Before the world established borders and international relations, political leaders and military
commanders constantly found themselves in bloodbaths trying to conquer territories.
Caligula: no Maximus, we’re not doing that tonight.
But for better or for worse, only a few were able to cement their legacy in terms of power
and influence.
Let’s brush up on our history as we count down the 10 Most Important Empires in History.
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Our top pick has become so influential that it has maintained some of its expansive global
reach to this day.
#10: Roman Empire After 450 years of being a Republic, the Romans
started their transition to becoming one of the most renowned empires in history when
Caesar Augustus a.k.a. Octavian came into power and became its first emperor in 27 BC.
Octavian: In his honor, I declare that my term as consul shall usher in a new era.
For the better part of its 4-century domination, the Roman Empire ruled over most of continental
Europe, Britain, a majority of Western Asia, the Mediterranean islands, and Northern Africa.
The first two centuries of this era was the golden age of peace and prosperity, otherwise
known as Pax Romana or Roman Peace.
It saw several social reforms, military wins, the blossom of Roman art and literature, and
the spread of Romance languages derived from Latin.
It also introduced the world to the modern Western alphabet and calendar.
During this era, Trajan was regarded as the best emperor when he expanded the empire to
its largest extent.
man ; it was the government giving people what they wanted to keep them happy, the same
way we have tax deductions and holidays.
But that period of peace eventually turned into chaos in 5th century AD when internal
conflicts and large invasions plagued the Roman Empire.
The reign of Commodus, Marcus Aurelius’ son, marked the end of Pax Romana.
When Constantine the Great ruled, he helped spread Christianity in the empire.
By 395 AD, the empire was split into west and east and by 476 AD, the last ruler of
Rome, Romulus Augustulus, ended his reign.
Man: Rome was a victim of its own success, it had become such an incredible source of
power and of wealth, it became a prize in an unending series of civil wars and political
intrigues.
Keep watching ‘til number one, because this global superpower still has its colonies saying,
“All Hail the Queen!”
#9: Macedonian Empire What started out as a small kingdom somewhere
in the Greek peninsula eventually became the largest empire of its time.
Before its rise to power, Macedon or Macedonia’s ancient kingdom was already known for its
military strength.
Their special infantry, the Macedonian phalanx, was even considered impenetrable.
But they were able to expand their territory from Greece to India through Alexander the
Great’s leadership, one of the greatest military commanders in history.
Alexander: We are here today as Macedonian, free men.
Conquer your fear, and I promise you, you’ll conquer death.
He took the throne at age 20 and began a lengthy military campaign to conquer the great Persian
Empire.
It took him about 10 years to fulfill that goal, but he won every battle he faced.
man: The fact that Alexander founded cities has special meaning because it shows that
he didn’t only want to conquer territories, but he wanted to establish a lasting sovereignty.
The Battle of Gaugamela is considered one of the most decisive turning points in human
history, when the undermanned army of Alexander unseated the Persians as the greatest power
in the world.
After which, Alexander made Babylon the empire’s second seat of government.
However, just a couple of years after this victory, Alexander the Great met an early
death by suspected malaria at age 32.
With no direct heir to the throne and Alexander not naming his successor, the Macedonian empire
quickly succumbed to its end.
#8: Egyptian Empire The ancient Egyptian civilization had many
contributions to science and technology—from inventing simple machines like the ramp and
lever to developing what is now considered scientific fields such as mathematics and
astronomy.
It has such a rich history that it even has its own field of study called Egyptology.
But it was during the New Kingdom between 16th century BC and 11th century BC when Egypt
was at the peak of its power.
That era saw the rise of the Egyptian Empire.
It expanded trade among its territories that included modern-day Syria, Sudan, Jordan,
and Libya.
During this time, the kingdom was at its peak in terms of wealth, international prestige,
and military strength.
Man : Controlling the Nile flood, ensuring that there were healthy crops each year, was
one of the many duties that fell on the pharaoh.
It was his task to ensure that the gods treated us properly by raising the Nile By producing
adequate crops to provide surplus foods.
However, this eventually went downhill as overspending, corruption, invasions, and internal
conflict caused a decay that ultimately divided the empire.
One of the last greatest pharaohs who came to power was Ramesses, who took the throne
as a teenager, and built his success during his 66-year reign upon diplomacy rather than
military campaigns.
Although he did twist his image quite a bit to appear like a noble warrior.
Woman: He’s on his chariot alone, with the reins tied behind his back so that he’s
free to shoot his bow.
We know that this a little bit of propaganda.
#7: Qing Dynasty China has had several great dynasties in the
past, but one era that really made a lasting impact was the Qing Dynasty between 1644 and
1912.
It built an empire so large it’s considered the fourth-largest in world history when you
talk about the size of its territory.
It included today’s mainland and Outer Northwest China, Mongolia, Hainan, Taiwan, and outer
Manchuria.
That’s a total of 5.7 million square miles or a tenth of the earth’s land mass!
During its peak, the Qing Dynasty brought prosperity to China as it transformed the
country into a commercial state.
New types of food became available as substitutes for rice, so there was no food shortage among
its people.
However, it was also during this dynasty that China got into major conflict with Britain.
Because the Brits were so obsessed with tea, they were buying a lot of their stash from
China, which demanded silver from them as payment.
The British grew tired of this so they started selling opium to China in exchange for the
tea.
