On Mon, 22 Dec 2003, David Silberstein wrote: > On Mon, 22 Dec 2003, Philip Hart wrote: > > >]From J.M. Roberts's _Twentieth Century_: > > > >]"It is the essence of empire that it rules over many peoples..." > > >He points out that Queen Victoria assumed the title of Empress in > >reference to India. The Dragaeran Empire includes a few islands but > >nothing comparable to a distant, larger, more populous country. > > >Anyway, to me the Empire seems more like a big Kingdom under this > >definition, given the ethnic cleansing of the Serioli and perhaps > >the cat-centaurs. > > > > That does seem to be the usual standard of applying the term, as I > think of it. The only counterexample I can think of is the Chinese > Empire, which might have aquired the term simply due to sheer size - > so perhaps for the same reason, the Dragaeran Empire. > > But I may be mistaken about China. As I understand the Chinese Empire (quite vaguely) additional peoples included the Tibetans, the Mongolians, some Arab populations in the west, and a variety of coastal peoples under varying degrees of control. I guess in the last sense the Dragaeran Empire owns the East, insofar as it can invade and stomp whenever things at home are stable and there's a Sethra the Younger needing to make a name for herself (if that's true.)