An empire if you are talking in terms of size.
The earliest civilization in the Middle East were the Sumerians. They had a major empire in the Mesopotamian Crescent about 2500 BC.
I'd say an civilization
songhai empire
The British Empire has both positively and negatively effected the formation of Modern Civilization.
The Maya civilization.
the Aztec
Persian Empire.
civilization
The Western half of the roman empire is a bla bla civilization The Eastern half of the roman empire is a bla ba dee bla civilization
When one civilization takes over and rules another civilization, that is a colonial empire.
When one civilization takes over and rules another civilization, that is a colonial empire.
The collapse of the sumerian empire happened because the code of laws were expected to pass down to civilization to civilization(Sumerian to babyloin).