Empires, Colonialism, Imperialism, Decolonization, and Globalization 600 BCE to 600 CE

Hattusa was the capital city of the Hittite empire in what is today central Turkey.

One of the first capitals of Mayan civilization was El Mirador.

The Babylonian empire's capital was Babylon itself.

Over 3000 years of self-rule, the Egyptian empire had different capital cities, most notably Memphis; Hattusa was not a capital under the Egyptian empire.

The eastern Roman empire was centered in Constantinople, what is today officially Istanbul.

The Fall of the Roman Empire took place in the fifth century. First, the Visigoths sacked the city in 410 CE and then the Vandals sacked the city in 445 CE The Byzantine Empire survived until 1453, approximately a millennium later, when it was conquered by the forces of the Ottoman Empire led by Mehmed II.

Alexander the Great lived from 356 BCE until 323 BCE. In this relatively short amount of time he conquered one of the largest land empires in human history - stretching from Greece and Egypt in the west all the way to India in the east. Alexander the Great was the leader of the Macedonian Empire, Macedonia is a region that borders Greece to the north.

The Byzantine Empire evolved from the Eastern half of the Roman Empire. When Rome fell, Byzantium continued on for several centuries before falling. Dynastic Egypt, The Aztec Empire, and the Maurya Empire are not geographically accurate, while the Ottoman Empire came after the Byzantines.

After the turbulent transition from republic to empire, and the installation of the Emperor, Augustus issued a series of reforms that brought peace to the newly expanded empire. These included a census, wide-spread employment, and a postal service.

Foreign expansion increased the wealth of aristocrats through foreign looting. Expansion also increased slave labor and therefore reduced the demand for peasant labor and this shifted the poor increasingly into military service where they were needed for further foreign expansion. The increasing wealth of aristocrats and the falling demand for peasant labor contributed to increasing inequality.

The Achaemenid Empire was formed by Cyrus the Great in 552 BCE It is considered the prototype of the later, much larger, Persian Empire.

Ashoka the Great was a ruler of the Mauryan Dynasty. Ashoka ruled over the vast majority of the Indian subcontinent (including parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) from approximately 270 to 230 BCE Ashoka is famous for his military conquests, but he is also famous for his religious tolerance which emerged during the later years of his reign. He was famously appalled by the loss of life during one of his conquests and embraced many aspects of Buddhism as a result.

Only China modeled their political systems after the earlier precedents set by the Xia, Shang, and Zhou; whereas Rome created a new political system for their empire without such precedents. It is true that both empires existed around the same time in the Classical era. Rome and China both relied on military force for the purpose of empire-building, and both invested heavily on public works projects.

Alexandria was named for the conqueror leading Greece at the time, Alexander the Great, who defeated the ruling Persians in 332 BC after conquering Syria, and before moving on to Mesopotamia (now Iraq). He established the Ptolemiac Dynasty, which ruled Egypt with Alexandria as its capitol.