In recorded history there are vast numbers of civilizations, large and small, that rose and fell; far too many in fact to be summarized in the space allotted here.  Only a few of the major contributors to the advancement of humanity are catalogued.

SUMERIAN CIVILIZATION - The earliest known civilization.  It centered around the farthest south region between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers some 4500 - 4000 BC.  Originally they were probably non-Semitic people but later Semitic tribes came and mingled with the indigenous people.  The Sumerians were apparently the first to make use of the wheel.  They also invented a system of writing, a rudimentary Code of Laws and the concept of founding city-states.

The Sumerians were conquered by Babylonia but handed the torch of civilization to Egypt.

EGYPTIAN EMPIRE – Prehistoric Times – 8000 - 3200 BC.  Began to decline in the fourteenth century BC.

JUDEAN CIVILIZATION - Believed to have been settled c. 2200 BC by the people of Abraham.  They may originally have come from the city of Ur in Sumeria.  Much of the history of Judea comes from the Bible, which is is singularly lacking in dates.  Babylonia conquered Judea in 586 BC, destroyed Jerusalem and took the Jewish people back to Babylon in captivity.  About fifty years later, the Persian King Cyrus the Great (555-529 BC) defeated Babylon and allowed the Jews to return to Judea under his suzerainty.   

BABYLONIA -  A little farther north of Sumeria and south of present-day Bagdad, Iraq, Babylonia was an important civilization from the early second millennium to the early first millennium BC.  The Code of Hammurabi is considered one of the first systems of law for governing people; a significant legacy handed down to ancient, medieval and to a certain extent modern times.

Babylonia was under Persian domination for some two hundred years and was finally defeated by Assyria.

HITTITES - c. 2000 BC – 800 BC.  Indo-European invaders established a feudal state in Asia Minor in Anatolia, (the Asian part of modern Turkey.)  They were the first people known to work with iron and thus initiated the Iron Age.  They were defeated by the Assyrians toward the end of 800 BC.

ASSYRIA - This civilization rose in Northern Mesopotamia (Iraq) about the Fourteenth Century BC and was destroyed 612-609 BC by a Chaldean-Median coalition that would ultimately come under the umbrella of the Persian Empire. 

The pattern of these ancient civilizations was to kill and utterly destroy the cities of the defeated and then enslave and/or marry what few inhabitants remained.

GREEK or HELLENIC EMPIRE – Prehistoric inhabitants date back to 4000 BC.  Hellenic States reigned from 1000 BC until defeated by the Roman Empire in 146 BC.

The rise of Greece originated as a group of city states confederated roughly between 1100-850BC.  Alexander the Great expanded the empire throughout the Near East, Egypt, etc.  Greece limped along for several hundred years after the Roman Conquest.  However, Rome copied most of the Greek culture, incorporating it into its own.  The death of the Greek Civilization is generally attributed to Constantine around 325AD.  The Christian Byzantine Civilization outlawed the "pagan" Greek religions to "mythology".  However, the Renaissance had its origins in Greek culture and ultimately passed the torch of its civilization even until today.  Modern Western Culture has its roots from the heritage bequeathed to it from Greece, an influence that permeates every aspect of our daily lives.

CELTIC CIVILIZATIONS – c. 1200 BC.  Indo-European people of the Bronze and Iron Ages originated in southeastern Rhine and Upper Danube River areas of Germany.  The first prehistoric people known north of the Alps, they spread throughout Europe, southern Russia, Asia Minor and as far south as Carthage in North Africa.  Many Celts were conquered by the Roman Empire but others survived into the seventh – ninth centuries AD and even until today.

PERSIAN EMPIRE – 600 BC – 640-42 AD.

ROMAN EMPIRE  - 27 BC – 476 AD.

BYZANTINE EMPIRE – 330 AD – 1453 AD.

HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE – 800 – 1806 AD.

OTTOMAN EMPIRE – 1289 – 1922 AD.

BRITISH EMPIRE – Sixteenth century – 1980s.  The British Empire reached its zenith around the world, sometimes by exploration and other times by outright conquest.  In 1839 Canada was granted limited self-government and other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, African and areas of the Middle East followed.  World Wars I and II took its toll on the empire and she changed the name to the “British Commonwealth”.   India gained her independence in 1947.  By 1980 there was little left of the “Empire” but the influence of the “Commonwealth” continues.

AMERICAN EMPIRE – Lets hope not!  Time and again history has shown the incompatibility between the building and maintenance of Empires and democracy.  It is not possible to have a love of individual liberty at the same time as the tyranny necessary to hold an Empire together.  Free people do not take kindly to occupation and being held down by force no matter how benevolant.  Any act of kindness on the part of the Empire is perceived by the indigenous people as weakness and an opportunity to rebel.   

We started out with the old imperial tradition but more often than not, acquired territory with money rather than conquest.  The Louisiana Purchase and Alaska are examples.  During the mid-nineteenth century we teamed up with European powers to flex our muscles toward China, Japan and the rest of Southeast Asia. That area of the world had been relatively peaceful and non-aggressive for centuries.  Hawaii was just plain usurped in a bloodless business coup.  We have not shied away from armed conquest, but that has not often been the American style - so far.

An interesting footnote to history is that in the fourteenth Century CHINA embarked on an ambitious enterprise of building ships that could have rivaled or even out-stripped European expansion.  For unknown reasons, (to me at least), China abandon the idea and turned isolationist.

After how many millennia, mankind is slowly learning that Imperialism is not an automatic necessity.