History Main / VestigialEmpire

** The (United) Kingdom of the Netherlands is itself an example of this, after it lost half its core territory following the Belgian Revolution.[[/folder]]
** For centuries, the Emperor of Japan was tremendously vestigial, with warlords like the Shogun holding the real power and sometimes not even bothering to help keep up the facade of the imperial court - one emperor waited twenty-one years for there to be enough funds for an enthronement ceremony, and some emperors supposedly were forced to sell calligraphy to make ends meet.

* Japan may be also a VestigialEmpire politically, and the last country to have an Emperor [who still reigns], but on the economic side, not so vestigial. In fact, it seems that Japan's rebirth as an economic power may be the indication that the WWII Japanese political and business leaders eventually had their last laugh.
** Japan is currently experiencing serious political deadlocks and a national debt that makes that of the United States look positively small in comparison, but with an economy that's still the second or third largest in the world we can't write the Japanese off yet.

* Averted by the Ottoman Empire, which ''seemed'' to be going this way until, in the early 20th century, they underwent some major reforms and started rebuilding their strength, credibility, and prestige at a feverish pace. Just before the Ottomans found out that they were sitting on at least 20% of the oil in the world, they entered WorldWarI and got raped, stomped on, and set fire to. All that was left was the rump state of Turkey, the rest of the Middle East being partitioned between Britain and France.

* In ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', Ancient Belka was a powerful empire that spanned many dimensions, a mighty civilization that conquered every world that came its way with its superior magic and technology. However, infighting mixed with the LensmanArmsRace and widespread pollution have destroyed the empire from the inside until it finally fell apart after the self-sacrifice of the last Saint King, Olivie Segbrecht. All that's left of the Belkan Empire in modern times is the Saint Church Autonomous Region in the Northern Mid-Childa, although the Saint Church focuses more on the religious than political power (their doctrine is based around [[CrystalDragonJesus Olivie as the messianic figure]]) and preservation of the Ancient Belkan cultural and magical heritage.
** [[AceCombat Setting a number of nuclear bombs off on themselves didn't help.]]

* [[UsefulNotes:{{Pakistan}} Pakistan]] has been this since 1971, when it lost half of its country to India during the Bangladesh Liberation War.
** Unlike many nations in such circumstances Pakistan is still one of the militarily stronger ones in the region though its continued viability isn't certain.

** The expression "lingua franca" is itself a vestige of ''France'''s former power and influence. Not bad for a bunch of CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys...

** This example is probably closer to fictional portrayals than most others on this list, in that for a long time Constantinople's wealth and glory lingered, even if they could never recover the political power the Romans had of old. In fact Basil the Bulgar Slayer is believed by some estimates to have been worth almost 170 BILLION in modern US dollars, placing him among the top ten richest men to have ever lived. That last century or two, however, it was simply a shadow of it's former self, barely holding on.

* The Roman Empire's eastern half lingered, centred around Constantinople/Byzantion for over a thousand years after the better known fall of the western half. It spent most of that time gradually losing territory, power and influence, though it also had several resurgences -- one under Justinian and Belisarius, one under the Macedonian dynasty, and one under the Komnenoi emperors. It spent the last century or so of its existence as a few disconnected regions and cities around the southern Balkans, until the Ottoman Turks put it out of its misery in 1453; technically, though most forget it, the last vestige of Roman power was not Byzantium, but the small Empire of Trebizond, which did not fall until 1461.

* In ''{{Traveller}}'', the Vilani Imperium. It was superficially powerful, controlling thousands of worlds when the Terrans found it. But it was senile, indecisive, and generally a meal waiting to be snatched by whomever discovered it.
** Or, as its conquerors eventually found out, a dying elephant that would crush and suffocate anyone bold or unwary enough to try to topple it under sheer dead weight. The Rule of Man inherited all the old empire's problems, and managed to prop it up for a while, but a thousand-year Dark Age came anyway.

** Or, as its would-be conquerors eventually found out, a dying elephant that would crush anyone bold and unwary enough to try to topple it under sheer dead weight.

* In {{Traveller}} the Vilani Imperium. It was superficially powerful, controlling thousands of worlds when the Terrans found it. But it was senile, indecisive, and generally a meal waiting to be snatched by whomever discovered it.

