Peoples and EmpiresBy Garret Bishop

Introduction. Empire- a mode of political

oppression, a denial of some people of the rights- above all the rights to self determination- of countless others. A way to impose stability amongst different groups of peoples.

Stated by Pagden, “ It is about what drives people into contact- and conflict- with one another. It is also, inevitably, about cruelty and anger, indifference and power, about loss and the passing of time. It is about empires and the peoples who have created them and created by them.”

CHAPTER 1 For the Spanish who conquered

the Incas and the Aztecs, its wasn’t primarily due to the fact that they had horses or guns. The conquering of the two tribes was due to the fact that the Spanish use swords and axes made from steel. In battle the obsidian and clay war weapons used by the Aztecs and Incas were no match against the steel swords of the Spanish. Upon contact the brittle weapons would easily dull and shatter against the hardened steel.

CHAPTER 2 It’s said that the Roman law started with

the Twelve Tables around 451- 450 B.C. this was a way of setting a customary law on a legislative basis. Many of these were then rounded up to create a series of codes, laws that applied to those on Roman soil. Most of the codes were put into effect by the eastern emperor Justinian, who ruled around the sixth century A.D. Justinian put the compiled laws into four books: the Codex, the Digest, the Pandect and the Institutions. All together the books consumed more than one million words!

Roman law was thought to be civil law. It concerned itself with governing not other empires but just that of the Roman People. Now the Roman take on civil law is still found in many laws today. It was the basis for what is now called “public international law.