The Fall of Empires: A Brief History of Imperial Collapse - Chad Denton

Written by Chad Denton
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps

In The Fall of Empires: A Brief History of Imperial Collapse, historian Chad Denton describes the end of 17 empires throughout world history, from Athens to Qin China, from the Byzantium to the Mughals. He reveals — through stories of conquest, corruption, incompetence, assassination, bigotry, and environmental crisis — how even the most seemingly eternal of empires declined. For Athens and Britain, it was military hubris; for Qin China and Russia, it was alienating their subjects through oppression; Persia succumbed with the loss of its capital; the Khmer faced ecological catastrophe; while the Aztecs were destroyed by colonial exploitation.

None of these events alone explains why the empires fell, but they do provide a glimpse into the often-unpredictable currents of history, which have so far spared no empire. A fascinating and instructive survey, The Fall of Empires provides compelling evidence about the fate of centralized regional or global power.