How I define an Empire

So for my blog entry, I will give a little insight on how I define an Empire. (I'm pretty sure this was one of the choices for the homework.)


So to begin, every empire has to have five key aspects if it is to be called an empire in my book. The first is having resources. Resources are beyond essential to life, and are easily seen in every empire in the past and present. Next is military strength. Although we could argue that empires could thrive purely on the basis that they're nice people, if an empire doesn't have protection, then it will be demolished by others. My third aspect is appeal. An empire's appeal determines if it's people will want to stay apart of it, and whether or not others would like to join in. Appeal also leads me to my fourth aspect, power. And when I say power, I really mean the metaphorical power that dictators use to instill their subjects. I could always substitute the word power with the word fear, but I thought that power sounded better when in terms of empires. Lastly, what is needed is a good ruler. Basically some guy who has a great plan, can convince people to follow him, and can instill fear into others. I do realize that almost all the empires had bad rulers at some given time that eventually led them to failure, but it was the original founders that knew what to do. And although the new leaders didn't follow in the footsteps of their ancestors, once the empire has been built, then there is little a leader has to do to maintain it. And to conclude this piece, I am aware that many of my aspects could be replaced with others, but I'm sure anyone who is reading this could understand my big picture.