* The default setting in ''DungeonsAndDragons'' 4th edition is rife with these, most notably Human-controlled Nerath, Tiefling-controlled Bael Turath, and Dragonborn-controlled Arkhosia.

-->--Codex entry on the Terim Imperium, DragonAge.

* The Dutch republic and its successors from about 1672 onwards. Between 1602/9 onward the Dutch republic had been one of the major powers in Europe, dominating trade (with a trade fleet larger than that of all of the other European countries combined), with the VOC (the Dutch east India company) being the most powerful in the world. At its hight of power, during the golden age, it included colonies and trade posts in Indonedia, Sri Lanka, India, Ivory Coast, the US, Brazil, South Africa, Japan, amongst others. After 1672 (called the disaster year, or rampjaar in dutch, where it was attacked by a coalition of France, England, Munster and Koln/Cologne) a steady decline started, where the Dutch trading position was taken over by the English/British in a series of four wars from 1652-1784, and wars with France and internal strife slowly turned it into a minor power. Eventually, the Republic was put out of its misery by the French in 1795. Its successor, the (united) Kingdom in the Netherlands managed to hold on to the Indonesian colonies and Suriname for about a hundred years more, until the mid 20th century.[[/folder]]

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* In ''EmperorOfTheFadingSuns'', a 4x space game where you take control of one of five noble houses in the attempt to reunite a dying galactic empire.

[[/folder]]
* The Dutch republic and its successors from about 1672 onwards. Between 1602/9 onward the Dutch republic had been one of the major powers in Europe, dominating trade (with a trade fleet larger than that of all of the other European countries combined), with the VOC (the Dutch east India company) being the most powerful in the world. At its hight of power, during the golden age, it included colonies and trade posts in Indonedia, Sri Lanka, India, Ivory Coast, the US, Brazil, South Africa, Japan, amongst others. After 1672 (called the disaster year, or rampjaar in dutch, where it was attacked by a coalition of France, England, Munster and Koln/Cologne) a steady decline started, where the Dutch trading position was taken over by the English/British in a series of four wars from 1652-1784, and wars with France and internal strife slowly turned it into a minor power. Eventually, the Republic was put out of its misery by the French in 1795. Its successor, the (united) Kingdom in the Netherlands managed to hold on to the Indonesian colonies and Suriname for about a hundred years more, until the mid 20th century

* Averted by the Ottoman Empire, which ''seemed'' to be going this way until, in the early 20th century, they underwent some major reforms and started rebuilding their strength, credibility, and prestige at a feverish pace. Just before the Ottomans found out that they were sitting on at least 20% of the oil in the world, they entered WorldWarI for no especially good reason ([[IdiotPlot hardly a unique thing]]) and got raped, stomped on, and set fire to. All that was left was the rump state of Turkey, the rest of the Middle East being partitioned between Britain and France.

* [[UsefulNotes:Pakistan Pakistan]] has been this since 1971, when it lost half of its country to India during the Bangladesh Liberation War.

* Averted by the Ottoman Empire, which ''seemed'' to be going this way until, in the early 20th century, they underwent some major reforms and started rebuilding their strength, credibility, and prestige at a feverish pace. Just before the Ottomans found out that they were sitting on at least 20% of the oil in the world, they entered WorldWarI for no especially good reason and got raped, stomped on, and set fire to. All that was left was the rump state of Turkey, the rest of the Middle East being partitioned between Britain and France.

* {{Pakistan}} has been this since 1971, when it lost half of its country to India during the Bangladesh Liberation War.

* An incredibly little-known fact: In the fourteenth century, Lithuania was the largest country in Europe, with Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia all being territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth created a new state which came into being in 1569, ruling over much of the same territory until it was systematically dismantled by Austria, Prussia, and Russia over the course of twenty-three years.\

*** You could also add in alliances such as Band Of Brothers and others that had been incontrol of vast tracts of the map, but due to internal issues, wars, etc, they were basically crushed to nothing in a matter of months.

'''Examples:'''

* ''{{Warhammer 40000}}''... just... ''{{Warhammer 40000}}''.