source
The 5 Most Powerful Empires in History by
@AkhiPill.
The (First) Persian Empire
The Achaemenid Persian Empire was founded by Cyrus the Great around
550 B.C.E., who went by the title of King of Kings (Shahanshah).
Although the Persian Empire came to an inglorious end at the hands of
Alexander the Great in 330 B.C.E., it had a lasting legacy on the
subsequent development of world civilizations and future empires.
Indeed, the Persian Empire was a pivotal empire because it was the first
true empire that set the standard of what it meant to be an empire for
future ones.
The Roman Empire
The Roman Empire has long been the empire
par excellence for the Western world. But its importance is not the
product of Western bias: the Roman Empire was truly one of history’s
greatest empires. The Romans displayed the awesome ability to conquer
and hold large swathes of territory for hundreds or even thousands of
years, if the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) is accounted for.
But it was not held together by brute force alone; once conquered,
people aspired to
become Roman, which meant participating in a sophisticated, urbane, classical culture.
The Caliphate
The Arab Empire, also known as the Caliphate, was a political entity
founded by the Muslim Prophet Muhammad that encompassed most of Arabia
by the time of his death in 632 C.E. It is more reasonable to call this
the Arab Empire rather than the Muslim Empire because while Islam
originated and spread because of this empire, there were many subsequent
empires that were legally Muslim or ruled by Muslims but were not Arab.
The Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire was another empire that originated on the
periphery, and against all odds, defeated enemies much more powerful and
populous than it. It was the world’s largest contiguous land empire,
one that struck terror into all its enemies. Founded by the Mongol
warlord Temujin, who assumed the title of Genghis Khan in 1206 C.E., the
Mongol Empire first grew by picking off parts of China, as many
previous steppe tribes had done.
The British Empire
The British essentially made the modern world. British institutions of
representative democracy inspired French Enlightenment philosophers such
as Montesquieu to devise theories of modern government that influenced
other modern European states. The main characteristics of the United
States— a commitment to liberalism, the rule of law, civil rights, and
trade— were inherited from the British and spread throughout the world.
Most of these characteristics evolved organically throughout the long
history of England, rather than being the result of some master plan.
So, it is human nature to establish an empire of their own. Then they proudly say, "Sun never sets in their empire." Hitler tried to build his empire; but, failed in his attempts.
The British empire would have continued even now. In fact, Hitler suggested the British, "All you need is a single bullet to save the British empire." That single bullet was for M.K. Gandhi. That was true.
In 1945 British election, had Winston Churchill won, the British empire would have continued till now. It all took one single Prime Minister, Clement Attlee to bring down the Great Britain to an ordinary Britain.
The current Islamic State is an innovative concept. Look at the name; it is not Arab State; or Persian State; or Middle East State or Sunni State. It is Islamic State and it will grow into an empire; Islamic State Empire.
If you look at all empires, they captured regions with military power. But, they could hold it by establishing an effective civil administration.
In fact, in India, we witnessed. Except Gandhi, most of the Indians liked the British administration. When Gandhi said, "Quit India," many didn't agree with Gandhi. The civil administration was effectively functioning in the British empire.
Look at these documents. Even companies in Silicon Valley do not have such a clear vision and plan. Very well conceived, very well documented and very well implemented.
If these Islamic State leaders start focussing on establishing an effective civil administration then nobody could stop the growth of their empire.
Before 911, many countries recognized the Taliban government in Afghanistan. In fact, Taliban government had a set of spokesperson. The world media did listen to those spokesperson of Taliban.
The entire world and the media, in this period, have unquenchable thirst for bad and the worst news. For many decades, they had been searching for news, images and movies about Hitler. Now, almost all had enough of Hitler.
If you look at the history of Rome and Vatican, there had been so many good human beings did a wonderful service to the humanity as the Pope. But, people are not interested in those high moral value leaders. People are interested in the worst Pope, Borgia. Netflix and others are interested in investing and producing the story of Borgia. Same goes true for House of Cards. Who wants to learn about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill.
So, the very first thing the Islamic State organization needs to do is to setup a team of spokesperson to give periodic interviews about their future plan, latest developments to the world media. Make sure, the team consists of both men and women, who could speak in any languages.
