Largest Economies in the World 1600-2022 | Top 15 Countries by GDP

This video shows the top 15 countries with the highest GDP from 1600 to 2022. It gives a brief history of the world economy since the 1600s.
Chinese and Indian empires were ahead until 1900s while the US started leading after the 20th century.
Gross domestic product, or GDP, is the monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced in a specific time period by countries. It is calculated using the formula: GDP = Consumption + Investment + Government Investment + (Exports - Imports).
This video uses the historical empires (Mughal Empire, Qing Dynasty, Prussia, Empire of Japan, etc.) which makes it the most accurate.
However, since this comparison goes back so far into the past, the numbers should only be take as an estimate as most historians don't even agree on a specific number.

Source:
The Angus Maddison Project & World Bank & IMF & United Nations

Music: Curse of the scarab - Kevin Macleod

[reporol]

When a company is wealthier than the country it comes from😳

[AlbertEinstein-qtuw]

During the time of Mauryans and Gupta's: Indian economy contributed 32% of world's GDP
When British came to India: India's contribution to the world's GDP was 27%
When British left India: India's contribution to the world's GDP was 0.008%

[kasahne]

Germany lost 2 worldwars and its still top 4. Respect!

[Optidorf]

Gotta love the fact that Belgium was in the top 15 in 1772, 58 years before its inception.

[Duck_The_Coloniser]

India is an example for what happens when there isn't a centralized country at the correct time

[willjapheth]

Apparently, the USA decided it was time to grow in the 1820s and just didn't stop. The rapid growth of Japan and the USSR is also pretty impressive, though it only lasted a few decades.

[CCC-zgii]

From thousands of years ago to the present, there are only a few civilizations that have experienced countless rises and falls and are still standing.

[Tout-Le-Monde]

3:01 - the jump that the East India Company made circa 1757 was solely because they defeated the last ruler of Bengal and occupied it. Bengal was the richest province of the Mughal Empire and the revenue that the company got from it alone was 1/3 of the British empire's total GDP annually

[HerrClementzin]

I am amazed how Mexico, despite the fact that it has not had peace in a very short time in its history has been among the top 20 economies for almost an entire century.

[jirachi-wishmaker]

British Raj means British Rule.
British Crown omitted the Hindustan/India part after they took over in 1857(because of the revolt) from British East India company . Still the army was called British Indian Army.

[GrizzerBear]

Imagine having the largest economy in the world for 125 straight years, and still being 31 Trillion in debt....

[NERFGAMERYT]

Huge Respect for *India & Germany* {Struggled the most} still on top 4, 5

[josephhoward]

It’s amazing that the U.S. reached #2 by the first centennial and then took the #1 spot only ten years later, in 1888. Seriously, we moved really fast. Far faster than I thought, that’s for sure!

[danielwoods]

Despite being a relatively small country that lost two world wars and was decimated in constant warfare for hundreds of years while having much fewer colonial possessions than the rest of Europe, Germany is still the 4th strongest economy on earth and the strongest in Europe. That’s quite impressive

[FBI.capturo.gente.rara.]

The Spanish empire had the real de a 8 the most important currency in the world for a long time that even the other European empires had to use that currency if they wanted to trade in Asia.

[SaadAliArts]

India and China dominated World economy for centuries until destroyed by colonialism. Both Giants are now rising again. Respect for both great nations ❤️🇮🇳❤️🇨🇳❤️

[amareshsingh]

A lot of things changed during and after industrial revolution.
Before that GDP for any empire/country was mostly dependent on their population as most of work was done with hands which meant more working hands is equal to more productivity.
Industrial revolution and subsequent imperialism meant much smaller countries were ruling the charts. Great Britain/United Kingdom for example was one of biggest economies because they were supplier for one of biggest consumers of that time British Raaj. But since India was so huge, even the internal economy (which was predominantly agriculture based) resulted in such huge GDP for British Raaj.
Per capita GDP would have given better picture where we could have clearly seen almost similar value for most countries and then a sharp rise for countries where Industrial Revolution happened.

[Rickybaba]

Portugal 🇵🇹 and Netherlands 🇳🇱 are honestly quite impressive. Both are tiny in terms of land and population (when compared to other powers), both have far larger neighbours, both managed to be top economic powers for centuries.

[arnaudpayet]

The fact that France and UK have been in the top 5 / top 10 for the past 400 years is pretty impressive !!

[lilmech]

I like how during both world wars, the rest of the world was losing money, while the US was going gas gas mode during both world wars