Daily Archives: October 27, 2026

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of Empire & Imperialism (Special Mention)

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The Army takes an Oath to the Emperor after the Distribution of Eagles, 5 December 1804 – 1810 painting by Jacques-Louis David (public domain)

 

 

(17) ROMAN IMPERIAL METRIC – EAGLE & CAESAR

 

But is it a Roman Empire with eagle and Caesar? Is it an eagle empire?

Yes, it’s another Roman imperial metric, but this time more narrowly by its imperial standard or symbolism, as well as the adaptation of Caesar as imperial title.

The use of eagle as symbol for imperial states, with one or two heads, both precedes its use by the Romans and also extends well beyond those adapting Roman usage, because the eagle is a pretty impressive bird. It could well be the subject of its own top ten list – or lists, one for those adapting Roman usage and one for those not adapting Roman usage. Even the Roman usage overlapped with the Christian usage of the eagle as the symbol of St John the Evangelist.

An example of the eagle being used by an imperial state preceding the Roman usage is that by the Persian Achaemenid Empire.

A clear example of the eagle being used by states not influenced by or adapting Roman usage is that of the Aztecs, subsequently adopted by Mexico for its coat of arms and flag.

Adapting Roman usage from the western Roman empire, there was the Holy Roman Empire and its various ‘successors’ – the Hapsburgs (and through them the Spanish Empire), Austria, and Germany, the last most infamously in the Third Reich. There was also Napoleonic France, which also adapted the use of the Roman aquila or eagle as a standard for legions and their military reputation.

From the eastern Roman empire, there was Trebizond, Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania, and imperial Russia, although that last is usually now superseded in animal symbolism by the bear.

The most famous contemporary usage of the eagle as national symbol is that of the United States – although clearly influenced by the Roman model (as it was for much of the politics of its founding), it adapted that to the bald eagle as a bird uniquely native to their continent.

As for the usage of Caesar as imperial title, that generally follows the title in German or Slavic.

The usage in German – kaiser – is best known for its usage as title in the Second Reich. That is, imperial Germany from 1871 to the First World War.

The usage in Slavic – mostly commonly translated in English as tsar and czar (but also less commonly as tzar and csar) – is best known for its usage as title in Imperial Russia. However, it was also used as Serbia, as well as commonly used in American political circles as an informal title for an overarching government portfolio, such as drug czar or energy czar.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Empires (Special Mention: Revised) (17) America – Aztec & Inca Empires

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(17) AMERICA – AZTEC & INCA EMPIRES

 

The preeminent empires of pre-Columbian America, although sadly best known to history (and myself) as foils to the Spanish Empire – albeit because of defeats unparalleled in history for just how few Spanish forces conquered such populous empires in so short a span of time.

I have more knowledge of the Aztec Empire prior to the Spanish Conquest – if only for the lurid horror stories of its imperial religion of human sacrifice on a scale unprecedented in the region, or anywhere else for that matter. However, the nature and extent of Aztec human sacrifice is often disputed as historical propaganda – as indeed is the so-called Black Legend of anti-Spanish history when it comes to the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire – with some fairness on both sides.

The Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Colombian America, almost ten times larger than the Aztec Empire and perhaps two or three times as populous but not as brutal. The size of the Inca Empire is quite striking for an empire predominantly in mountainous highlands – “one of the greatest imperial states in human history” created and maintained “without the use of the wheel, draft animals, knowledge of iron or steel, or even a system of writing”. Or largely without money or markets apparently, like Star Trek but without the post-scarcity. Also one without the more characteristic grain cultivation of other agricultural states – instead cultivating potatoes.

Which makes its defeat even more striking than that of the Aztecs, particularly as the Spanish leader Francisco Pizarro started with about a third of the forces of his counterpart Cortes against the Aztecs – a mere 168 soldiers – and was over 60 years of age at the time. Now that’s how to spend your retirement years!

Although Pizarro was perhaps luckier in his timing with a civil war of succession to the Inca imperial throne – as well as capturing and holding the reigning Inca ruler hostage.

Of course, the primary factor for the fall of both empires was the disease or diseases spread ahead of the Spanish who brought them – and which ravaged the native American populations who had no acquired resistance to them. While that would seem to be the greatest scale for the role disease has played in the fall of empires, disease has played a recurring role in the decline or fall of other empires, including the Roman Empire – as is the subject of Plagues and Peoples by historian William H. McNeill.

I have less knowledge of the Inca Empire prior to Spanish Conquest, although that seems apt as it’s an empire that has a quality of mystery or at least mystique to it. That includes the legendary “lost cities of the Incas” to which they retreated as a vestigial empire – the neo-Inca state – as well as “periodic attempts by indigenous leaders to expel the Spanish colonists and re-create the Inca Empire until the late 18th century”.