Cycles of History

From what I remember about history there seems to be a pattern concerning the rise and fall of nations, empires and political entities. This pattern seems to me to be true for almost any and all societies that have existed throughout history. First, we have the rise followed by its propagation as a result of conquering and destroying neighbouring, competing or major empires that might exist at that time. Then after some time the empire for various reasons weakens and either completely falls to be replaced with a new one or loses its prominence and power. I think this is exactly what happened when the Islamic empire was first created. This was also the case with the Roman Empire with the advent of Christianity, and later the Muslim empire ended or weakened as a result of internal events.

This is what I understand to be happening: empires come to exist either as religious states, i.e. Christianity and Islam, or as politically constituted entities. The latter, which in a way contributes to the rise of a religious world but is not its primary cause, is what we have and have had before and after religious empires. What I mean is that the Islamic and Christian worlds had their transcendent beliefs as their primary cause, but other empires such as the Roman or Persian or Indian empires were all mere political entities, with religion playing little role in their existence. Even now we can see that happening today in our time. We no longer have empires or religious worlds, they have been replaced by countries and nations which again only have political foundations; Ancient empires have changed into countries constantly battling for world power.

I know you would here say that we still have the Muslim world. But I think that this world exists in spirit, not as a unified whole for as I said the politically founded countries have replaced it. Since both Islam and Christianity are based on transcendent beliefs which go beyond nations and countries, they continue to exist and have power over the world as they have penetrated into the lives of people, but they do not have the political power behind them that once had made empires. I cannot say that they will never again have that power. For it is quite possible that one day all nations will unite, though I do not what the underlying unifying power will be.