hydraulic empire

(noun)

A social or governmental structure that maintains power through exclusive control of water access.

Related Terms

Examples of hydraulic empire in the following topics:

  • River Valley Civilizations

    • Most notably, these early civilizations were all hydraulic empires.
    • A hydraulic empire (also known as hydraulic despotism, or water monopoly empire) is a social or governmental structure which maintains power through exclusive control over water access.
    • Most hydraulic empires exist in desert regions, but imperial China also had some such characteristics, due to the exacting needs of rice cultivation.
    • The only hydraulic empire to exist in Africa was under the Ajuran State near the Jubba and Shebelle Rivers in the 15th century CE.
    • Hydraulic empires were usually destroyed by foreign conquerors.

  • The Sultanates of Somalia

    • From the Middle Ages until Europeans colonized the territory of today's Somalia, the region was never dominated by a centralized empire and instead witnessed the development and decline of several powerful trading sultanates whose cultures were deeply rooted in Islam.
    • The Sultanate of Mogadishu was an important trading empire that lasted from the 10th to the 16th centuries.
    • Trading routes dating from the ancient and early medieval periods of Somali maritime enterprise were strengthened or re-established, and foreign trade and commerce in the coastal provinces flourished with ships sailing to and coming from many kingdoms and empires in East Asia, South Asia, Europe, the Near East, North Africa and East Africa.
    • As an hydraulic empire, the Ajuran monopolized the water resources of the Shebelle and Jubba rivers.

  • The Fall of the Han and the Three Kingdoms Period

    • The Han Dynasty government weakened over time and ultimately collapsed, and the empire fractured into the war-torn Three Kingdoms period.
    • Wei mechanical engineer Ma Jun invented a hydraulic-powered, mechanical puppet theatre designed for his emperor, a new irrigation device, and the south-pointing chariot, and a non-magnetic directional compass.

  • Overview of the Mongol Empire

    • The empire grew rapidly under his rule and then under his descendants, who sent invasions in every direction.
    • Mongol invasions and conquests progressed over the next century, until 1300, by which time the vast empire covered much of Asia and Eastern Europe.
    • The Pax Mongolica refers to the relative stabilization of the regions under Mongol control during the height of the empire in the 13th and 14th centuries.
    • In this environment the largest empire to ever exist helped one of the most influential trade routes in the world, known as the Silk Road, to flourish.
    • By the time of Kublai's death in 1294, the Mongol Empire had fractured into four separate empires, or khanates.

  • The Achaemenid Empire

    • Under Cyrus the Great and Darius the Great, the Achaemenid Empire became the first global empire.
    • The empire was ruled by a series of monarchs who joined its disparate tribes by constructing a complex network of roads.
    • The unified form of the empire came in the form of a central administration around the city of Pasargadae, which was erected by Cyrus around 550 BCE.
    • At its height, the Achaemenid Empire ruled over 44% of the world's population, the highest such figure for any empire in history.
    • At its height, the Achaemenid Empire ruled over 44% of the world's population, the highest figure for any empire in history.

  • Administration of the Inca Empire

    • A number of religious officials and magistrates oversaw the administration of the empire directly below the emperor.
    • Llamas and alpacas were also used to distribute goods throughout the empire and ease trade relations.
    • The Inca utilized a complex recording system to keep track of the administration of the empire.
    • This system meant that all goods produced within the empire were immediately property of the ruling elites.
    • The populations of each district were expected to contribute to the wealth of the empire by mining, farming, or doing other manual labor that would benefit the entire empire.

  • Fragmentation of the Holy Roman Empire

    • The empire was dominated by the House of Habsburg throughout the Early Modern period.
    • After the Dutch revolt against Spain erupted, the empire remained neutral, de facto allowing the Netherlands to depart the empire in 1581, a succession acknowledged in 1648.
    • The long conflict so bled the empire that it never recovered its strength.
    • The actual end of the empire came in several steps.
    • The Thirty Years' War so bled the empire that it never recovered its strength.

  • Hellenization and the Spread of Greek Culture

    • Alexander instituted a number of policies that contributed to the Hellenization of his empire, including the mixing of Greek and Asian cultural customs.
    • It seems likely that Alexander himself pursued deliberate "Hellenization" policies.While these policies could have been an attempt to spread Greek culture, it is more likely that his policies were a series of pragmatic measures designed to aid in the rule of his enormous empire.
    • The first tenet of Alexander's policies was the founding (or re-founding) of cities across the empire.This has, in the past, been interpreted as part of Alexander's desire to spread Greek culture throughout the empire.
    • After Alexander's death in 323 BCE, the empire was split under his generals.Most of Alexander's cultural changes were rejected by the Diadochi, including the cross-cultural marriages they entered into.However, the influx of Greek colonists into the new realms continued to spread Greek culture into Asia.The founding of new cities continued to be a major part of the Diadochi's struggle for control of any particular region, and these continued to be centres of cultural diffusion.The spread of Greek culture under the Successors seems mostly to have occurred with the spreading of Greeks themselves, rather than as an active policy.
    • Explain how Alexander's Hellenization policies simultaneously aided in the ruling of his empire and spread Greek culture

  • The Assyrians

    • The Assyrians were a major Semitic empire of the Ancient Near East, who existed as an independent state for approximately nineteen centuries between c. 2500-605 BCE, enjoying widespread military success in its heyday.
    • The Assyrian Empire was a major Semitic kingdom, and often empire, of the Ancient Near East.
    • Centered on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia (northern Iraq, northeast Syria, and southeastern Turkey), the Assyrians came to rule powerful empires at several times, the last of which grew to be the largest and most powerful empire the world had yet seen.
    • Assyria had a period of empire under Shamshi-Adad I and Ishme-Dagan in the 19th and 18th centuries BCE.
    • This map shows the extent of the empires of Egypt (orange), Hatti (blue), the Kassite kingdom of Babylon (black), Assyria (yellow), and Mitanni (brown).

  • The Rise of Christianity

    • Constantine, Caesar in the Western empire and Licinius, Caesar in the East, also were signatories to the edict of toleration.
    • Christians were never purged systematically in any part of the empire, and Christian evasion continually undermined the edicts' enforcement.
    • By 324, Constantine was sole ruler of the empire, and Christianity had become his favored religion.
    • By 324, Constantine, the Christian convert, ruled the entire empire alone.
    • After Constantine, the Christianization of the Roman empire would continue apace.