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Welcome to the Art of Empire homepage. In this module, you'll get a chance to explore several different areas of the world. Each unit within this module looks at a different empire which existed sometime in the range of 1450 to 1650 CE. Since each unit deals with a different empire, the term "empire" will mean different things in these different contexts.
What is "empire" anyway? Sometimes, empire means that everything in a culture tends toward one unified whole. A vision, perhaps, of how a particular culture and its rulers see themselves. In this type of empire, there might be one ruler, one culture, one language, and one unified region of the world. Or, empire could mean something quite different. You could use empire to describe a single country and the regions that it has conquered in far-off places. This is very different from the first version of empire. Empire may also mean that there is a central ruler, but he or she doesn't necessarily directly control all of the empire's territory: other rulers might pay tribute to the central power, and become a part of that larger empire. What other ways can empire be interpreted? How do we use the term today? As you move through these pages, think about what empire means in each case. How are these empires different? What do they have in common? How does the art and architecture contribute to each version of empire? To begin your exploration of this module, click on the region of the world in the map below where you would like to start. Or, choose an empire from the list on the right. |
Ottoman Empire
Ming Empire
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