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Mrs. Ruland's Advanced Placement World History Course

Conrad-Demarest Model of Empires

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  • Necessary preconditions for the rise of empires-the region must have:
    1. State-level government
    2. High agricultural potential of the environment
    3. An environmental mosaic
    4. Several small states with no clear dominant state (power vacuum)
    5. Mutual antagonism among those states
    6. Adequate military resources (or a military or technological advantage)

  • States succeed in empire building if they have an ideology that promotes personal identification with the state, empire, leader, conquest, and/or militarism.


  • Characteristics of well-run empires
    1. Build roads and transportation systems, canals, ports, etc.
    2. Trade increases
    3. Cosmopolitan cities-art and education flourish
    4. Effective bureaucracy to ensure communication, collect taxes, oversee coinage, ensure the emperor's laws are enforced
    5. Common official language (communication)
    6. System of justice, law for entire empire
    7. Citizenship or rights extend in some degree to conquered; must be some buy-in

  • Major results of empire:
    1. Economic rewards, especially in the early years, redistributed to elite and trickles down to other classes (esp. merchants, scribes, etc.)
    2. Relative stability and prosperity
    3. Population increase

  • Empires fall because:
    1. Failure or leadership; focus on wealth, etc. not the needs of the state
    2. Ideology of expansion and conquest leads to attempting new conquests beyond a practical limit: over stretching of bureaucracy, military, resources, communications
    3. Lack of new conquests erodes economic base and lessens faith in ideology that supported the empire
    4. Rebellions from within/ challenges from without

     

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    Last updated October 5, 2005

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