Wikipedia:Former Empires

One of the key questions in any portal deletion discussion is whether the topic is a broad subject area in accordance with portal guidelines. The question may likewise arise in the near future with regard to the creation of portals to replace portals that have been deleted. The question has in particular arisen with regard to former countries. I will not try to define a proposed guideline (and am skeptical about portals in general), but will try to comment briefly on questions of when former countries or former empires can be considered broad subject areas.

The two specific portals that have prompted this essay are Portal:Umayyad Caliphate and Portal:Austria-Hungary, both of which I think marginally qualify in terms of being “broad subject areas”. From a Euro-Centric perspective, or a Western-centric perspective, the clearest example of a former country that is a broad subject area is the Roman Empire, which lasted for approximately four centuries and covered 5 million square kilometers on three so-called continents. Largely concurrent with the Roman Empire, of approximately the same size, and of approximately the same duration of four centuries, at the other side of Eurasia, was the Han dynasty. There is no question that these are broad subject areas in space and time. Specific former countries and former empires become less obvious if their extent in either space or time is less, and are equally obvious if their extent in space is greater, or if their extent in time is longer, but great empires normally do not last longer than a few centuries.

The Ummayad Caliphate had twice the area of the Roman Empire, but lasted a little less than a century before it was succeeded by the Abbasid Caliphate, which is again as clear a case of a “broad subject area” in time and space as human history offers. The only real question about the Ummayad Caliphate is whether it is a separate broad subject area from its grand successor the Abbasid Caliphate.

Austria-Hungary was a great power for half a century. If one counts the Austrian Empire from the Congress of Vienna as its predecessor, it was a great power for a century.

This essay is not about notability. Any former country or former empire is notable. This is about whether it is a "broad subject area" that might warrant a portal. Not every portal about a broad subject area is worth keeping, but a portal is not worth keeping if it is not about a broad subject area.

Some former countries and former empires are obvious broad subject areas. Others are not as obvious.