The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries
was the most contiguous empire in history. The Umayyad Caliphate comprised 4
million square miles.
The Han dynasty ruled from 206 B.C. for 400 years.
The Ottoman (Islamic) Empire occupied parts of three
continents during 16th and 17th centuries. It
“collapsed in the early years of the 20th century.”
Persian Empire (Achaemenian) under Cyrus the Great occupied
lands from Iran to Central Asia and Egypt. It fell in 333 B.C.
The Spanish empire, at its height in the 1700s stretched
over 5.3 million square miles. This colonial empire existed from 1492 until
1649 (the decline) or 1976, depending on who you ask. It controlled parts of
Africa, Europe, Oceanic islands, and both Americas.
The Russian Empire controlled 8.9 million square miles at
its height in 1895. Historians agree that this empire and the Little Ice Age
had played important roles in stopping Napoleon’s conquest of Europe.
The British Empire, now a shadow of its former self,
controlled a quarter of the planet and of its population. A few of the former
colonies remain part of the Commonwealth of Nations to this day.
Hitler’s Third Reich (empire), as he proclaimed it, was
supposed to last a thousand years. It lasted a little over a decade, from 1933
until its pronounced defeat in 1945 by the Allies in WWII.
The Roman Empire was established in 27 B.C. by Augustus
Caesar who proclaimed himself the first Emperor of Rome. Rome itself was
founded in 753 B.C.
Then there was the Holy Roman Empire which was neither
holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. Headed by a Holy Roman Emperor, this “polity”
developed in the Early Middle Ages in Europe and lasted almost a thousand years
until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
Nobody can
dispute the fact that America has tried to be too many things to too many
people and that, in the end, we appear to have failed. We have not advanced democracy
around the world as politicians claimed because most countries did not want our
“democracy.”
We are not a
democracy nor an empire, we are a Constitutional Republic. When the mainstream
media repeated the lie of democracy ad nauseam, people eventually
believed it.
Merriam-Webster
Dictionary quoted James Madison who wrote, “In a democracy, the people meet and
exercise the government in person; in a republic, they assemble and administer
it by their representatives and agents. A democracy, consequently, will be confined
to a small spot. A republic may be extended over a large region.”
In 507 B.C.,
Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced demokratia, “rule by the people,”
from the Greek words, demos (people) and kratos (power). Demokratia
had three institutions, the ekklesia (a group who wrote laws and devised
foreign policy); the boule (council of representatives from the ten
Athenian tribes); and the dikasteria (courts in which citizens presented
cases to a group of jurors chosen by lottery). The lottery had to be rigged
since the rich were chosen more often than the poor. Demokratia lasted
two centuries. Academics renamed it direct democracy as opposed to modern
representative democracy. Academics love to play with words and meanings to
suit their agenda.
Democracy
was not power to the people (demos-people, kratos-power) because out of 100,000
Athenian citizens only 40,000 were part of the demos who voted, male citizens
older than 18.
Dikasteria chose by lot 500 jurors every day
from a pool of male citizens older than 30. Aristotle said that dikasteria “contributed
most to the strength of democracy because the jury had unlimited power.” Athenian
citizens “used dikasteria to punish or embarrass their enemies.” Sounds familiar?
The Roman Empire stretched all over Europe and North
Africa. It lasted more than a thousand years if one takes into account the
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) which ended with the fall of
Constantinople in 1453 A.D. and its capture by the Turks.
This Eastern Roman Empire, more Greek in life and language,
furthered Roman learning, and law within its walls.
The advance of the Roman Empire was always halted by the
barbaric tribes in the north and east – Franks, Saxons, Alemanni, Vandals,
Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Alans, and Huns.
At its height, Rome, the seat of the Roman Empire, was a
superb megalopolis of more than one million people.
In 410 A.D., historians
describe a hot August night when a slave opened “the gates of a starving Rome and
the Gothic armies camped outside flooded the “Eternal City.” Hordes of Germanic
barbarians ransacked Rome for three days.
St. Jerome,
a native of Rome, wrote, “When the brightest light on the whole Earth was
extinguished, when the Roman Empire was deprived of its head, when, to speak
more correctly, the whole world perished in one city, I was dumb with silence.”
Rome stood
unconquered for 800 years. The Roman Empire never recovered after this sacking of
Rome and, in 476 A.D., the last emperor, Romulus Augustus, was deposed by his own
German commanders.
Alaric’s
Goths were not exactly interested in destroying Rome, they wanted the Roman way
of life. Alaric had asked for land for his men and the title of allied
commander but was denied. More Roman soldiers were recruited from the ranks of
these barbarians who felt no allegiance to Rome.
King Gaiseric
destroyed much more of Rome in 454 A.D., but the end of the empire is associated
with Alaric’s attack in 410 A.D. because the psychological blow to the Roman
citizenry was so shocking that it became impossible to overcome.
The Western
Roman Empire had stretched too far from Rome and its borders were exceedingly
more difficult to defend against the constant invasions.
The
excessive use of lead as sweetener, in cosmetics, and in lead pipes that
carried water everywhere, caused chronic lead poisoning and infertility as
evidenced by skeletons found in Cirencester which contained ten times the
amount of normal lead concentration. People suffered from paralyzed limbs and
headaches, classic symptoms of lead poisoning. Fertility declined, and no encouragement
from emperors to produce more children changed the down spiral.
Other
historians believe that “mad emperors, corrupt politicians, the lust for power,
sexual perversion, and paranoia destroyed the empire from within.” You can add
to that envy and treachery.
Some
autocratic emperors ruled only for their own benefit, greed, power, and vengeance,
but some spent Rome’s wealth for the common good. Murder in cold blood often removed
their enemies, real and imagined. Other emperors were so crazy that they
committed unspeakable horrors just because they could.
Greed and
corruption were so entrenched that “Six men owned half the land in the province
of Africa, according to the historian Pliny the Elder.”
The main lessons from the Roman Empire's demise are that it
fell because of greed, corruption, immorality, debauchery, inability to defend
its vast borders, massive invasion from poor neighbors who envied the Roman
lifestyle and its riches and wanted lands and wealth, and potential lead
poisoning which led to population decline. It is important to note that the
Roman Empire's decline and fall were not carefully orchestrated from within, by
its own Curia and Senators, its fall happened gradually over hundreds of
years.
Even though our country is a Constitutional Republic, many
Americans today believe that it is a democracy, others an empire, and some an
experiment. The lie of democracy and empire has been repeated so many times that
it has become the truth for most.
Considering the off the cliff’ purposeful direction that
our country is following, this question is legitimate, are we in the waning
years of its former greatness?
