The Imaginal Bond of “Empire” and “Civilization” in Eurasian History
Pamela Kyle Crossley
The ecologies of presence what we call ancient or medieval empires were profoundly different from those modern empires. Practical problems distance and social penetration suggest that early hegemony was a matter military visibility the maintenance economic networks could rivet loyalty local elites, not cultural emanation imperial centers. illusory coherence earlier largely creation later rulers elites seeking legitimation justifications for conquest. This applies to issues spatiality domains but is even more relevant claims have inherited grand civilizational legacies responsibilities curatorship. Not until period large-scale conquest regimes achieve direct, sustained contact with civil populations—the environment in which myth deep generated inculcated. Nationalists late nineteenth twentieth centuries found postures large indigestible their totality useful when tailored nationalist agendas.
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