Imperialism moves westward

This chapter moves attention westward, focusing on the emergence of maritime empires in the Mediterranean world. It describes the strong degree of continuity as empire follows empire. It makes particular reference to the Phoenicians and the Greeks, notably the Athenian Empire, but also an earlier period of decentralised control and a later ephemeral empire under Alexander the Great. The main attention is directed at the Roman Empire, which was as much a maritime as a landed empire. There is an analysis of the contribution that innovations made to the rise and sustaining of the Roman Empire. The chapter ends with a brief review of the Islamic caliphates, which in the political sense, not the religious or cultural, represented an ephemeral empire. It notes the increasingly unstable context in the Middle East as the epicentre of empire moved westward.