Territorial empire rizz – the Qianlong Emperor in ceremonial armor on horseback, painted by Giuseppe Castiglione in 1739 (public domain image)

(1) TERRITORIAL EMPIRE

The most fundamental type of empire, as well as the primary one – both primary as in predominant in number but also as in first in time, with the very first imperial states in Mesopotamia being purely territorial empires.

Aren’t all empires territorial? That is, don’t all empires rule over territory or distinct land areas and populations outside its original border?

In short, yes. I’d say almost all empires have at least some territorial elements, with very few examples otherwise. However, some empires are more territorial than others, when territorial empires are defined as annexing or conquering contiguous or neighboring territory by land as opposed to sea.

Of my top ten empires, one is distinctively territorial – the Maurya empire. Four more might be added as overwhelmingly or predominantly territorial empires, in which naval power played little part. Probably the next most obvious is the Mongol empire, excluding its unsuccessful attempts by it for maritime conquest of Japan and Java – which perhaps illustrates just how territorial it was. The same might be said for the Qing empire, apart from its marginal annexation of Taiwan. Yes, it had a navy, which even became the largest in east Asia, but it sucked. Then there’s the Macedonian empire, except for the maritime transport for his army to cross the strait to Asia in the first place to start the conquests for which it is better known. If I’m counting the Macedonian empire as territorial, much the same goes for the Persian empire, although it relied much more on naval power in its imperial attempts on or relations with the Greeks.

Otherwise, the balance of my top ten empires is essentially more mixed in nature. Yes, even my top empire, the Roman Empire, as much as we usually visualize it as a territorial empire for its famed legions and roads or its contiguous appearance on a map. The Romans didn’t call the Mediterranean the Mare Nostrum for nothing, you know…