Where do Daniel's four beast empires come from?
The empires Daniel sees come out of the mass of humanity. They are pictured as bestial because of their greedy, oppressive behavior toward their subjects. They unfold as Nebuchadnezzar's vision did, with the first empire, Babylon, seen as a lion with eagles' wings.
Les explains that God chose the word “beast” because all these great empires are bestial in their behavior, greed, and treatment of their subjects. Daniel sees these empires come out of the mass of humanity, bestial in their makeup, and he sees them in the same unfolding as Nebuchadnezzar did. The first one is like a lion—Babylon—rather than the head of gold, and it has eagles' wings. Les also notes that through human history most people lived in poverty, slavery, and oppression until the Magna Charta came out of England in about the 14th century and delineated some human rights; even Western civilizations are not a utopia and many are still downtrodden.