Less than a hundred years after Pachacuti founded Machu Picchu the Spanish conquistadors shattered the empire. Ancient Mysteries: Machu Picchu: City in the Sky, A&E 1995
I will create an empire that will endure for millennia. Indestructible and eternal. Sherlock Holmes 2009 starring Robert Downey junior & Jude Law & Mark Strong & Rachel McAdams & Kelly Reilly & Eddie Marsan & Geraldine James & Hans Matheson & James Fox & Robert Maillet et al, director Guy Ritchie
How did he inspire his successors from beyond the grave to conquer the largest land empire the world has ever seen? (Mongolia & Empire) Timewatch: The Secret History of Genghis Khan, BBC 2005
Priests prophesied a coming apocalypse as Mongolian hordes approached the borders of the Holy Roman Empire. ibid.
The Mongol Army descended like a storm. ibid.
Nothing less than the conquest of the entire world. ibid.
Genghis Khan’s story begins in the middle of the twelfth century. ibid.
The Mongols were surrounded by other powerful tribes. ibid.
He was proclaimed the Supreme Commander. ibid.
One of the most powerful men the world has ever seen. ibid.
He inherited a large prosperous empire: it stretched from deep in the African desert right up to the Mediterranean Sea and the Middle East. Ramesses the Great
By the end of 13th century B.C. Ramesses the Great had been on the throne for well over 60 years. He had defended his vast empire, built magnificent temples, and elevated himself to the status of living god. ibid.
Some archaeologists believe they’ve found just 1% of this once great empire. Beneath Egyptian sands lie lost cities, forgotten tombs, even buried pyramids. Egypt’s Lost Cities, BBC 2013
Satellite technology has changed everything. ibid.
The divine master of 12,000,000 subjects was confined ... His ransom: this room filled with gold to a height he could reach and two other rooms with silver. In today’s money it would amount to more than $250 million. Christy Kenneally, The Lost Gods, Channel 4 2005
The Inca genius for stone is everywhere, from the steep staircase to the terraced fields ... The cut stone blocks are set without mortar; they are an architectural wonder only matched by the engineering ability that brought them from a quarry eight kilometres away on the other side of the river. ibid.
By 1570 the Spaniards had stripped the Inca of language, land and worship of their gods, everything that made them unique. ibid.
6 ages define the lifespan of an empire: the age of pioneers, the age of conquests, the age of commerce, the age of affluence, the age of intellect ending with bread and circuses in the age of decadence. The Four Horsemen, 2012
All made celebrities of their chefs. ibid.
The idea of an international rule of law appeals very fundamentally to our innate sense of justice. The Corbett Report: International Law, James Corbett online 2013
The CFR [Council on Foreign Relations] was behind the creation of the League of Nations. ibid.
‘A new partnership of nations has begun.’ ibid. George H W Bush
‘Empire-building throughout history is the result of conquest – the use or threat of a superior military force. The US global empire is no exception … They cite imperial legal doctrine to justify their intervention to suppress a subject people in revolt. While empires arose through the direct or indirect use of unbridled force, the maintenance and consolidation of empires requires a legal framework … Legality is really an extension of imperial conquest by other means.’ ibid. Professor James Petras
In the 19th century the world was transformed by a powerful idea: a belief among Europeans that their civilisation represented the pinnacle of human progress. It was idea driven by the modernising forces of science and industry. David Olusoga, Civilisation s1e8: The Cult of Progress, BBC 2018
Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres: The Turkish Bath 1863: These were European fantasies. ibid.
J M W Turner, Dudley Worcestershire 1832: The great thinker and art critic John Ruskin saw in the picture an indictment of how the old way of life was being destroyed by the factory and the machine. ibid.
2015 was the deadliest year on record for migrants and refugees attempting to get into Europe. Over 3,700 people died, the majority on sea crossings between Libya and Italy, or Turkey and Greece. Walls of Shame: The Spanish-Moroccan Border, Al Jazeera 2007/2016
The Mediterranean enclave of Ceuta is one of the last vestiges of Spanish rule in northern Morocco. It’s been European for more than 500 years, and Madrid insists it will never relinquish control. ibid.
