Experimental Blog #177

Notes and quotations from "Day of Empire - How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance - And Why They Fall" by Amy Chua

" ...every single world power in history - was, at least by the standards of its time, extraordinarily pluralistic and tolerant during its rise to preeminence. < > tolerance simply means letting very different kinds of people live, work, and prosper in your society - even if only for instrumental or strategic reasons."
"Because tolerance is a relative matter, even tolerated groups may be subject to harshly inequitable treatment."
"History shows that hyperpowers can survive only if they find ways to command the allegiance or at least the acquiescence of the foreign populations they dominate .."

"Achaemenid Persia was the first world-dominant power in history."
Other empires described at great length are: Imperial Rome, China's Tang Empire, the Great Mongol Empire, the Dutch Republic, China's Ming Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire{Muslim rulers with Hindu subjects}, and the British Empire.
"Whereas Achaemenid Persia was essentially just a war machine, Rome was also an idea. Inhabitants from the farthest reaches of the empire wanted to be - and became-"Roman." Along the empires remarkable 53,000-mile net work of paved roads and bridges that linked Britons to Berbers, one could find thousands of Roman baths, amphitheaters, and temples, built to the same specifications and filled with toga-clad Roman citizens."
"The Dutch are famous for many things - but these days it's often forgotten that the Dutch once presided over the world's preeminent maritime trading empire .."

"Nevertheless, the contributions of the Jews, Huguenots, and Scots - which would not have been possible without Britain's turn to tolerance - were not only disproportionate but pivotal."
Amy Chua's descriptions of Britain's relations and treatment of Ireland and India are quite stark and grim; as are many other details in this remarkable book.