The history of the modern world has seen some multi-ethnic empires. There are empires that conquered large contiguous territories that contained peoples of varying ethnic groups. There are four of note, and all but one has essentially fallen. These four are the Ottoman Empire, the Austrian Empire, the Russian Empire (Soviet Union), and the Chinese Empire.
The Ottoman Empire began its rise in the 14th century. With its heart in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), it began occupying areas around Bulgaria and Serbia. However, it was with the reign of Mehmet II (1451-1481) when the Ottomans became a force to be reckoned with. The conquest of Constantinople in 1453 was only the beginning. After renaming the city Istanbul and moving his capital there, Mehmet made war with Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Albania and Venice.
During the reign of Suleyman I, the Ottoman Empire had its golden age. It conquered Hungary, Baghdad, and North Africa across to Morocco. He even besieged Vienna before being forced to withdraw back to Hungary.
At its height, the Ottoman Empire had captured dozens of ethnic groups, including the Greeks, Bulgarians, Rumanians, Albanians, Macedonians, Serbians, Bosnians, Herzegovinians, Montenegrins, Croatians, Georgians, Armenians, Arabs, and many more smaller groups.
Things began to fall apart during the late 18th century and into the 19th century. Austria began to make gains against the Ottomans (taking Hungary and Croatia for example) and the Europeans (most notably the British) were making headway in Egypt. The Russians were pushing from the north and added to the problems faced by the Ottomans. They had come into the Great Power struggle that was brewing between Britain and Russia throughout the nineteenth century.
World War I spelled the end of the Ottoman Empire. They joined with the Central Powers in a last gasp attempt to maintain their crumbling empire, but with their defeat, the Ottoman Empire was no more.
It can be said that the Austrian Empire began in 1521 when Austria and Spain, both ruled by the Hapsburg family, were divided into two kingdoms. Austria had absorbed the Bohemian and Hungarian crowns into its monarchy, although Hungary was later lost to the Ottomans. The 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz saw Hungary¡¦s return to Austria.
At its height, the Austrian Empire ruled over Hungarians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Italians, Croatians, Bosnians, Romanians and others. At least 15 languages were spoken within Austrian domains.
The empire became known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1868 following a compromise between the Austrian government and pro-independence Hungarians. However, this left millions of people representing other ethnic groups on the outside looking in.
As the 20th century began, Austria was facing pressure from the south. A newly independent Serbia was pressing for other Southern Slavic peoples to be separated from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This was the spark that began World War I. This was their last gasp at survival, but like the Ottoman Empire, their loss in World War I resulted in the dissolution of their empire and the creation of a number of new European states.
Dubbed the ¡§Prison of Nations¡¨, the Russian Empire (later dubbed the Soviet Union) had over a hundred captured nations in its midst. In reality, it still does.
Russia as we know it today began its rise in the late 13th century when, after shaking off the ties of the Mongols, Muscovy conquers all of ¡§the Russias¡¨. It was in the 16th century under Ivan the Terrible when Russia expanded westward toward the Caspian Sea that Russia truly became an empire.
The Romanov Dynasty began in 1613. Russia intensified its push across the Urals and toward the Pacific. Amazingly, in less than a century, the Russians made the area between the Urals and the Pacific their domain. What is often ignored if that there were dozens of groups of peoples already living there in peace.
Back in Europe, various groups were absorbed (Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Ukrainians, Romanians, and others) in the matter of a few decades during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Also, later pushes into Central Asia absorbed Kazakhs, Tajiks, Turkmens, and others.
None of this changed during the days of the Soviet Union, which emerged out of an embarrassing defeat to the Germans and Austrians in World War I. However, this changed in 1991 as the Soviet Union fell apart, and some of the larger groups that were imprisoned by the Russians (Georgians, Armenians, Azeris, Romanians, Ukrainians, Beylorussians, Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estronians, Kazaks, Tajiks, Turkmens, and others) were freed. However, many smaller ones (including some groups nearing extinction) are still imprisoned.
This is the last great prison of nations. Although their history of imprisonment is far longer that that of the other three and they have institutionally tried to hide it through 2000 years, it is a prison of nations nonetheless.
The Qin Dynasty was considered the first to have united ¡§China¡¨. Prior to this, the region around the Yellow was nothing but group of small states at intermittent war with one another. Prior to the Qin Dynasty, not only did the people speak different languages (which they still do), they even had different forms of writing. Qin ended this by introducing a unified writing system to all of the other kingdoms that were conquered. Other standardizations were introduced as well Like modern-day Chinese leaders, he did not tolerate dissent. More than 400 opponents were executed.
The first great expansion of the Chinese Empire occurred during the Han Dynasty. The Kingdom of Dian (·¿) in modern Yunnan was invaded and military colonies were set up in Viet Nam and Korea. A military colony (¤Ù¥Đ) was set up in modern-day Xinjiang. At this time, much of what is northern and western China today (including Tibet and most of Yunnan) were not yet a part of China.
Over the next few centuries, the Chinese would push south toward Viet Nam, southwest toward Myanmar, and northeast toward Korea. During that time, they would take in various ethnic groups as the Liao, Korean, Li, Miao, Dai and dozens of others. All of these groups are still captured today within the Chinese state.
Later, the Chinese would invade Tibet and Taiwan, but this was done during a foreign dynasty, the Qing. However, despite this, the Chinese still argue that these territories belong to them despite the fact that Tibet is not Chinese and the Taiwanese don¡¦t consider themselves Chinese.
Even the idea of a Han nationality is artificial. Generally, peoples who speak different languages are considered distinct ethnic groups. There is no single language of the Han. The languages of the Beijingers, Shanghainese, Cantonese, Fujianese, and others are completely distinct from one another. The idea of a single Han nationality was forced upon the conquered peoples of the South by the northern kingdoms who were their early conquerors.
China is one of the most aggressive kingdoms in history. It started as a small kingdom along the Yellow River and now controls more people than any nation on earth. This is truly the last of the ¡§great¡¨ multi-ethnic empires. History dictates that like the others, it must fall too.
A well done site with an outline of Ottoman History and many of its rulers.
Not a particularly well organized website, but there are a lot of interesting maps showing the expansion and contraction of the Ottoman Empire.
A brief history of the Ottoman Empire.
A good summary of the Ottomans from the English perspective.
A 1895 map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
A map showing the history of Hapsburg Domains.
Primary documents concerning the Austrian Empire.
An interesting site with an assessment of Austria-Hungary's situation in the late 19th/ arly 20th centuries.
A chronology of Russian history beginning with Peter the Great.
A difficult site to go through, but it contains a good outline history of Russian expansion complete with maps.
A very good site with information of all of the ethnic groups that are in what remains of the "Prison of Nations".
A separate list of sites on sources of Chinese history with maps will be posted on a separate page sometime in the next few days.