The articles of this comprehensive edited volume offer a multidisciplinary, global and comparative approach to the history of empires. They analyze their ends over a long spectrum of humankind's history, ranging from Ancient History through Modern Times. As the main guiding question, every author of this volume scrutinizes the reasons for the decline, the erosion, and the implosion of individual empires.

All contributions locate and highlight different factors that triggered or at least supported the ending or the implosion of empires. This overall question makes all the contributions to this volume comparable and allows to detect similarities, differences as well as inconsistencies of historical processes.

The Editors

Michael Gehler is professor of history at the University of Hildesheim and Jean Monnet Chair for European Integration Studies, as well as Senior Fellow at the Center of European Integration Research/University of Bonn, Germany and professor (egyetemi tanár) at the Andrássy University Budapest, Hungary.

Robert Rollinger is professor of ancient history and ancient near eastern studies at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, as well as Visiting Professor at the University of Wroclaw, Poland (2021-2025) holding the NAWA Chair "From the Achaemenids to the Romans: Contextualizing empire and its longue-durée developments".

Philipp Strobl is a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History at the University of Vienna, Austria, and a lecturer at the Stiftung Universität Hildesheim, Germany, where he leads a teaching project funded by the Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur.

Autorentext

Michael Gehler is professor of history at the University of Hildesheim and Jean Monnet Chair for European Integration Studies, as well as Senior Fellow at the Center of European Integration Research/University of Bonn, Germany and professor (egyetemi tanár) at the Andrássy University Budapest, Hungary.

Robert Rollinger is professor of ancient history and ancient near eastern studies at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, as well as Visiting Professor at the University of Wroclaw, Poland (2021-2025) holding the NAWA Chair "From the Achaemenids to the Romans: Contextualizing empire and its longue-durée developments".

Philipp Strobl is a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History at the University of Vienna, Austria, and a lecturer at the Stiftung Universität Hildesheim, Germany, where he leads a teaching project funded by the Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur.

Inhalt

IntroductionDecline, Collapse, Fall, or just Transformation: Diverging Ends of Empires through Time and Space Antiquity Der Zusammenbruch des mesopotamischen Staates von AkkadeThe Decline of the Ur III dynasty - The End of an Empire and its Afterlife in the Collective Memory of Mesopotamian SocietiesThe Collapse of the Hittitie KingdomThe End of New Kingdom EgyptThe End of the Neo-Assyrian EmpireThe "End" of the Achaemenid-Persian Empire: Caesura and Transformation in DialogueThe End of the Roman Empire: Civil Wars, the Imperial Monarchy, and the End of AntiquityThe End of the Parthian Arsacid EmpireThe End of the EranSahar: The Decline of the Sasanian EmpireThe End of the Kushan Empire Islam/Muslim World From Universalism to RegionalismThe Question of the Break-Up of the Abbasid Empire RevisitedThe End of the Mongol EmpireThe End of the Timurid Empire Africa, Asia, China The Decline and Collapse of the Kingdom of Aksum (6th-7th cent. AD): An Environmental Disaster or the End of a Political Process?What Role did Climate Change Play in the Decline of the Tang Dynasty?Thoughts about The Decentralization of the Mughal EmpireHow do Empires Fall? Two Case Studies from Pre-modern Southeast Asia The Americas The Decline and Fall of the Inca Empire The Downfall of Aztec Rule, 1519-21 Middle Age and Modern History The Fall of the Napoleonic EmpireDas Ende des Spanischen KolonialreichesThe End of the Portuguese Colonial EmpireDas Ende des polnisch-litauischen Großreichs als Diskussionsfrage The End of World War I Structural Problems, Personal Failure or just Contingency? The End of the Russian EmpireThe End of the German Empire 1918?The End of the Habsburg MonarchyThe Long Lasting End of the Ottoman Empire The End of World War II and the Cold War Das Ende des faschistischen ImperiumsThe Rise and Fall of Hitler's Empire (1933-1945)The End of the USSRA Never - Ending Empire? The Decline of the United KingdomAmerica's Decline on Display: The Presidential Transition