Empire

How it is used

Empires are founded, expand, rise and fall, decline, collapse or break up. Names take capitals: the Roman Empire, the Mughal Empire. The adjective is imperial (imperial capital, imperial army). Historians also speak of informal or commercial empires.

Example sentences

1. At its height, the Roman Empire stretched from Britain to Mesopotamia.

2. The course looks at how empires held together very different peoples.

Common collocations

• the rise and fall of empires
• build an empire
• imperial capital
• a multi-ethnic empire
• the collapse of the empire

Related terms

• imperialismThe policy or practice of a state extending its power over other territories and peoples, through conquest, colonies or economic and political influence.
• dynastyA series of rulers who come from the same family and pass power from one generation to the next, or the period during which such a family rules.
• colonialismThe policy or practice of a state taking control of other territories and peoples, settling or ruling them, and using their land and resources for its own benefit.
• Ottoman EmpireThe state founded in north-western Anatolia around 1300 by the dynasty of Osman, which grew into an empire across south-eastern Europe, western Asia and North Africa and lasted until 1922.
• declineA gradual loss of power, wealth, size or importance, as when an empire, city or industry becomes weaker over a long period.

More terms: Empires, States and Rulers

• reign
• monarchy
• sovereignty
• colony
• city-state
• abdicate
• Byzantine Empire
• decolonization
• vassal
• succession