During the 20th century BC the Indo-European Hittites entered the region and gradually established a great empire which was destroyed by invaders in the 12th century.

( 5 ) The union and discipline of the Christian republic, which gradually formed an independent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman empire.

Ebla appears to have been founded around 3000 BCE and gradually built its empire through trade with the cities of Sumer and Akkad, as well as with peoples to the northwest.

Contrary to the accepting nature of the Ptolemaic empire towards native religions and customs, the Seleucids gradually tried to force Hellenization upon the Jewish people in their territory by outlawing Judaism.

In the next two centuries, Portugal gradually lost much of its wealth and status as the Dutch, English and French took an increasing share of the spice and slave trades ( the economic basis of its empire ), by surrounding or conquering the widely-scattered Portuguese trading posts and territories, leaving it with ever fewer resources to defend its overseas interests.

Over the next decade, disputes between Serbia and its neighbors erupted as Serbia moved to build its power and gradually reclaim its 14th-century empire.

The proportion of serfs within the empire had gradually decreased " from 45-50 percent at the end of the eighteenth century, to 37. 7 percent in 1858.

Between the 7th and the 10th centuries, the local population, the Bulgars and the other tribes in the empire, which were outnumbered by the Slavs gradually became absorbed by them, adopting a South Slav language.

As the fifth century wore on, what started as an alliance of independent city-states gradually became an Athenian empire.

The biggest part of the district was part of duchy of Lorraine which gradually came under French sovereignty ( still as a part of the holy empire ) between 1737 and 1766.

For forty years Germanism, backed by all the weight of the empire and imposed with all the weapons of official persecution, had barely held its own in North Schleswig ; despite an enormous emigration, in 1905 139, 000 of the 148, 000 inhabitants of North Schleswig spoke Danish, while of the German-speaking immigrants it was found that more than a third spoke Danish in the first generation, although from 1864 onward, German had gradually been substituted for Danish in the churches, the schools, and even in the playground.

While spiral stairs were before still a rare sight in Roman buildings, this space-saving form henceforth spread gradually throughout the empire.

: I shall relate how the new settlement was, during many troubled years, successfully defended against foreign and domestic enemies ; how, under that settlement, the authority of law and the security of property were found to be compatible with a liberty of discussion and of individual action never before known ; how, from the auspicious union of order and freedom, sprang a prosperity of which the annals of human affairs had furnished no example ; how our country, from a state of ignominious vassalage, rapidly rose to the place of umpire among European powers ; how her opulence and her martial glory grew together ; how, by wise and resolute good faith, was gradually established a public credit fruitful of marvels which to the statesmen of any former age would have seemed incredible ; how a gigantic commerce gave birth to a maritime power, compared with which every other maritime power, ancient or modern, sinks into insignificance ; how Scotland, after ages of enmity, was at length united to England, not merely by legal bonds, but by indissoluble ties of interest and affection ; how, in America, the British colonies rapidly became far mightier and wealthier than the realms which Cortes and Pizarro had added to the dominions of Charles the Fifth ; how in Asia, British adventurers founded an empire not less splendid and more durable than that of Alexander.

Wei, seeing that Eastern Han was gradually unifying the empire, inexplicably began considering independence.

He also rejected advice to have the non-Han gradually moved outside of the empire proper.

Throughout the centuries from the time of the emperor the power of the empire gradually increased over a diverse terrain so that by the reign of the emperor in the opening years of the 9th century, its influence extended as far south as Bengal and as far north as Mongolia.

In North Africa the first metropolitan appears during the fourth century, the Bishop of Carthage being recognized as primate of the dioceses of Northern Africa ; metropolitans of the separate provinces gradually appear, although the boundaries of these provinces did not coincide with the divisions of the empire.

He gradually built his empire by buying or creating local or regional newspapers through his holding company Socpresse ( and its associate France-Antilles ).

This neo-Nazi conspiracy is said to be animated by an " Iron Dream " in which the American Empire, having thwarted the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy and overthrown its Zionist Occupation Government, gradually establishes a Fourth Reich formally known as the " Western Imperium " — a pan-Aryan world empire modeled after Adolf Hitler's New Order — which reverses the " decline of the West " and ushers a golden age of white supremacy.

But slowly, as can happen, they grew content, and lazy, and gradually their own empire began to slip between their fingers ".

