Empire (territory)

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Empire denotes the territory of a ruler , a state or, more generally, a politically organized community .

Word origin

According to the “Etymological Dictionary of Old High German”, the word and the associated adjective rich is of Celtic origin and was most likely borrowed from them because of the adoption of Celtic legal norms by the Teutons. The Celts understood this to mean ideal or material wealth. For the first time in Grimm, it is referred to as: "generally that which is related to a ruler and dependent on him" (Grimm), thus corresponds to the Latin regnum . It can be found in all Germanic languages ​​(about nl. Rijk ) and comes from the Celtic -rig "power".

The Old High German rîhhi already corresponds to the original area (to be controlled ), Latin imperium "that which is under command". The meaning of rîhhi includes “ government ; Domination , violence ; rich, powerful; high ”, so obtained in names such as Richard (“ rule and rigor ”), Ulrich , Heinrich (“ who rules his property or home ”). The word is also in Ostarrîchi (the forerunner of Austria, interpreted in the sense of "(conquered) land in the east", and not as " Ostmark " in the sense of an institution).

Middle High German rîche stands for system of rule and territory. It never originally referred to the regent himself, in the Holy Roman Empire the designation emperor and empire "head and members of the empire" is formulaic - but later this transfer is also found. The aspect of the “ruled” remains primary, but separates itself from the purely territorial.

Empire designations

Dominions of many state structures are so called:

  1. Western Roman Empire
  2. Eastern Roman Empire
  3. Byzantine Empire
  1. Holy Roman Empire
  2. Austrian Empire:
    1. Empire of Austria
    2. Austria-Hungary
  3. German Empire (first, monarchical epoch of the German Empire )
  4. and some others
  1. Kingdom of Denmark
  2. Kingdom of Italy:
    1. Imperial Italy
    2. Kingdom of Italy (1805-1814)
    3. Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946)
  3. Kingdom of Norway
  4. Kingdom of Sweden
  5. Kingdom of Spain
  6. and several others

Figuratively:

See also

literature

  • Stefan Breuer: Empires of the Old World. Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne / Mainz 1987.
  • Jane Burbank / Frederick Cooper: Empires of World History. The repertoire of power from ancient Rome and China to the present day. Translated by Thomas Bertram, Frankfurt / New York 2010.
  • Michael W. Doyle: Empires. Ithaca / London 1986.
  • Michael Gal: States, rich people, dependents. Foundation of a theory of politics. In: ders., International Political History. Concept - Basics - Aspects. Norderstedt 2019, pp. 239-291.
  • Ulrich Leitner: Empire. History and theory of a political system. Frankfurt / New York 2011.
  • Ulrich Menzel: The order of the world. Empire or hegemony in the hierarchy of the world of states. Berlin 2015.
  • Herfried Münkler: Empires. The Logic of World Domination - From Ancient Rome to the United States. Cologne 2005.
  • Hans-Heinrich Nolte (Ed.): Empires. A comparative study. Schwalbach 2008.
  • Hans-Heinrich Nolte: Brief history of empires. Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2017.
  • Jürgen Osterhammel: Expansion and Empire. In: Peter Burschel, Mark Häberlein, Volker Reinhardt, Wolfgang EJ Weber, Reinhard Wendt (eds.): Historical impulses. Festschrift for Wolfgang Reinhard for his 65th birthday on April 10, 2002. Berlin 2002, pp. 371–392.

Web links

Wiktionary: Reich  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. Reich , n . In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 14 : R - skewness - (VIII). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1893, Sp. 573 ( woerterbuchnetz.de - regnum).
  2. Werner König: DTV Atlas for the German Language: Tables and Texts (=  dtv Atlas . Volume 3025 ). 1st edition. dtv, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-423-03025-9 , early loan denominations with neighboring peoples , p. 47 , col. 2 .
  3. Reich , n . - Section: 1). Lordship, violence, government - imperii rîhhes, rîchhes . In: German dictionary . tape 14 , 1893, col. 573-574 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
  4. Horst Naumann: The great book of family names. Age, origin, meaning . Falken, Niedernhausen 1994, ISBN 3-8068-4781-9 . Quoted from Kunze: onomastics . S. 8 .
  5. ^ Konrad Kunze : dtv-Atlas onenology. First and last names in the German-speaking area (=  dtv-Atlas . Volume 2490 ). 1st edition. dtv, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-423-03266-9 , Etymological meaning. , S. 24 ff .
  6. Reich , n . - Section: 10). formulaic connection - emperor and empire . In: German dictionary . tape 14 , 1893, col. 577 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
  7. Reich , n . - Section: 11). Reich finally goes to extremes, too, the kaiser himself . In: German dictionary . tape 14 , 1893, col. 577 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).