I think you should define "greatness" first. And I have no idea why you added American Empire in that mix.
WHEN UR SITTING ON A BLOODY CONTINENT THAT YOU STOLE FROM ANOTHER RACE AND C-O-L-O-N-I-S-E-D IT!!!
Ahem, besides which, when the war of independence (or as we like to call it in england, "the second civil war"
or "The continent that wanted to be like the channel islands" happened
and we left ya
you did'nt say "oh gosh, this isnt our land, those nasty colonials took, lets give it back", no you were worse than we EVER were
thats why the natives sided with us.
So indeed, You are a despotic, two-faced imperialist country, whatever way you cut it.
sorry just the facts
I'm going to go with the British Empire.
1)When the British conquered India, India had well over 150 million people, Britain had about 5-10 million. How much of the worlds population lived under British rule near the end?
2) A logistical nightmare by any stretch of imagination. Keeping all those troops supplied, etc. is a feat all its own.
3) The size of it for the time. This was all done in the age of steam or earlier. These were the days before satellites, cell phones, or even normal phones.
I'm going to give a nod to China for sheer longevity though. And a second nod to the Ottomans, just a bad location and bad luck brought them down.
Quote:Greatness;I think you should define "greatness" first. And I have no idea why you added American Empire in that mix.
How long it lasted, what kind of mark it left on the world, how big it was, what kind of achievements did it complete.
Stuff like that.
And I added America because of that reason, you've got those large chunks of native land that has been colonized, Canada the same but we are not an empire.
The Vikings were big, but I wouldn't call it an empire. If you said best raiders in history, I would have picked the Vikings. They found, the northern most point of Europe, they colonized Iceland (one of the few places on Earth to have been totally devoid of human life before they arrived), AND they discovered America centuries before Columbus was a gleam in his grandpa's eyes.
Jersay, I believe that the Vikings did do all that, I think it just lacks the cohesion of an empire.
1. you didnt kick our asses (what the hell is canada eh?), did you know the only time Europe has been united is when they fought, for you against us. you did none of it on ur own.
2. Washington was the traitor, begging to join us then throwing his toys out of the pram when we said no, could not tell a lie my backside.
3. You continued to colonise north american LONG after we left you, we did too, but we never claimed it as "freedom"
4. the channel islands were given to the soldiers of King William the first for taking new land .i.e. england, and because of this, they were allowed not to pay any taxes, and were answerable to only the crown, this was over 700 years before the US.
5. Oh yes, we have slaughtered countless millions, but strange, the facts about india above...if we were tht bad, they could easily kill us, and I think u'll find Canada was the first north american country to pay at least a little respect to the natives...Navanut I think.
6. Just an example but, Ghandi went and stayed in the east end of london with the poor to emphises that his people were just like a lot of ours, you had to have a certain amount of money to travel to the new world, so, compared to a lot of people in england at the time, it was indeed YOU who were the rich, so as I say, to many other countries, your little french/spanish/dutch kinda united Europe and little old USA against England + a few german mercinerys wasnt such a surprise victory after all.
These ARE facts
colonise is such a vast word, they "aquired", but then we "aquired" a lot of land too, dutch east india company, a lot of the land we had was from greements, hong kong for example, but they, ok canada and the rest of the america's are sitting on land that wasnt oridginally theres, so the argument against colonialsm flys out the window
Daz_Hockey, America didn't colonize the continent. They pruchased Louisiana, won the Oregon territory through a peace treaty, united with Texas, and grabbed California from the Mexicans. All that land was under control of someone else, not indiginous peoples. And they didn't claim it as freedom, read up on Manifest Destiny. If it hadn't been them, it would have been somebody else.
And Britain may have been better than the United States at dealing with the natives, but the French were better than th English before the French and Indian Wars (7 Years War). The vast majority of the natives sided with the French in that litle war.