Territorial expansion offered empires new revenue, resources, and land with which to reward supporters, especially where rival empires shared a border. An empire could also increase returns from existing territory through infrastructure, agriculture, and mining. Such investment could raise imperial income without enlarging the map, although it did not have to benefit the governed population or serve an altruistic purpose. State capacity and benevolent development were therefore separate questions within the resource competition behind the Ottoman-Venetian rivalry.
Notable Point · 11:49-13:29
Expansion, infrastructure, and the search for imperial revenue
Empires could seek revenue by taking new lands or by extracting more from existing territories through infrastructure, agriculture, and mining, and the latter was not necessarily altruistic.