I was using the term empire loosely, as you seemed to be doing, contrasting "empire" to primitive communities of a couple of hundred. In that sense, we are, in fact, full of empires, only we call them nation states.
Without the ability to stabilize a large area, politically and militarily, civilization cannot flourish. Civilization was born in kingdoms and empires like the Chinese, the Egyptian, and the Athenian. Rome contributed a lot to civilization, mostly, it is true, by synthesis and popularization, but also in the realm of art, architecture, civil administration, engineering, public works, and law. When Rome spread through the Mediterranean and up to Britain, there was commerce, security, the building of public amenities, like aquaducts and baths, and the administration of law. When the Western Empire fell, there was chaos and the descent into partial barbarism.
The Mongols did not build an empire so much as take over the Chinese Empire. The Arabs also mainly took over the Byzantine Empire, but they contributed to learning, and invented algebra. Hitler did little more than plunge the world into chaos, and Stalin took over the Russian Empire and was a bad ruler.
The fact is, the growth of civilization has always been accompanied by the building up of states.
Medicine has been on the level of hit or miss, mostly miss, for centuries. It is only in the modern world that we have scientific validation of drugs and techniques. I do not know why you think the Egyptians were good at it, but if you could show me some real evidence, I would be interested. Whether Persia ended slavery or not, it was a common practice until a couple of centuries ago, and still exists in backwaters not much touched by modern sensibilities. Whatever enlightenment Buddha might have brought, it had to do with escaping the Wheel of Rebirth, and not much else.
The key to progress has been economic development and the rise of social classes/occupations that permit freedom from drudgery and the leisure to cultivate knowledge and the arts. This requires a fairly large agricultural base, to create the requisite surpluses; the ability to repel most invaders, and to administer justice with efficiency, which means a fairly large military and constabulary; urbanization, to create the social and economic conditions that will permit diverse occupations and a thriving market in amenities; and external trade, to bring into contact areas which have unique things to offer one another. External trade is, of course, promoted by diplomacy, but also by the assurance that one will mostly move among secure states and their territories.
Science did not, per se, exist until about the 16th century. Science cannot be divorced from the scientific method. The ancient world made strides in mathematics, and in astronomy, but knew little of physiology or physics, geology or chemistry. What we call science was either part of philosophy, and mainly speculative, or it was part of natural history, and a fairly primitive collection of observations about the natural world.
Certainly they made progress in humanities. Even so, they did not have the scholarly apparatus that we do, and literacy was extremely limited. One of the things that the modern world brought was the spread of civilization within societies, because of the technology you deride making us relatively richer, and making things like books relatively cheaper, and therefore affordable. In the developed countries, we approach the ideal of universal education, make widely available libraries and museums, and invite people of all social classes to enjoy and even contribute to the stock of literature and art. |
