DYNAMIKA IMPERIÓW-CYWILIZACJI
THE DYNAMICS OF EMPIRES - CIVILIZATIONS

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the author's conception of the dynamics of empirescivilizations that shape world history. They have three dimensions: cultural, materialand political, and in their development they go through life cycles, called here dynamics.It consists of the phases of emergence, expansion, crisis and decline. Empirescivilizations emerged and began to expand when five conditions were met: demographicpotential, territory, spiritual energy, knowledge (including the level of technologicaldevelopment), and power (the efficiency of the political system). The mechanisms ofexpansion were the "spring effect" and the "snowball mechanism." The expansion resultedin the formation of a center-periphery system with asymmetrical political, economic, andcultural relations. The periphery either integrated with the center or emancipated itselfin identity and became politically independent. Crisis and decline occurred as a result of"overgrowth" and loss of control of the periphery and competition from empires enteringthe expansion phase. The decline of empires-civilizations usually involved the politicaldimension, leaving elements of cultural and material legacy and memory. Potentially,they could become the "soil" on which new empires grow.

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