POLI 279 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Gunboat Diplomacy, Siege Of Melos

• School: University of Calgary
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLI 279
• Professor: Mark Baron

Document Summary

Empires can be contiguous; territories within them is adjacent to the territory of imperial power. Non- contiguous: not immediately adjacent to the territory of imperial power: second characteristic of an empire: composite; (comprised of many/different things) Sovereignty, before they were drawn into the empire. Previously independent societies, so they are ethnically diverse: third characteristic of empires: they are usually constructed by conquest. They are usually put together by the in voluntary subordination of the conquered to the conqueror; those people brought to these empires don"t join voluntarily. Drawn into these empires because they were involuntary compelled to do so. One way of drawing these territories involuntarily: gunboat diplomacy (imperial power shows up with its military hardware and troops and tells them to join their empire or else . Will draw force if they don"t agree: system of domination: these empires have a dominant core. Around this dominant core, you have a subordinate periphery (the empire)