There were multiple alien dimensions, generated pseudo-randomly, and the aliens gradually expanded their empire as the game progressed.

However, when on account of difficulties at home the Frankish rulers were no longer able to give their attention to the outlying borderlands of their empire, the country gradually withdrew entirely from their allegiance.

Vassal cities of the empire gradually became autonomous and the result was a political array of different, independent states in the region by 1780.

In 1408, Rupert hosted a banquet for the Electors of the Holy Roman Empire, but after that Stahleck gradually lost its importance for the empire.

Spain's powerful world empire of the 16th and 17th centuries reached its height and declined under the Habsburgs.

The empire later declined as a result of internal intrigue, ultimately being supplanted by the Songhai Empire.

As the power of the Roman empire declined the Franks pushed forward along both banks of the Rhine, and by the end of the 5th century had conquered all the lands that had formerly been under Roman influence.

As the power of the Roman empire declined the Franks pushed forward along both banks of the Rhine, and by the end of the 5th century had conquered all the lands that had formerly been under Roman influence.

As the Incan empire declined, the leaf became more widely available.

Cao Pi declined, in a fateful choice that most historians believe doomed his empire to ruling only the northern and central China — and this chance would not come again.

* Ptolemy V is poisoned after a reign of 24 years in which the Egyptian kingdom has declined in power and influence and has lost most of its empire outside Egypt other than Cyprus and Cyrenaica.

Cao declined this suggestion, in a fateful choice that most historians believe doomed his empire to ruling only the northern and central China ; Such an opportunity would not come again.

Emperor Guangwu declined, stating that his empire was so lacking in strength at the time that he could not expend efforts to protect Xiyu kingdoms.

Ilé-Ifè is known worldwide for its ancient and naturalistic bronze, stone and terracotta sculptures, which reached their peak of artistic expression between 1200 and 1400 A. D. After this period, production declined as political and economic power shifted to the nearby kingdom of Benin which, like the Yoruba kingdom of Oyo, developed into a major empire.

However, after death of Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1772, the influence of Durrani empire declined sharply in mere fifty years.

After a brief course of triumph, the interests of France declined, and a new empire in India was established by the British.

Like Riose, Belisarius served a strong emperor, Justinian the Great, in an empire that it had declined from its peak ( Belisarius was one of the people, along with Justinian, known as " the last of the Romans ", i. e., imperials ); helped it to recapture much of its lost territory ; and was called back on baseless suspicion that he was angling for the Imperial throne.

And as the successors of Asoka happened to be weak, the empire inevitably declined.

His media empire, after decades of personal mismanagement, quickly declined after his death.

It was fitting depiction of the rapidly declining empire, which had declined, in Napoleon's assessment, into a " drawing room of Europe " peopled with casinos, carnivals, and courtesans for hire.

Tomb robbing was prevalent all over Thebes as Egypt's fortunes declined and her Asiatic empire was lost.

The Mughal empire declined gradually after 1707, but the Jodhpur court was beset by intrigue ; rather than benefiting from circumstances, Marwar descended into strife and invited the intervention of the Marathas, who soon supplanted the Mughals as overlords of the region.

The roots of Greek ascendancy can be traced to the need of the Ottomans for skilled and educated negotiators as the power of their empire declined and they were compelled to rely on treaties more than the force of arms.

Voltaire wrote of the Empire as something neither Holy nor Roman, nor an Empire, and in comparison to the British " empire ", saw its German counterpart as an abysmal failure that reached its pinnacle of success in the early Middle Ages and declined thereafter.

With the promotion of Christianity as a legal religion of the Roman Empire by Constantine in 313 ( the Edict of Milan ), the position of Jews in Italy and throughout the empire declined rapidly and dramatically.

The empire gradually declined and was conquered by El Hadj Umar Tall's Toucouleur Empire in 1861 ( see battle of Ségou ), then by the French Army Colonel Louis Archinard in 1892.

Following 1725 the empire declined rapidly, weakened by wars of succession ; famine and local revolts fueled by it ; the growth of religious intolerance ; the rise of the Maratha Empire ; and finally British colonialism.

The quality of these border troops declined because the limitanei had to live in poor conditions in impoverished and isolated towns, unlike their well-off counterparts the comitatenses, who were typically assigned to more urban and prosperous areas of the empire.