Greatest Empire Ever

[El Spango]

1) The greatest empire does not simply mean size, although that is a key requirment... Overall the Romans were the greatest, they changed the world forever.

2) Then equal second would most likely be the Spanish and Ottoman Empire. Both had always been in competition with each other, and both kept a balance in the world for a time.. Islam in the east, and Christianity in the west. The Spanish defeated the Ottomans on many occasions, but the Ottomans outlived the Spanish, therefore it is too hard to decide a better of the two.

The Spanish Armada was defeated, but in the end the Spanish forced the British to surrender and sign a treaty. Spain defeated pretty much everyone at least once in Europe and America... They destroyed the Ottoman fleet at the battle of Lepanto with their invincible "tericos" infantry.

The Ottomans subjagated all the Arabs, conqured the balkans and destroyed the Byzantine Empire.. Hell, they even came close to conquering Austria, and defeated the Russians many times.

3) British Empire... Hard to imagine they accomplished what they did in the time they did.

4) Byzantine Empire. I know at one time they were the eastern Roman empire, but they were autonomous from Rome, and lasted more than one thousand years after the Barbarians destroyed Rome. These people accomplished much, and their wealth, time of existence, and power was great.

5) Mongols: Strength and land... but didnt last all that long compared to the major empires and their legacy was really non-existent. THe mongols did achieve massive amounts of land however.

6) Persian Empire: Long lasting greatness and one hell of a legacy... Ironically if the Persians and Byzantines had not been at war all the time, and weakened each other so severely, Islam would not have been able to spread.

 

[Daz_Hockey]

Tha spanish empire is a great example of the fact that an empire built on gold doesnt last all that long. For size, no one disagree's that the British Empire was the largest, culturally, the Ottoman's win hands down with the scientific findings of islam at the time.

But I will still say Rome (before the split), because architectually, politically, religiously, linguisticly and historically they made the biggest impact.

mine would be:

1. Roman
2. British
3. Ottoman
4. Spanish

 

[Dick Cheney]

Persians....

1)
6) Persian Empire: Long lasting greatness and one hell of a legacy... Ironically if the Persians and Byzantines had not been at war all the time, and weakened each other so severely, Islam would not have been able to spread.

Alright Mr. Spango,
Obviously you don't understand the Persian Empire and the mediocrity that sorrounded it. What does Islam have to do with the Persian Empire? The greatest period for the persians was during the time of Cyrus the Great, (This was Before the Common Era) so Islam was non existent. Zoroastrianism was what was being followed at this time. The Persian empire was lame then, and it was even lamer under Islamic rule. Please understand me when I say Persia was a joke of an empire!!!

 

[L Gilbert]

Roman empire was pretty impressive.

 

[Dick Cheney]

Thank you Mr. Gilbert, I'm glad you think so.

 

[L Gilbert]

British Empire was pretty impressive.

 

[saeed]

just a comment

Alright Mr. Spango,
Obviously you don't understand the Persian Empire and the mediocrity that sorrounded it. What does Islam have to do with the Persian Empire? The greatest period for the persians was during the time of Cyrus the Great, (This was Before the Common Era) so Islam was non existent. Zoroastrianism was what was being followed at this time. The Persian empire was lame then, and it was even lamer under Islamic rule. Please understand me when I say Persia was a joke of an empire!!!

--------------------------
well to define the greatness we should divide the empires to the ancients and modern empires
i think the greatest modern empire was britians ( weath and land )
but the greatest ancient empire should be considered as the persian empire. ( again average of land and wealth)
Alexander the great said after he conquered babylon: " the money persian have just at bobylon is enough for three generations of greeks living" Another point is that even the roman empire 4 centries after the persian empire had less wealth than persian. it is also the empire which existed from 550B.C to 651 A.D. also the persin cities and kings are probably the only cities and kings who have been named in bible. For so many people the middl eastern countries may look like desert, but infact they were rich in minerals and valuable stones. and the other point to be consiser is that in persian empire there was no slavery, everybody had freedom of religion and culture. if you need more info i can provide you or you can research on i-net. there is also a good documentry by history channel of canada named engineering and empires :the persian empire.
anyways, everyone has his own idea... and again it depends on how you want to define the greatnessssssss.

Sourses: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Empire

 

[darkbeaver]

The greater they are the harder they fall.What was the greatest empire? That's like asking what's the greatest disease? Malaria, I bet. Now there's a sucessful disease and it's older than and technicly more sucessful than all the empires put together. Christ it's still evolving.:lol: Conquered more land too.

 

[John Welch]

No no it was the Scythians. This Persian tribe reached across the Russian steppes to west China and Mongolia, and were in Hungary and Poland 6th cent BC. Evidently they went west on the Baltic and were linked with Saxons, as "scythe" and "saxon" derive from IE skua "to cover, skin : flay an animal-skin". Thus UK and then N America were Saxon:Scythian conquests. They ruled Greek Punjab in India , 1st cent BC and built Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and ruled Java-Bali in Indonesia, and influenced E Australia. They raided Egypt after destroying Assyria, and their art is on Norse church doorposts.
If "Neil Armstrong" is from Norse-Saxon words, they reached the moon. .... Skythe "to cover"
chimera

 

[Pangloss]

The Finnish Empire totally kicks everybody's asses. . .

Pangloss

 

[L Gilbert]

They musta Finnished last though, cuz the Yanks are Empire building now.

