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Every age of human history has been dominated by attempts by ethnic and national groups to establish their power and dominance over other, weaker entities, whether for reasons of territorial and cultural aggrandisement, material ambition or even individual obsession. Some empires, like Hitler’s Third Reich, rise and fall with dizzying swiftness over a short period; others, like the British and French colonial empires, grow gradually over the centuries, only to crumble much more speedily than they had expanded. Author Andrew Taylor shines a spotlight on 25 imperial hegemonies from every period of global history. He provides lucid and elegant descriptions of the individual empires, characterizes the power structures and the social and cultural values at the heart of each, and identifies reasons for their rise and eventual fall. Empires that Shook the World also looks at some recurrent themes in the history of empire: the ways in which imperial structures collapse, their reliance on single, powerful individuals, and the way they cope with the problem of disparate peoples and religions within their borders.

But above all, Andrew Taylor looks at the different ways in which empires have ‘shaken the world’: the Mongols of Genghis Khan made Europe quake with fear during the 13th century, while the political and cultural effects of the Roman and British Empire are still with us today. Sumerian Empire Chola Empire Assyrian Empire Songhai Empire Achaemenid Empire British Empire Athenian Empire Ottoman Empire Alexander the Great Inca Empire Roman Empire Aztec Empire Imperial China Trading Empires of the Spanish and Portuguese Empire of Aksum Mughal Empire Mongol Empire Napoleonic Empire Byzantine Empire Third Reich Holy Roman Empire Soviet Empire Umayyad Empire A New World Empire