【内容简介】

　　一部人类文明史，也是一部人类如何统治的历史。在前现代的大部分时间里，帝国都是人类统治的主要形式。进入现代以来，美国革命和法国大革命的锻炉锻造出了一个个民族国家。民族主义似乎成了人类统治的通行法则。帝国成了侵略者和殖民主义的代名词，被扫入历史的垃圾堆。然而现代民族国家并没有完全解决人类的治理问题。民族矛盾和大国沙文主义制造了一场又一场战争。21世纪以来，随着全球化和多元文化的深入发展，帝国重新成为人们的关注对象。

　　不同于大量以被统治者为主角书写的反帝国主义历史，克里尚·库马尔教授另辟蹊径，从帝国统治者和主体民族的视角，为我们呈现了奥斯曼、哈布斯堡、俄罗斯、大英和大法兰西这5个世界帝国的兴衰历程、治理经验和使命追寻。

　　奥斯曼帝国既是一个伊斯兰帝国，又是一个欧洲帝国。它同时继承了阿拉伯帝国和拜占庭帝国的遗产。它承担着传播伊斯兰教的使命，但也保护治下的希腊东正教徒。它通过米勒特制度治理非穆斯林臣民，并通过德米舍梅制度将非穆斯林臣民吸收进统治阶层。

　　哈布斯堡家族曾通过联姻同时统治了西班牙帝国和神圣罗马帝国。它以保护天主教欧洲为使命，同时对抗着帝国内部的新教异端和东方的异教帝国。三十年战争后，奥地利哈布斯堡王朝重塑了中东欧政治，建立了以奥地利-匈牙利-波希米亚三位一体为核心的多民族帝国。

　　俄罗斯帝国自称“第三罗马帝国”，肩负着传播东正教的使命，同时也是金帐汗国的继承者，不断向东方扩张。帝国的中心是变动的，从基辅到莫斯科再到圣彼得堡，最后又回到莫斯科。帝国在东方和西方之间、斯拉夫主义和西化之间徘徊。唯一不变的是无垠的扩张。

　　大英帝国从建立之初便打上了全球化的印记。它以传播新教、拓展商业为使命。来自英伦三岛的人们在世界各个角落定居，将帝国的普世追求变为现实。它经历了从北美帝国到印太帝国的转变，在白人自治领、印度和其他殖民地践行因俗而治，如今仍通过英联邦发挥着世界影响力。

　　大法兰西帝国是最像民族国家的帝国。法国人不接受多民族帝国，认为帝国的子民都要具有法兰西民族的品质。他们在殖民地强行推行法兰西化，开始推广的是天主教和绝对主义，大革命后则是共和思想和启蒙主义。它在欧洲帝国和海洋帝国之间反复切换，但不管在哪里，它都致力于培养法兰西化的本地精英。

　　如今，帝国时代早已过去。但各个帝国曾尝试过用不同的手段处理现代民族国家也会面临的难题，譬如差异性和多元化治理。在我们这个全球化和民族国家并行的年代，帝国的治理经验和顶层设计或许能为这个大变局时代的全球治理提供一些经验。

　　作者简介······

　　（美）克里尚·库马尔(Krishan Kumar，1942—)，美国弗吉尼亚大学社会学系教授、大学高级讲座教授，肯特大学博士，布里斯托尔大学、中欧大学和法国高等研究实践学院访问教授，哈佛大学访问学者，曾在肯特大学和普林斯顿高等研究院工作。他的主要研究方向是民族主义、帝国主义、欧洲史和全球史。

　　库马尔的主要作品有《预言与进步：工业与后工业社会的社会学》、《现代的乌托邦与反乌托邦》、《现代社会的兴起：西方的社会和政治发展》，以及《英国民族认同的形成》等。2018年，他的代表作《统治的技艺》获得美国社会学协会比较与历史社会学分会颁发的巴林顿·摩尔图书奖。

【 Content Introduction 】

A history of human civilization, but also a history of how man ruled. For most of pre-modern times, empires were the dominant form of human domination. In modern times, the American and French Revolutions forged nation-states from their forges. Nationalism seems to be the rule of man. Empire became a byword for invaders and colonialism, swept into the dustbin of history. However, the modern nation-state has not completely solved the problem of human governance. National contradictions and great-power chauvinism have produced war after war. Since the 21st century, with the in-depth development of globalization and multiculturalism, empire has become the object of people's attention again.

Different from a large number of anti-imperialist histories written with the ruled as the protagonist, Professor Krishan Kumar takes a new approach and presents the rise and fall course, governance experience and mission pursuit of five world empires - Ottoman, Habsburg, Russia, Great Britain and Greater France - from the perspective of imperial rulers and main peoples.

The Ottoman Empire was both an Islamic empire and a European empire. It inherited both the Arab Empire and the Byzantine Empire. It was tasked with spreading Islam, but it also protected the Greek Orthodox Christians under its rule. It governed non-Muslim subjects through the Milite system and absorbed non-Muslim subjects into the ruling class through the Demishemet system.

The Habsburgs ruled both the Spanish Empire and the Holy Roman Empire by marriage. Its mission was to protect Catholic Europe against Protestant heresies within the Empire and pagan empires in the East. After the Thirty Years' War, the Austrian Habsburgs reshaped the politics of Central and Eastern Europe, establishing a multi-ethnic empire centered on the Austrian-Hungarian-Bohemian triad.

The Russian Empire, which called itself the "Third Roman Empire," was tasked with spreading Orthodoxy and was the successor to the Golden Horde, expanding eastward. The center of the empire was shifting, from Kiev to Moscow to St. Petersburg and back again to Moscow. The Empire was torn between East and West, between Slavism and Westernization. The only constant is the expansion of the infinite.

The British Empire was marked by globalisation from its inception. Its mission was to spread Protestantism and expand commerce. People from the British Isles settled in every corner of the world, turning the universal quest for empire into reality. It went through the transition from the North American Empire to the Indo-Pacific Empire, practiced rule by custom in the White Dominions, India and other colonies, and still wields world influence through the Commonwealth.

The Great French Empire is the empire most like the nation state. The French did not accept a multi-ethnic empire, believing that the people of the empire should have the qualities of the French nation. They imposed Franco-Westernization in the colonies, first with Catholicism and absolutism, then with Republicanism and Enlightenment after the Revolution. It switched back and forth between the European empire and the maritime Empire, but wherever it was, it worked to cultivate the local elite of the French Westernization.

The age of empires is now long gone. But empires have tried different approaches to the problems that modern nation-states face, such as diversity and pluralistic governance. In our age of globalization and the nation-state, the experience of imperial governance and top-level design may offer some lessons for global governance in this era of great change.

About the author

Krishan Kumar (1942 -), Professor of Sociology, University Senior Chair Professor, University of Virginia, PhD, University of Kent, visiting professor at the University of Bristol, Central European University and the School of Advanced Studies in France, visiting scholar at Harvard University, has worked at the University of Kent and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His main research interests are nationalism, imperialism, European history and global history.

Kumar's books include Prophecy and Progress: The Sociology of Industrial and Post-Industrial Society, Modern Utopias and Dystopias, The Rise of Modern Society: Social and Political Development in the West, and The Making of British National Identity. In 2018, his masterpiece, The Art of Ruling, won the Barrington Moore Book Award from the American Sociological Association's Section on Comparative and Historical Sociology.