List of medieval great powers

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The term " great power " has only been used in historiography and political science since the Congress of Vienna in 1815. [1] Lord Castlereagh, the British Foreign Secretary, first used the term in its diplomatic context in 1814 in reference to the Treaty of Chaumont. Use of the term in the historiography of the Middle Ages is therefore idiosyncratic to each author. In historiography of the pre-modern period, it is more typical to talk of empires.

Contents

Gerry Simpson distinguishes "Great Powers", an elite group of states that manages the international legal order, from "great powers", empires or states whose military and political might define an era. [2]

The Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous land empire in history Expansion of the Mongol Empire.svg
The Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous land empire in history

The following is a list of empires that have been called great powers during the Middle Ages:

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nemanjić dynasty</span> Serbian family in the Middle Ages

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This is a select bibliography of post-World War II English-language books and journal articles about the Early Slavs and Rus' and its borderlands until the Mongol invasions beginning in 1223. Book entries may have references to reviews published in academic journals or major newspapers when these could be considered helpful.

References

  1. Fueter, Eduard (1922). World history, 1815–1930. United States of America: Harcourt, Brace and Company. pp.  25–28, 36–44. ISBN   1-58477-077-5. Great Powers Congress of Vienna.
  2. 1 2 Gerry Simpson, Great Powers and Outlaw States: Unequal Sovereigns in the International Legal Order (Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 68, uses the Vikings as an example of a great power that was not a Great Power.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 William Eckhardt, Civilizations, Empires, and Wars: A Quantitative History of War (McFarland, 1992), p. 113: "Medieval Great Powers included China throughout, Persia (500-600, 900-50, 1400-50), Byzantium (500-1050), Tu Chueh (550-600), Tibet (650- 1250), Muslim (650-850), Turkey (650, 1050-1100, 1450-1500), Prati (850), Khazar (850-900), Kiev (900-1050), Bujid (950), Fatimid (950-1050), Liao (950-1150), Ghaznavid (1050), Al-mohad (1150-1250), Egypt (1250-1450), Mongolia (1250-1450), Khmer (1250), Mali (1300, 1450), Chagatai (1350), Lithuania (1450), Inca (1500) and Russia (1500)."
  4. 1 2 3 4 Szabolcs József Polgár, "The Character of the Trade between the Nomads and their Settled Neighbours in Eurasia in the Middle Ages", Studia Uralo-altaica53 (2019): 253, contrasts "the nomads of the Eurasian steppe with their settled neighbours", calling the former "steppe empires (that is, the greatest nomadic confederations)" and the latter "medieval great powers". He gives China, Sassanian Persia, the Caliphate and the Eastern Roman Empire as medieval great powers.
  5. Gardner, Robert (2016). Averting Global War: Regional Challenges, Overextension, and Options for American Strategy. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 158. ISBN   9780230108714 . Retrieved 14 November 2023.
  6. Roberts, John Morris; Westad, Odd Arne (2013). The History of the World. Oxford University Press. p. 443. ISBN   978-0199936762 . Retrieved 13 November 2023.
  7. Henry Davis: Medieval Europe. Williams and Norgate, London 1911, p. 55: "These crowded years of war leave the Frankish Empire established as the one great power west of the Elbe and Adriatic."
  8. Thomas Hodgkin: The life of Charlemagne (Charles The Great), London 1897, p. 11
  9. Daniel Ziemann: Das Erste bulgarische Reich. Eine frühmittelalterliche Großmacht zwischen Byzanz und Abendland. (German: An early medieval great power between Byzantium and the Occident) In: Online handbook on the history of South-East Europe. Volume I Rule and politics in Southeastern Europe until 1800. Published by the Institute for East and Southeast European Studies of the Leibniz Association, Regensburg 2016
  10. Freeman, Edward A. (1881). The Historical Geography of Europe. Vol. I. London. p. 430.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. Gibbon, Edward (2008). The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. 6. p. 142. ISBN   978-1-60520-130-6.
  12. Frank Rexroth: Deutsche Geschichte im Mittelalter. C.H. Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN   978-3-406-48007-2, p. 22 ("The special proximity of the Ottonian and early Salian rulers to the Imperial Church was to contribute quite considerably to the rise of the East Frankish Empire to a European great power, as was already noticeable in the 940s".)
  13. Johannes Haller and Heinrich Dannenbauer: Von den Karolingern zu den Staufern: Die altdeutsche Kaiserzeit (900–1250). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1970, p. 129 ( “It became apparent that the German leadership in the West“ [after the year 1200] “had ceased to exist and that the new French great power was rising in its place.” )
  14. V. Polyakov (1933). "The Valley of the Vistula". The Slavonic and East European Review. XII (34): 42.
  15. McGarry, Daniel D. (1976). Medieval History & Civilization. Macmillan Publishing Co. p. 290.
  16. "History of Denmark". Denmark.net. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  17. Freeman, Edward A. (1881). The Historical Geography of Europe. Vol. I. London. p. 309.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  18. Jürgen Miethke: Philipp IV. der Schöne (German: Philip IV of France) 1285 – 1314 In: Joachim Ehlers, Heribert Müller, Bernd Schneidmüller: Die Französische Könige des Mittelalters von Odo bis Karl VIII. (German: The French kings of the Middle Ages: from Odo to Charles VIII 888 – 1498), C. H. Beck Munich 2006, ISBN   978-3-406-54739-3, p. 184: “France finally grew into a European great power, even defining in the first place what it means to be a European great power”
  19. Kenny, Peter Francis (2013). Monarchs. p. 351. ISBN   978-1-5144-4376-7.
  20. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. 2000. p. 320. ISBN   0-87779-017-5.
  21. World and Its Peoples: Central Europe. Marshall Cavendish Reference. 2010. p. 959.
  22. Berenger, Jean (2013). A History of the Habsburg Empire 1273–1700. Translated by Simpson, C.A. Routledge. p. 108. ISBN   978-0-582-09010-1.
  23. Eppstein, John, ed. (2014). Hungary. British Survey Handbooks. Cambridge University Press. p. 5. ISBN   978-1-107-42612-2.
  24. Stuart Munro-Hay: The Quest for the Ark of the Covenant ISBN   978-0-857-71603-3, p. 14: "From the 1320s, under Amda Seyon, this dynasty began to rebuild a major empire in the region."
  25. Grant, R. G. (2017). 1001 Battles That Changed the Course of History. Chartwell Books. p. 214. ISBN   978-0-7858-3553-0.
  26. Kort, Michael (2001). The Handbook of the New Eastern Europe. Brookfield, Connecticut. pp. 39–40.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  27. Jack S. Levy: War in the Modern Great Power System 1495 – 1975. The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington 1983, ISBN   978-0-8131-5339-1, p. 20

Further reading