Since the beginning of recorded history, many empires have risen and fallen.  The intention of the conquerors has always been to conquer all of the known world.  World domination as we now call it.  No empire, however, managed to do that, not even the mighty Roman Empire.

Alexander the Great illustrates the futility of such an endeavor.  He swiftly conquered most of the known world.  But he died young and his empire was divided among his generals.

Now that all of these empires are consigned to the history books, we, as modern humans, can put our past under the microscope and perchance draw some useful lessons.

We are only one planet among trillions.  Conquering a large part of our world means little.  Of course, ancient people didn’t know that.  Even among modern humans, few are aware of that fact.  (Hopefully, this article will change that for some of us).  So what does the whole thing means? 

For the conquerors it meant wealth and power.  At the center of the empire learning and innovation flourished.  Even more important, knowledge was exported to other nations.

The Greeks brought their advanced knowledge to many nations, and it prevailed for many centuries.

The strength of the Roman empire was in the way it was administered.  They also governed the empire through laws.  Our modern system of governing, and our legislative and judiciary bodies, are a Roman legacy.

The Arab empire encouraged learning, and promoted sciences, philosophy, and the arts.  Even more important, they brought Islam, a monotheistic religion, to people who were pagans.

Wars and conquests are negative in and of themselves; but they are an inevitable part of the evolutionary process on our world.  The same process, with many variations, has unfolded on other worlds which are now more advanced than ours.  And the same process will no doubt repeats itself on yet unborn worlds.

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