The crossing between Morocco and Spain has become a magnet for tens of thousands of workers and migrants, legal and illegal. For this is the backdoor into the prosperous European Union. ibid.
Another divide – a social division that is religious and economic between the wealthy Christian Spaniards and their poorer Muslim compatriots of Moroccan descent. ibid.
A double fence – most of it paid for by the European Union – four metres high, six kilometres long. ibid.
That’s what an empire is: it’s bigger than any son or daughter. Fargo s2e2: Before the Law, Floyd, FX 2015
Tutankhamun’s enormous empire stretched from the north of Africa to into the Middle East. This teenager ruled over 3,000,000 people. Dan Snow, The Tutankhamun Mystery, Channel 5 2020
This is a land known by two names: the first is Persia: ancient, mysterious, a place of adventure, of mighty temples and palaces built by powerful kings, a land of imaginable beauty. The other is Iran: isolated, proud, defiant, especially of foreign interference. Samira Ahmed, Art of Persia I, BBC 2020
Persia’s great kings built a vast empire and a rich culture that became an envy of the ancient world. ibid.
In 1979 revolution came to Iran when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini transformed it into an Islamic republic. The country has been locked in conflict with the West ever since. ibid.
Our story starts over 3,000 years ago with some ancient plumbing. ibid.
They also made extraordinary monuments like this: Ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil … The temple was once full of beautiful objects and statues. ibid.
[Statue in cave:] Shapur I is making a statement: he is setting out his Sasanian dynasty to rule … Shapur I ruled for over 30 years; he built many cities during his reign … Under the Sasanians, Zoroastrianism became Iran’s official religion. ibid.
This: recording in stone in a gorge nearby the epic saga of Shapur’s triumphs over Rome. ibid.
All democracies turn into dictatorships – but not by coup. The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it’s Julius Caesar or Napoleon or Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, the general population goes along with the idea ... That’s the issue that I’ve been exploring: How did the Republic turn into the Empire ... and how does a democracy become a dictatorship? George Lucas
It is time to build an empire … Mussolini orders his generals to burn Ethiopian villages and to use poison gas on civilians. Dictators’ Rulebook s1e3: Benito Mussolini, National Geographic 2018
The more I learnt about colonialism, the more I realised it always started with men like Kurtz [Heart of Darkness]. And their effects linger to this day. Arena: African Apocalypse, Femi Nylander reporting, BBC 2021
At the same time as Conrad was writing his book, life was imitating art in an astounding way. A French army officer was leading an invasion of west African, and his true story was even more terrifying than Conrad’s fiction. ibid.
Mutilation as punishment for refusal. ibid.
The are a few candidates: a notorious German captain in Namibia, a Belgium ivory hunter, even the arch-imperialist Cecil Rhodes, whose statue stands in Oxford high street. As a student, I campaigned to bring his statue down … [and] a French army officer called Paul Voulet … ibid.
There are three words that summarise the whole history of humanity: civilisation, colonisation, extermination … between colonists and colonised … Entire civilisations in the western hemisphere were wantonly destroyed, setting the western world on a path of greed and destruction. Exterminate All the Brutes I: The Disturbing Confidence of Ignorance, Sky Documentaries 2021
In Sweden, one of the most tolerant countries in Europe, like everywhere else in the world, hate is on the rise again. ibid.
America was born as a colonial power … it bears the fatal capacity to destruct the core story we have been told all these years and the very foundation of this country … A story of survival and violence. ibid.
Kurtz [Heart of Darkness]: Exterminate all the brutes ... It simply tells the truth we try to forget. ibid.
Renowned industrialist Henry Ford gave the Nazi party all the profits from cars sold in Germany. And every year an additional $350,000 was allocated for Hitler’s birthday. ibid.