History is replete with conquest, violence, defeat of ambitious rivals or vulner­able groups, but a fundamental question is what came next—whether and by what means diverse people were incorporated into a large

As long as political am­bition exists in the world, and as long as human populations are distinguished by linguistic and cultural variety, conquest and subjugation will lead would-be rulers to seek ways to govern unlike people.

Empires were large states that managed to incorporate diverse populations while reproducing distinctions and hierarchy among them. Over time, empires developed multiple strategies to deal with this essential task, tactics that we label the “poli­tics of difference.” In this chapter we discuss how empires, compared with other kinds of states and with each other, confronted difference. We describe two un­like approaches to difference, the “Roman” and “Mongol” types. We then elaborate the strengths and weaknesses of particular governing strategies and consider the transformations and repercussions of the different ways in which empires exercised power. Finally, we look at ways out of empire, and how the politics of difference inflected these changes in sovereignty.