100 Largest Empires in History

This video shows the 100 largest empires in History.

Empires are defined as “any relatively large sovereign political entity whose components are not sovereign”

Data is mostly based on:
Rein Taagepera (1979). Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D. Social Science History. Vol. 3, No. 3/4 (1979), pp. 115-138

I updated Rein Taagepera‘s list because :
- I drew the shapes of the countries on Google map and sometimes found different results from Taagepera's
- I added some empires. For example, I added the United States in its XIXth century form, when it had a colonial empire consisting of the Philippines, Guam, Samoa, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panama. I would not have classified the USA as an empire today.

You might notice that some empires look larger than others on the map, while being classified as smaller. That is because maps do not represent the actual size of a sphere like the earth.

[CasshernSinz]

Doesn't include Napoleon's French Empire but counts the USA as an "empire".

Okay...

Edit: Whoa...this blew up more than I thought it would. 1yr later I get a random message about a comment on this video and I suddenly find 13k likes and 500comments

[Cian]

China's that guy who makes a new account every time the free trial ends.

[fishyplayz]

Mongols: *Annexed a whole continent in less then a century*
Britain: *Owned a large portion of the world at one point*
Rome: *Had one big army to protect a big kingdom*
Spaniards: *Colonized the new world*
France: *Single Handedly took down a continent with a stumpy general*
China: *Keeps coming back*
Brazil: *Brazil*

[LDGRXR]

The spanish, russian and mongol empires were at one point bigger than whats shown here
The spanish empire had colonies in europe and their american colonies extended from the tip of south america all the way to canada
The russian empire extended from finland to alaska, making it bigger than the USSR
The mongol empire shown in the video is smaller than the russian empire. The mongol empire at its peak had way more russian territory and also had some territory that was later part of the qing empire.

[ubyty]

Any random island: *exists*
UK: "is for me?"

[butwithpotatoes]

Mongol Empire: I am the biggest empire in history
random island that like tea: actually...

[user_]

Some random Rock in the ocean:*peacefully exists*
The British Empire: *M I N E*

[BarbarosTheBarbarian]

I'm impressed that you've included Xiongnu Empire, Rouran Khaganate, and Gokturk Khaganate. But you've shown the Xiongnu Empire at almost half of its size.

[itssaad]

British Empire was so huge, that it had a continent for its prison lol

[very_smug]

First of all, you forgot about alaska, second, you forgot napoleon

Napoleon: *triggered*

[johnwinston]

Imagine how hard is Persian History School exams

[ididntfindname]

Do you want to visit United kingdom ?
30% of the earth: "I live there"

[japanballirk]

