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| | EMPIRE (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06) |
 | | For many centuries, the term "Empire" in the West applied exclusively to states which considered themselves to be successors to the Roman Empire, such as the Byzantine Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, or, later, the Russian Empire ruled from the "Third Rome". |
 | | An Emperor-based empire can readily become a republic by means of a coup (Brazil, 1889, Central African Empire,); or it can become a republic with its dominions reduced to a core territory (Germany, Ottoman Empire). |
 | | The former Soviet Union had many of the criteria of an empire, but nevertheless did not claim to be one, nor was it ruled by a traditional hereditary "emperor". |
| www.yotor.org /wiki/en/em/Empire.htm (1128 words) |
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