Empires – Other Empires in history - section (viii)

There are other Empires in history that I wish to speak about, even if it’s only in passing ...
I should say that I have already talked about a few along the way through the course of this mini-series … namely, the Roman Empire, the Mughal Empire and the Persian Empire.
Permit me to list a few more.
The Inca Empire
The Byzantine Empire
The Mongolian Empire
The Ottoman Empire
The Babylonian Empire
The Austro-Hungarian Empire
I’m not going to talk about these Empires in this video besides listing them.
Why then, you might ask yourselves, have I bothered to do a video on them at all? Well, I’ve done so for a very specific reason.
Sometimes the lessons life offers up to us are supremely simple. This is one of those times.
These Empires share two things in common. The first is entirely self-evident. They are all Empires.
I will tell you the other aspect presently. Perhaps you have already guessed what it might be.
But, if you want to think about it for a bit before me telling you, then pause the video here. I will give you moment to do so.

The second thing that these Empires share in common is that none of them exist now.
Each and every one has ended at some point in the past.
They are all history.
The simple truth is that Empires come and Empires go.
They come into being, they increase, building in size, strength and stature and then, they reach a high point, their peak and they then start to decline, diminishing in size, strength and stature and then, they eventually stop existing altogether.
I’m aware that the picture that I’ve painted above, describing the life cycle of an Empire, is not an accurate representation of reality. Empires don’t necessarily follow this uniform pattern. Their rise and fall are not quite so orderly. Empires vary in nature considerably.
In some respects, Empires can be likened to the lives of a human. All people are born. That is a given. But all are born differently. The circumstances of birth can differ a great deal – be it a natural birth, or Caesarean section. A short labour, or a long, drawn-out labour. The circumstances into which they are born differ enormously also – the type of family that they are born into – rich, or poor. Their place of birth – country, or community etc.
People lead very different lives. There’s no need for me to go into details about that.
People die in different ways also. The causes of death are different for different people. Some might die suddenly, due to a heart attack for example, while others might grow old gradually and the process of their dying is relatively slow.
In any event, the point that I’m trying to make, is that Empires come and go.
Simple truths can be somewhat deceptive though … what I mean by this is one might skip over them without considering them and their implications fully. For me, the fact that Empires die is a profoundly important point. It makes me wonder about the reasons for their existence - the meaning of their life. It calls into question why they cam