Day of Empire
In order for Amy Chua to fully understand how nations succeed she first studied the ancient empires of Persia and China to the recent global empires of England and the United States. While she was studying the ancient empires of Persia and China she discovered a historical pattern that even leads into today’s society. Amy Chua found out that tolerance and assimilation were necessary for an empire to succeed, however multicultural societies could lead to corruption. She predicted that a multicultural society could make the economy unstable and therefore create new tension within the empire. For Amy Chua to be certain of her hypothesis she studied the Persian Empire, Roman Empire, Chinese Empire, and the Mongol Empire.
Chapter 1 of Day of Empire begins with Achaemenid Persia and how the empire evolved from Cyrus to Alexander the Great. The kings of the mighty Persian Empire ruled from 559 to 330 BC. The Achaemenid paradises were famous and very well known for their riches across the world. It covered two million square miles and was known to be the first hyper power in history. The Achaemenids governed a territory larger than all the other ancient empires. The Persian king Asytages tried to dispose of his grandson Cyrus but in the end Cyrus leads a rebellion against his grandfather and in 550 BC he defeats Asytages. Following that event Cyrus became the ruler of the largest empire that ever existed. People followed Cyrus because of his religious tolerance and his willingness to honor people’s religions as well their temples. All the leaders after Cyrus also encouraged religion to be spread out in their empire which is why the Persian Empire is the largest empire of them all. Amy Chua clearly presents the greatness of the ancient Persian Empire anywhere from Libya to India and displayed how tolerance is necessary for an empire to become a hyper power.
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