The one thing I don’t understand in my history textbook is this specific concept. For example, my history book will talk about the Roman Empire. Cool. Then a buncha stuff happens in Europe, Italy, France, UK etc. Cool, but are they just regions part of the empire?
Let’s fast forward to American independence. I think by now the Roman Empire fell or something? I don’t remember. America was a colony, so was Britain already an autonomous state by then? Then we get American independence. After this, we still have the Ottoman Empire that ends up falling after WWI I believe. When does that region split into different countries?
But when did they just become countries? How does that happen? And why settle for a country rather than an empire or vice versa?
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The modern definition of “country” is a nation-state that has achieved widespread recognition by the others as an independent entity. There’s no official list keeper, and the status of some regions is disputed.
“Empire” is a more specific type of historical nation-state – one that has recently consumed multiple territories under a single flag. This was usually done by force, and the nation is usually an autocracy that intends to continue expanding – Empire and Imperialism share the same root word after all.
Japan in 2020 is a country.
Japan in 1938 was an empire – laying claim to numerous territories and islands across the pacific region.
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