0:10 Akkadian Empire (2240 BC)
0:12 Visigothic Kingdom (476)
0:14 Caliphate of Cōrdoba (1000)
0:16 Khmer Empire (1240)
0:19 Austro-Hungarian Empire (1905)
0:21 Hyksos (1650 BC)
0:23 Bulgarian Empire (927)
0:26 Srivijayan Empire (1200)
0:28 Empire of Harsha (625)
0:30 Neo-Babylonian Empire (562 BC)
0:32 Songhai Empire (1550)
0:35 Chu (300 BC)
0:37 Avar Khaganate (600)
0:40 Majapahit Empire (1350)
0:44 Mali Empire (1380)
0:47 Assyrian Empire (670 BC)
0:49 Zhou Dynasty (900 BC)
0:51 Chola Empire (1030)
0:53 Holy Roman Empire (1050)
0:56 Apmohad Caliphate (1200)
0:58 Burmese Empire (1580)
1:01 Kalmar Union (1400)
1:03 Kush Empiee (700 BC)
1:05 Indo-Greek Kingdom (150 BC)
1:07 Ethiopian Empire (1950)
1:10 Buyid Dynasty (980)
1:12 Shang Dynasty (1122 BC)
1:15 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1480)
1:17 Pratihara Empire (860)
1:19 Swedish Empire (1658)
1:21 Ayyubid Sultanate (1200)
1:24 Khitan Empire (1210)
1:26 Frankish Empire (814)
1:28 Inca Empire (1527)
1:30 Maratha Empire (1760)
1:33 Fatimid Caliphate (969)
1:36 Nanda Empire (325 BC)
1:38 Gupta Empire (440)
1:40 Sasanian Empire (550)
1:42 Ghurid Dynasty (1200)
1:45 Almoeavid Dynasty (1120)
1:47 Hunnic Empire (441)
1:49 Median Empire (585 BC)
1:52 Ancient Egypt (1450 BC)
1:54 Saffarid Dynasty (900)
1:57 Mamluk Sultanate (1300)
1:59 Dutch Empire (1930)
2:01 Kievan Rus (1000)
2:03 Qajar Dynasty (1800)
2:05 Ilkhanate (1310)
2:08 Kushan Empire (200)
2:10 Delhi Sultanate (1333)
2:12 Belgian Empire (1956)
2:15 Gran Colombia (1819)
2:17 Song Dynasty (980)
2:19 Hephthalie Empire (470)
2:22 Liao Empire (947)
2:24 Parthian Empire (50 BC)
2:26 Samanid Empire (928)
2:29 Khawarazmian Empire (1210)
2:31 Jin Dynasty (280)
2:34 German Empire (1912)
2:36 Ming Dynasty (1450)
2:38 Han Dynasty (100)
2:40 Safavid Empire (1629)
2:42 Mauryan Empire (261 BC)
2:45 Ghaznavid Empire (1209)
2:47 Seleucid Empire (301 BC)
2:49 Seljuk Empire (1080)
2:52 Byzantine Empire (555)
2:54 Uyghur Khaganate (800)
2:57 Tang Dynasty (715)
3:00 Italian Empire (1938)
3:01 Rouran Khaganate (405)
3:04 Chagatai Khanate (1310)
3:06 Mughal Empire (1690)
3:08 Tibetan Empire (800)
3:11 Xiongnu Empire (176 BC)
3:13 Nazi Germany (1942)
3:15 Ottoman Empire (1683)
3:17 Timurid Empire (1405)
3:20 Mexican Empire (1824)
3:23 Roman Empire (117)
3:25 Golden Horde (1310)
3:28 Macedonian Empire (323 BC)
3:31 Achaemenid Empire (500 BC)
3:32 Göktürk Khaganate (557)
3:35 Empire of Japan (1942)
3:37 Brazilian Empire (1889)
3:40 Portuguese Empire (1820)
3:42 United States (1899)
3:45 Yuan Dynasty (1310)
3:48 Islamic Caliphate (730)
3:50 French Empire (1920)
3:52 Qing Dynasty (1820)
3:55 Spanish Empire (1810)
3:58 Russian Empire (1895)
4:04 Mongol Empire (1310)
4:09 British Empire (1920)

This is just a timelapse
But if I forgor other can put the timelapse at comment

[zequixd]

Everybody gangsta till galactic empire join the chat

[HolyRomanEmpireMapping]

Really Nice Video❤
Well there are some Mistakes
Mauryan Empire and Roman Empire had same peak land area (5.0 Million sq.km) and Mauryan Empire also had lands as far as till eastern Iran and Afganistan.
And the Ottoman Empire was bigger than the Roman Empire (5.2 Million sq.km).

[erichuang]

Rome - Rome
Byzantium - Eastern Rome
Russia - Third Rome
Ottomans - Islamic Rome
The U.S. - New Rome

Soviet Union - Red Rome

[orikmalka]

Forgot to add Alaska in the Russian empire

[infoprovider]

Small island in the middle of nowhere
Britain: MINE!

[OrbitalLizardStudios]

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize this was based on total area and not population lol

[rodriguesoton]

Brazil: I´m a giant south american.
Portugal: Like father like son.