A form of conglomerate state
encompassing a geographical area or set of areas containing diverse
peoples or ethnic groups and ruled by a single central government
authority that is primarily identified with one dominant people or
ethnic group. The empire thus consists of an imperial center and one
or more colonies or other dependent subunits (provinces,
protectorates, etc.) whose governments are subordinate to that of the
imperial center. Historically, empires have usually first emerged
either as the result of dynastic marriages among the royal families of
hereditary absolute monarchies or, even more frequently, by an
original "core" state expanding
through the conquest and incorporation of territories occupied by
other peoples, usually followed by the resettlement of substantial
numbers of emigrants from the core population who then constitute a
privileged governing elite in the newly acquired territories. An
empire differs from such other forms of conglomerate state as a federation
or confederation by virtue of the
specially privileged political status of the core political unit (and
often the entire core ethnic group or race) in contrast to the
institutionalized inferior status of the other component governmental
units and their native populations.