After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000

Thus, not only did European state-building depend heavily on resources and technologies – such as silver, textiles, tea, spices and gunpowder – from the rest of the world, but also these discursive practices contributed to state formation and sovereign territoriality in Europe. Territorial states and modern imperial power emerged from the competiti

Empires were one of the main reasons for the drastic reduction in human diversity. The imperial steamroller gradually obliterated the unique characteristics of numerous peoples (such as the Numantians), forging out of them new and much larger groups.

In the eleventh century, once again convinced that: she could use her great strength to usher in an era of peace, China turned to diplomacy and did so brilliantly. She discovered that it cost far less to pacify her enemies with tribute than it did to maintain an elephantine army, so she paid her enemies off. To keep these hulking powers from her th

How did the people of this frigid finger of Eurasia manage to break out of their remote corner of the globe and conquer the entire world? Europe’s scientists are often given much of the credit. It’s unquestionable that from 1850 onward European domination rested to a large extent on the military–industrial–scientific complex and technological wizar