I have noticed that there has always been a constant cycle of a number of small scattered nations in a region or continent combining into a few large powers, either through conquest or other form of unification, then over time fragmenting and eventually repeating the process.
It seems like this happens in independent cycles in Europe, Asia (specifically China), the Americas, Africa and etc. All of them going back to as much as we know about human history.
Is there is a term for this observation or a concept in historical studies?
Historical cycles and patterns are outside current historical theory last I heard
In terms of outsider/disreputable historical pattern theorizing Spengler’s decline of the West outlining features that mark civilizational decline, and Lowe and Strauss’s generational cycle theory (in the book the Fourth Turning among others) suggests a pattern of reinventing the US’s social contract every four generations, around 80 years
If you have your own observations I’m sure there’s an audience for them