The Heyday of the Empire-System

This volume charts the rise and fall of a distinct empire-system in the period between the end of the Crimean War in 1856 and the Bandung Conference in the 1955.

The Heyday of the Empire System argues that the late 19th and early 20th centuries were defined by the coexistence, competition and hybridization of imperial and state logics. Rather than a simple story of empire’s decline and the nation state’s rise, it reveals a multi phase transition in which empires not only persisted but intensified.

Bringing together leading scholars of International Relations, the volume maps how these two systemic logics interacted to produce a hybrid global order whose legacies continue to shape world politics today. By reframing this crucial century as the era of a distinct empire system, it offers a fresh and compelling account of how modern international society came to be.