Editing Empire (section)

===Early empires===
{{Multiple image
| header            = Early empires
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| image1            = Achaemenid Empire 500 BCE.jpg
| caption1          = [[Achaemenid Empire]] of [[Ancient Persia|Persia]] at its zenith
| image2            = Seleucid-Empire 200bc.jpg
| caption2          = Seleucid Empire and Mauryan Empire in 200 BCE. The Seleucid Empire reached its peaked under Antiochus III.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://usuarios.lycos.es/superjulio/IMPERIOS%20DE%20ORIENTE%20MEDIO%201%20(IRAK,%20SIRIA,%20ISRAEL,%20LIBANO,%20YEMEN,%20ARABIA,%20OMAN)/Mapas%20Imperiales%20Imperio%20Seleucida3.jpg |title=Mapas Imperiales - Imperio Seleucida |website=usuarios.lycos.es |access-date= }}{{Dead link|date=February 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Haywood |first=John |author-link= |title=The Cassell Atlas of World History |publisher=Andromeda Oxford Ltd. | year=1997 |page=2.02 |others=et al. }}</ref>
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Stephen Howe writes that with the exception of the Roman, Chinese and "perhaps ancient Egyptian states", early empires seldom survived the death of their founder and were usually limited in scope to conquest and collection of tribute, having little impact on the everyday lives of their subjects.{{sfn|Howe|2002|pp=37, 39}}

With the exception of Rome, the periods of dissolution following imperial falls were equally short. Successor states seldom outlived their founders and disappeared in the next and often larger empire. Some empires, like the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire|Neo-Babylonian]], [[Median kingdom|Median]] and [[Lydia]]n were outright conquered by a larger empire. The historical pattern was not a simple rise-and-fall cycle; rather it was rise, fall, and greater rise. [[Raoul Naroll]] called it "expanding pulsation"<ref>Naroll, Raoul, (1967). "Imperial Cycles and World Order," ''Peace Research Society'', 7: pp 83-101.</ref> and [[Ian Morris (historian)|Ian Morris]] "exponential growth"<ref>Morris, Ian (2012). "The evolution of war," ''Cliodynamics'', vol 3 (1): p 23-24.</ref>

Empires were limited in scope to conquest, as Howe observed, but conquest is a considerable scope. Many fought to the death to avoid it or to be liberated from it. Imperial conquests and attempts of conquest significantly contributed to the [[list of wars by death toll]]. The imperial impact on subjects can be regarded as "little," but only on those subjects who survived the imperial conquest and rule. We cannot ask the inhabitants of [[Carthage]] and [[Masada]], for example, whether empire had little impact on their lives. We seldom hear the voices of subject peoples because history is mostly written by winners. The imperial sources tend to ignore or reduce the resistance by subdued states.<ref>Brien, Pierre (2002). ''From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire''. (tr. Daniels, Peter T. Indiana: Eisenbrauns)  p 79.</ref> But two rich primary sources of the subject population are the Hebrew [[Prophetic books]] and the ''[[Sibylline Oracles]]''.<ref>[[Erich S. Gruen|Gruen, Erich S]]. (2020). “The Sibylline Oracles and resistance to Rome.” ''The Future of Rome: Roman, Greek, Jewish and Christian Visions''. (Eds. Price, Jonathan J. & Berthelot, Katell, Cambridge University Press), p 195.</ref> The hatred towards the ruling empires expressed in these sources makes impression of an impact more serious than estimated by Howe. A classical writer and adherent of empire, [[Orosius]] explicitly preferred to avoid the views of subject populations.<ref>Orosius. ''History against the Pagans'', IV:23. (tr. Fear, A. T., Liverpool University Press, 2010).</ref> And another classical Roman patriot, [[Lucan]] confessed that "words cannot express how bitterly we are hated" by subject peoples.<ref>Lucan. ''Civil War'', 7:482. (tr. Braund, S. H., Oxford University Press, 1992).</ref>

The earliest known empire appeared in southern Egypt sometime around 3200 BC. Southern Egypt was divided by three kingdoms each centered on a powerful city. Hierapolis conquered the other two cities over two centuries, and later grew into the country of Egypt.{{Sfn|Stearns|2001}} The [[Akkadian Empire]], established by [[Sargon of Akkad]] (24th century BC), was an early all-Mesopotamian empire which spread into Anatolia, the Levant and Ancient Iran. This imperial achievement was repeated by [[Shamshi-Adad I]] of [[Assyria]] and [[Hammurabi]] of [[Babylon]] in the 19th and 18th centuries BC. In the 15th century BC, the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]] of [[Ancient Egypt]], ruled by [[Thutmose III]], was [[North Africa during Antiquity|ancient Africa]]'s major force upon incorporating [[Nubia]] and the [[City-state#Ancient city-states|ancient city-states]] of the [[Levant]]. 

In the [[Amarna Period]] (15th-13th centuries BC), Egypt, the [[Middle Assyrian Empire]], [[Hittite Empire]], and those of the [[Mitanni]] and [[Elamites]] formed [[club of great powers]]. Egypt and the Hittites emerged as two dominant Empires of the club and in 1274 BC clashed in the [[Battle of Kadesh]]. The confrontation was not decisive and soon the Amarna international system was dissolved during the [[late Bronze Age collapse]]. All its empires declined. The first empire to recover from the collapse was the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] (916–612 BC). By 673 BC, Assyria conquered the entire [[Fertile Crescent]] including Cyprus and [[Assyrian conquest of Egypt|Egypt]]. 

The Assyrian achievement, however, was short lived. In the 6th century BC, the [[Median Empire]], [[Neo-Babylonian empire|Babylonians]], Scythians and Cimmerians allied and [[Medo-Babylonian conquest of the Assyrian Empire|defeated the Assyrian Empire]]. The Assyrian capital, [[Nineveh]], was razed by their combined armies in 612 BC. Never again a world leading empire would be centered in a great River Valley. The fall of Nineveh marks the end of the [[Bronze Age|River Valleys age]] and the beginning of the [[Axial Age]].<ref>[[Karl Jaspers|Jaspers, Karl]] (1953). ''The Origin and Goal of History''. (New Haven: Yale University Press), p 6-7.</ref> The Median Empire became the first leading empire, the largest of its day, centered beyond the [[River valley civilization|great River Valleys]]. This Empire lasted for about sixty years.{{Sfn|Stearns|2001}}

C.1500 BC, in China rose the [[Shang Empire]] which was succeeded by the [[Zhou dynasty|Zhou]] Empire c.1100 BC. Chronologically, the collapse of Shang also coincides with the late Bronze Age collapse. Both Shang and Zhou equalled or surpassed in territory their contemporary Near Eastern empires. The Zhou Empire dissolved in 770 BC into feudal multi-state system which lasted for five and a half centuries until the [[Qin's wars of unification|universal conquest of Qin]] in 221 BC.
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