberia that fiercely resisted Roman rule; besieged by Scipio Aemilianus and destroyed after food ran out, with many inhabitants choosing suicide over slavery; later a symbol of Spanish independence.

Scipio Aemilianus

Rome’s leading general who besieged Numantia (134 BC), encircling the city and starving it into surrender after more than a year, preferring attrition over direct combat.

Empire (as defined in Sapiens)

A political order characterized by (1) ruling over a significant number of distinct peoples with different identities and territories, and (2) flexible borders and an appetite to absorb more territories without changing its core structure.

Cultural diversity

The presence of many different ethnic, linguistic, and cultural groups within an empire.

Flexible borders

Empires’ borders that can expand and absorb new territories without fundamentally altering the empire’s identity.

Imperial threshold

The point at which a polity qualifies as an empire, typically involving multiple diverse peoples and a capacity for expansion; there is no fixed numerical cutoff.

Mandate of Heaven

A Chinese doctrine that Heaven grants rulers the right to govern; legitimacy is earned by just rule and can be withdrawn, with the ruler expected to govern for the benefit of all under Heaven (Tianxia).

Tianxia

The Chinese concept of All Under Heaven, the universal realm under one ruler, whose legitimacy comes from Heaven.

Qin Shi Huangdi

The first emperor of a unified China, who claimed that everything in the universe belongs to the emperor and that all beings are subject to his rule.

Acculturation

The process by which a subject people adopts aspects of the imperial culture while retaining some of its own identities.

Assimilation

The process by which conquered peoples are absorbed into the empire’s culture and considered part of the dominant society, often losing distinct identities (e.g., Romans granting citizenship and integrating elites from conquered peoples).

Hybrid civilizations

Imperial cultures that blend elements from multiple conquered peoples, creating a diverse yet unified imperial culture.

Standardisation

Empire-wide imposition of common systems—law, weights and measures, writing, currency—to facilitate governance and control.

Roman citizenship expansion (Claudius)

AD 48: Claudius admitted Gallic notables into the Senate, illustrating the gradual assimilation and blending of conquered elites into Roman governance.

Barbarian-to-citizen transition

The gradual integration of conquered peoples into the empire’s elite and citizenry, leading to multi-ethnic governance and acceptance.

The New Global Empire

A prospective future where most humans live under a global, multi-ethnic elite and shared culture, with interdependent states facing common challenges (nuclear risk, climate change, tech advances).

Imperial legacies

lasting cultural, political, and social influences of empires on modern civilizations, including language, law, art, architecture, and institutions.

Good Guys and Bad Guys (in history)

The tendency to view empires as uniformly evil, while ignoring their complex legacies; empires produced both oppression and valuable cultural contributions.

We conquer you for your own benefit

A persian (Cyrus-era) claim that imperial conquest serves the subjects’ welfare, illustrating the benevolent universalist imperial vision.