Once these spokespersons are available, then the whole world would listen to them. The world may push all these Republican presidential candidates to the background and would closely follow the Islamic State spokesperson in social media.
The Democracy and Freedom
The democracy system of government is a failure. Check with Barack Obama and the Prime Minister of any country. The three branches are not working at all. The Legislative branch is a total failure and it lost its purpose.
In democracy system, the time, money and resources have been spent in elections and campaign. People are tired and frustrated with politicians in the democracy system and all are looking for an alternative system of government. So, the whole world would be interested in learning about this new experiment on Islamic State government system.
The Islamic State has only the Executive branch and they are not burdened with the Legislative and Judicial branches of government. So, it is quite natural the Islamic State would be way ahead of other governments.
Paris
If the Islamic State leaders are serious and sincere in establishing their empire then they should avoid any short-term gain activities such as, the Paris incident.
As long as the Islamic State leaders engaged in conventional military actions, they will get the support of the people of the world.
Religion
People do need a religion for psychological security. Almost all religions are losing their ground. But, the Islam religion is expanding. All other religions have been diluted and lost its core values. All religions are now commercialized. Nowadays, nobody says Merry Christmas. It has been diluted to Happy Holidays. With money, people feel empowered than their god. People stop begging the god for wealth. Now, people are in a position to offer more wealth and gold to the god. All festivals have lost their meaning. This generation may not even know the purpose, meaning and the value of any religious celebration. All they care about are the food; dresses; expensive fire-crackers and movies released on that day.
Fasting and self-torture attracts more people to the Islam religion. That is one of the main reason, people from all around the world are now attracted to the Islam. Even in highly advanced technology companies also, you could see a few persons go to a corner and do their prayers very religiously.
Modern Weapons
Even in Paris, those guys needed modern weapons like AK-47 machine guns to carry out large scale killings. If the whole world give up on all modern weapons, then we could completely avoid massacre. Could we go back to the old weapons like Sword, Bow & Arrow, then we could completely avoid any major massacre like the Paris.
The fact is, we all are addicted to modern weapons. Main part of the tax-payers money goes into weapons. Designing and manufacturing high-precision and highly powerful weapons demand a lot of science, engineering and technology skills. You build these weapons and the Islamic State leaders get them and make the best use of them. If you stop building weapons, then they couldn't get them.
Awards and Punishment
Whether it is home or work; whether it is kids or pets; award and punishment are the only things work. People need to be motivated with awards and disciplined with punishment. Human lives have been completely commercialized. Awards and punishment is the system of market economy; not a system based on religion.
Almost all religion try to preach value in the system; value in human lives. Instead of punishment, Islamic State leaders could preach values and build a value based community.
Humanity includes Islamic State
The world leaders said the entire humanity should stand united to fight against terrorism. The fact is, they are part of the world humanity. It is one whole world.
The world leaders need to find the way to include the Islamic State; not to isolate them.
Mental Health
The most challenging issue of this generation is mental health. Persons who have mental health issues may commit suicide or may become a mass murderer. People may get bored with repetitive and routine life style. They need excitement. Islamic State may be an attraction for them.
Neighbor
In western countries, they don't have neighbors. Every individual life is a private life. Even in a family, husband, wife and children live alone. For husband and wife arguments, neighbors will not interfere; the family needs to go to the court.
In ancient eastern countries, the whole village used to be one big family. No strangers could enter into a village without the knowledge of the native people. They welcome anyone; but they will ask so many questions and will get the complete details of the new person.
In western countries, they all become one, only in crisis. The recent incident in Paris, united all the people of Europe and America. In other times, they don't even know their neighbors. All are strangers to them. That is an advantage for the killers. They could assemble in an apartment and plan for their attack, without the knowledge of the people living in the next door.
But in Islamic State, it is big family. Each individual could get support from many others. They all eat from a single big plate.
It is a two different world. This part of the world doesn't understand the other part of the world. That misunderstanding would develop more conflict than any resolution.
The challenge is real and very serious. Any action taken in hurry may worsen the situation.