 

[John Welch]

Yes, under Elvis 1, who ruled 1954-2008. Alexander was a lousy actor and Julius Caesar got the thumbs-down for singing flat.

 

[EagleSmack]

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

Daz... the much vaunted British Empire got their butts KICKED! They got whipped and got sent home packing. In fact, right here in Massachusetts we recently celebrated the Battle of Lexington and Concord when a bunch of farmers completely THUMPED the "ELITE" (lol) British Light Infantry, Grenadiers, and British Royal Marines.

 

[EagleSmack]

come on you were rich, you are rich....you did not beat us, do you honestly think your "puny colony" would have survived Napoleon's roving eye if it wernt for the british empire patrolling the high sea's for 300 years?.

Washington was in it up to his neck with the merchants, they did not want the british in because they were making too much profit themselves, he was no hero.

The poor mases didnt arrive in america till long after we withdrew to the north, oh yes, most of the british population were VERY poor indeed, much poorer than the large land owners with their "pitch forks" lol.

if Britain honestly wanted America bck then, they would have taken it, if it took years they would have done it, the fact is the whole country was split on the issue, I bet they dont teach you about the UK Prime minister William Pitt the younger who died of a heart attack begging the parliment to stop taxing the americas?.

plus, you realise the real first world war was going on France vs. Britain, how the heck are wars paid for eh?, or did you wanna be ruled by the french, oh they were lovely, the fench indo-chinese begged us to stay or the japs too cus the french were so crewl

Napoleon? Are you claiming to single handedly stop Napoleon and France? Read a book. The British had Belgians and Dutch at Waterloo and were still on the verge of getting whipped until Blucher and the Prussians showed up.

France would have suffered the same fate as the English did but they did not even consider it. You are fabricating "what ifs" that have no relevancy to what actually happened.

YOU LOST!

 

[EagleSmack]

Whoops... I already fought this battle over a year ago.

 

[able]

Guess if I were to pick an empire for its affect, it would have to be the British Empire. The English language is used for communications, technology, science, etc, etc. Let's face it, when we run into a person who speaks a foreign language, we all know deep down inside of us, that if we speak it slowly enough, any idiot will be able to understand us.

 

[Blackleaf]

Daz... the much vaunted British Empire got their butts KICKED! They got whipped and got sent home packing. In fact, right here in Massachusetts we recently celebrated the Battle of Lexington and Concord when a bunch of farmers completely THUMPED the "ELITE" (lol) British Light Infantry, Grenadiers, and British Royal Marines.

During the War of Independence the Americans were only fighting a much smaller British force than what it would have been if the British weren't, at the same time, also battling Napoleon in Europe to prevent the little man from invading Britain.

If we didn't have to worry about that irritant then there would have been vastly more men and resources for the British in North America - and the US would have surely lost.

Not only that, but even fighting an army that was also preoccupied with the more important task of fighting Napoleon in Europe the Americans only won through having the help of the French - and again, if you didn't have French help, you'd have surely lost. And it must be embarassing for the Americans to look back on their history knowing that they needed the FRENCH, of all people, to help them to win a war!

But the Britih didn't despair at the loss of their MINOR and unimportant colonies in North America - remember, the British Empire was at its greatest extent, its zenith, in 1921, around 150 years after the US declared its independence.

The loss of the American colonies was nothing much, really.

You'd also find, if you bothered to read the TRUE history of the US War of Independence rather than the Americo-centric version of the events that the British, despite also having to fight Napoleon to fend off the threat of invasion, won the majority of the battles.

 

[Blackleaf]

Napoleon? Are you claiming to single handedly stop Napoleon and France? Read a book. The British had Belgians and Dutch at Waterloo and were still on the verge of getting whipped until Blucher and the Prussians showed up.

What about the Battle of Trafalgar when the Royal Navy (and only the Royal Navy) managed to overwhemingly defeat the French AND the Spanish in 1805?

Despite being outnumbered by the combined Franco-Spanish force these are the final statistics of that battle:


DEAD

Britain - 449
France/Spain - 2,243
-----

WOUNDED

Britain - 1,246
France/Spain - 2,538
--------

PRISONERS TAKEN

Britain - 0
France/Spain - 7,000
--------

SHIPS LOST

Britain - 0
France/Spain - 21 (plus 1 ship blown up)

YOU LOST!

Britain lost what? If you're talking about the Napoleonic Wars then you'll find that Britain won, and that France, Spain and the United States lost.

 

[John Welch]

"Read a book. The British had Belgians and Dutch at Waterloo and were still on the verge of getting whipped until Blucher and the Prussians showed up."
At sunset, the French were saying "Le Guard recuse", because Napoleon's elite Imperial Guard silently retired from the lost battle. After that at last twilight, the Prussians' advance scouts began dribbling in and helped to chase the retreating French through the night.
George III gave democracy to George W and George W is taking it away from Democrats. USA loses.

 

[Roy_Whyte]

The Mongol empire has to be ranked among one of the greatest, followed closely by that of Alexander the Great and then the British Empire.

Not to be outdone nor overlooked, though most Americans will not admit to it - the American empire. Just because it doesn't look nor act like many empires of the past, it is an empire all the same.

Journalist Walter Lippmann wrote way back in 1927, "we go on creating what mankind calls an empire while we continue to believe that quite sincerely that it is not an empire because it does not feel to us in the way we imagine an empire ought to feel." He was right in 1927, and even more so today.