Thread by @gigapacho

Okay so there's apparently a theory that: #Empires live for 300 years.
First of all, definitions of empires are quite vague
Secondly, the duration given here is an average
An interesting view on it is given by the @ForeignPolicy article here: archive.is/YM5ri <🧵>

Some quotes: We tend to assume that the life cycle of empires, great powers, and civilizations has a predictable regularity to it. Yet the most striking thing about past empires is the extraordinary variability in the chronological as well as geographic expanse of their dominion.

Average Roman empire lasted 829 years: West Roman Empire from 27 B.C. (Octavian became Caesar Augustus) & till Constantinople established in 395, total of 422 years. East Roman Empire from then until sack of Byzantium by Ottoman Turks in 1453, 1,058 years.

Holy Roman Empire — successor to the Western empire — lasted from 800, when Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Romans, until Napoleon ended it in 1806.

By comparison, the average Near Eastern empire (including the Assyrian, Abassid, and Ottoman) lasted a little more than 400 years; the average Egyptian and East European empires around 350 years;

the average Chinese empire (subdividing by the principal dynasties) ruled for more than three centuries. The various Indian, Persian, and West European empires generally survived for between 200 and 300 years.

So taking a closer look at the #Russian #Empire gives us the date: November 2, 2021, marked 300 years since the day when Peter I proclaimed himself emperor, and Russia — an empire. More on that here: valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/t…

So taking a closer look at the #Russian #Empire gives us the date: November 2, 2021, marked 300 years since the day when Peter I proclaimed himself emperor, and Russia — an empire. More on that: valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/t…

As the author concludes: Today we live on the ruins of two empires — the Russian Empire and the USSR. We have inherited, as the pillars of our collective identity, an unyielding desire to preserve our sovereignty and great power status.

From the Soviet imperial experiment, we inherited the institutionalisation and territorialisation of ethnicity in the form of autonomous republics, which predetermines the impossibility of building a nation-state in Russia.

If anyone wants to do the calculations him/herself, start with @Wikipedia list of empires: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_e…
Some of them have 2600 years, some - only 2 years duration.
But when you do the math, the average is: 297.70 years

@Wikipedia Coming back to Russia - the #EvilEmpire as President Reagan called them - counts its last years or even months of existence. As @nfergus has stated: Especially striking is the fact that the most modern empires have a far shorter life span than their ancient predecessors.

@Wikipedia @nfergus To add my 2 cents to it: the #War against #Ukraine and the whole western world is nothing but a mortal agony of the Russian empire, which we are witnessing but regrettably, at a very high price :( </🧵>