1994 Reports

Towards A Model of Territorial Expansion and the limits of empire

Findlay, Ronald E.

"The question of the size of political units never seems to attract among historians and
sociologists the attention which it deserves. What determines why states and empires have
expanded to the limits which they have historically achieved? What are the conditions under
which it has been possible to maintain those frontiers? Why have the larger states normally
broken up into fragments after a certain period of time? As a general problem—distinct from the
specific question of why particular units have disintegrated—this is still largely unexplored
territory."