Best Empire?

[Comte Arnau]

Following the trend of the best soldiers, but on an attempt at being objective, I analyzed five different lists:

A. Based on territorial possession:

1. British Empire
2. Mongol Empire
3. Russian Empire
4. Spanish Empire
5. Qing Empire (Chinese/Manchu)
6. Yuan Empire (Chinese)
7. Umayyad Caliphate (Arabic)
8. Second French Colonial Empire
9. Abbasid Caliphate (Arabic)
10. Portuguese Empire

B. Based on % of world population:

1. Achaemenid Empire (Persian)
2. Sassanid Empire (Persian)
3. Qing Empire (Chinese/Manchu)
4. Roman Empire
5. Mauryan Empire (Magadhi Indian)
6. Umayyad Caliphate (Arabic)
7. Mogul Empire (Indo-Persian)
8. Ming Empire (Chinese)
9. Tang Empire (Chinese)
10. Gupta Empire (Indian)

C. Based on length in History:

1. Mayan Empire
2. Chinese Empire
3. Roman Empire
4. Chola Empire (Tamil)
5. Assyrian Empire (Akkadian)
6. Pandyan Empire (Tamil)
7. Byzantine Empire (Greco-Roman)
8. Silla Empire (Korean)
9. Holy Roman Empire (German)
10. Aksumite Empire (Ethiopian)

D. Based on population:

1. British Empire
2. Qing Empire (Chinese/Manchu)
3. Russian Empire
4. Mogul Empire (Indo-Persian)
5. Japanese Empire
6. Song Empire (Chinese)
7. Second French Colonial Empire
8. Ming Empire (Chinese)
9. Mongol Empire
10. Roman Empire

E. Based on GDP:

1. British Empire
2. Nazi Empire (German)
3. Japanese Empire
4. Russian Empire
5. Qing Empire (Chinese)
6. French Empire
7. Italian Empire
8. Indian Empire (Indo-British)
9. Afsharid Empire (Persian)
10. Austro-Hungarian Empire

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Although I still think Empires should only be compared with their contemporaries, let us see the five ones that got repeated more obviously in the lists, with a better score:

1. The Chinese Empire (Although each dinasty should be considered a different 'Empire', the fact is that modern China continues to be almost as large as at the peak of its territorial expansion with the Qing Dinasty)
2. The British Empire
3. The Russian Empire
4. The Roman Empire
5. The Mongol Empire

Probably more categories should be added, such as the effect it had on the conquered land, although I guess it's harder to quantify. A way of doing could be by measuring the impact of the colonial/imperial languages: Latin, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Hindustani, Persian...

If so, the Mongol should be changed in the list for either the French or the Portuguese Empires.


Your opinion?

[Ibericus]

I don't know the GDP, but certainly the Spanish Empire during it's glorious days was the richest empire of the entire world.

[Comte Arnau]

I don't know the GDP, but certainly the Spanish Empire during it's glorious days was the richest empire of the entire world.

Any source for that?

One that was considered the richest Empire in the 13th century by Marco Polo was the Pandyan Empire, in southern India.

[Joe McCarthy]

Legacy is the proper way to assess this in my estimation and the Romans and British are the only game in town. Britain gave us America. Spain gave us Mexico. The Mongols were cultureless savages on horseback that destroyed things others built up.

[Psychonaut]

LOL, you missed the obvious one bro:

[Comte Arnau]

LOL, you missed the obvious one bro:

Well, that would reduce the comparison to a couple of centuries, don't you think? Besides, territorial possession implies 'military bases' in most Empires throughout History.

[Raskolnikov]

That is a map of bases.

[Psychonaut]

That is a map of bases.

LOL, this.

[Comte Arnau]

The fact that American imperialism exists doesn't necessarily mean there is an American Empire. Even if sometimes it seems so, bases on countries doesn't mean that the citizens of those countries are subjects to the American 'emperor'.

[Psychonaut]

The fact that American imperialism exists doesn't necessarily mean there is an American Empire. Even if sometimes it seems so, bases on countries doesn't mean that the citizens of those countries are subjects to the American 'emperor'.

Denial: It's a river in Egypt.