文章基本信息

标题：East-West Orientation of Historical Empires and Modern States
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作者：Peter Turchin ; Jonathan M. Adams ; Thomas D. Hall 等
期刊名称：Journal of World-Systems Research
电子版ISSN：1076-156X
出版年度：2006
卷号：12
期号：2
页码：219-229
DOI：10.5195/jwsr.2006.369
出版社：American Sociological Association Section on Political Economy of the World System
摘要：Jared Diamond (1997) hypothesized that if environment is important in limiting the spread of cultures, cultural units would also tend to extend more broadly along lines of latitude than along lines of longitude. We test this hypothesis by studying the range shapes of (a) historical empires and (b) modern states. Our analysis of the 62 largest empires in history supports this conjecture: there is a statistically significant tendency to expand more east-west than north-south. Modern states also show this trend, although the results are not statistically significant.
其他摘要：Jared Diamond (1997) hypothesized that if environment is important in limiting the spread of cultures, cultural units would also tend to extend more broadly along lines of latitude than along lines of longitude. We test this hypothesis by studying the range shapes of (a) historical empires and (b) modern states. Our analysis of the 62 largest empires in history supports this conjecture: there is a statistically significant tendency to expand more east-west than north-south. Modern states also show this trend, although the results are not statistically significant.