When we hear politicians or religious people talk about the turbulent conditions in the Middle East, almost inevitably we hear talk of "Western Imperialism" where the West exerted its influence on many countries in Asia and Africa. Many point to modern conditions in these countries as a direct result of Western imperialism.
That got me thinking, was there a such thing as Eastern imperialism? Was there a period of time where countries/empires in the East were exerting their might on other countries? If so, what are those countries like post-imperialism?
Thanks for any replies!
Well, imperialism is essentially the policy of extending an empire's power and influence through military, diplomatic, and other means. The "Eastern Empires" in that case would simply be the non-European empires: Imperial Japan, the Ottoman Empire, various Iranian empires, various Chinese empires, the Mughal Empire, the Mongol Empire (and its successor states), the Umayyad, Fatimid and Abbasid Caliphates, and so on. The term "Eastern Empire" becomes silly here because many of these states were as different from each other as they were from European empires. And many shared features in common with European empires.
A very interesting article on term "post-colonialism" being applied to non-Western empires was written by Patricia Crone.