Comparing Empires

Comparing empires that reigned in different periods and different regions can be interesting for historians. Although it is essential to put things into their proper context, we can learn a lot about the motives and how similar or different those motives are in each empire. For example, the Aztec and Inca empires were driven by their religious ideology to expand while the Greek empire was driven by their military ideology. It is interesting that these empires had their different motives, yet they continued to expand and take over other people. It is important to understand that this type of human behavior has been transpiring since the beginning of human history. By examining different histories and comparing them, historians can find vast differences and similarities that help them put the information into its proper context. Although I believe these types of comparisons to be helpful, it is important to keep in mind the different ideologies and complexities of each empire that are unique to that particular empire.

Conrad and Demarest accomplish their study of empires by comparing and contrasting the Aztec and Inca empires in their book. We look at the title of the book, “Religion and Empire: the dynamics of Aztec and Inca expansionism,” and it is clear that the authors’ intentions are to enlighten the reader on these two empires by putting them side by side. It is interesting to note that these two empires share some characteristics that make it easier for the empires to be compared. These characteristics include proximity and period of time in which both of these empires existed. Due to these similarities, historians can analyze the complexities of both empires and compare them in their context. Even if these empires did not share these characteristics, historians would still be able to analyze the complexities of the empires by comparing them, but they would have to focus on contrasting the empires due to the differences in their makeup. Historians must not fixate on comparing different empires, but must use the comparison as a tool in their arsenal of how they will develop their ideas to understand different empires and societies.