But when China wanted to stop the entry of opium due to the growing number of addicts,
they started burning all the opium they found.
Man; All of these pictures denote the scale of the suffering the people went through as
a result of the overindulgence in opium.
This led to the Opium war erupting in 1839.
When the war finally ended in 1842, a treaty was signed which included Hong Kong being
ceded to Britain.
#6: Russian Empire With the decline of neighboring powerhouses
such as the Persian and Ottoman Empires, the Russian Empire gained momentum that eventually
made them the third-largest empire in history.
This great empire won wars and grew three times in size under the leadership of Peter
the Great, who rose into power in 1721.
It even played a huge role in stopping Napoleon from controlling a large part of Europe.
Woman: The thing that Peter succeeded in doing was to demonstrate how a single rational mind
possessed of absolute power could transform an entire country and indeed an entire culture.
At its greatest territorial extent, the Russian empire surpassed 8.8 million square miles.
That’s about 15% of the world’s land mass.
It spanned from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea, and Alaska and Northern California to
the Baltic Sea.
During the golden age of the regime, In 1762, Catherine the Great, hailed as Russia’s
greatest empress rose to power succeeding her dead husband.
She successfully expanded Russia’s territories to the west, attempted law reform and promoted
western education, art and literature.
Woman: Catherine was an expert at playing the game of power.
Catherine recognized that in 18th century Europe, monarchs were classified as enlightened
if they followed certain set of policies.
The Russian Empire was one of the five great powers in Europe until the First World War
came.
The aftermath of the bloody February Revolution of 1917 and Nicholas II’s abdication soon
led to the empire’s decline.
#5: Persian Empire The Persian Empire or the Achaemenid Empire
was composed of a series of dynasties between the 6th century BC and 20th century AD that
ruled over 2.1 million square miles of territory.
Between 550 and 330 BC, Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the empire.
Man: The Persians are unique in the way they envisage how an empire should be run.
Cyrus the Great found the empire in 550 BC and captured three of the most important ancient
civilizations: Egypt’s Nile Valley, Mesopotamia, and India’s Indus Valley.
It then went on to become the world’s first superpower.
There were no superheroes during that time, but it definitely left a superior legacy.
Woman: If you paid your tribute, if you paid your taxes to the Persian king, that was fine,
that was all the king wanted from you.
Its centralized bureaucratic government unified its territories across Asia, Africa, and Europe
by introducing a multicultural policy, Aramaic as an official language, road systems, regular
communication routes, and the world’s first postal system.
Their administration style was so successful that it became the basis for similar systems
in later empires.
However, it met its unfortunate demise in 334 BC at the hands of Alexander the Great.
#4: Portuguese Empire Between the 15th and 18th centuries, the so-called
Age of Discovery was a tumultuous period when European nations explored the ends of the
Earth to conquer the most territories.
One of the frontrunners during that time was the Portuguese Colonial Empire-- their explorations
spearheaded by Prince Henry the Navigator.
Man: We imagine these expeditions slowly going further and further down, then coming back
to Portugal, accumulating more and more information.
For six centuries, the Portuguese maintained the longest-lived colonial empire and the
first global empire in history.
Their explorations along the coast of Africa, the Atlantic archipelago, Brazil, and islands
of East Asia all had the same goal: to look for a sea route to the spice trade’s origins.
In 1497, Vasco de Gama, one of the most notable Portuguese explorers, discovered the sea route
to India that ultimately paved the way for the Portuguese to establish a long-lasting
empire in the Asian region.
Man: he succeeded in making Portugal a principal supplier of high profit luxury commodities
like pepper This is turn made the Portuguese state extremely wealthy.
As the Portuguese journeyed around the world, they also put up naval outposts from Lisbon
down to Nagasaki.
This wide commercial network spurred growth in the Portuguese economy.
However, their colonies started going against the regime.
After decades of colonial wars, the Portuguese Empire decolonized their territories with
their last Portuguese Macau, handed over to China in 1999.
#3: Spanish Empire Not to be outdone by their neighboring country,
Spain was also one of the key figures during the Age of Exploration.
It sent out various explorations between the 16th to 17th centuries, including those led
by the great navigator Christopher Columbus who, as we know, discovered—or more like
stumbled into--the Americas.
Man: it’s not only a huge event in history, but it was a huge event in the history of
life.
The Spanish Empire claimed vast chunks of land in the Americas, especially in Mexico
and Peru, and even conquered indigenous empires like the Incas and the Aztecs.
It widened its reach to the Pacific through Magellan’s and Elcano’s circumnavigation,
which led to the Philippines’ colonization despite Magellan’s untimely death.
Man: Magellan changed the way Europeans navigated, he increased the knowledge of seafaring navigation
exponentially and in the process made the world a much smaller place.
But like other modern global empires, the Spaniards also faced uprisings from colonies
who want to overthrow their regime, something that weighed them down until its end in 1976.
#2: Mongol Empire Man: Under the blue heaven, there shall be
no other Khan than our mighty Genghis Khan.
During the 13th and 14th centuries, the fearsome Genghis Khan was known as the ruler of all
Mongols.
He banded together several Mongol nomadic tribes to help him in his plight to conquer
the world.
Genghis Khan sent out invading armies in all directions.
They could do it quickly because of how limber and highly coordinated these expert horsemen
and archers were.
Genghis: What’s done is done.
You must be punished.
Throughout the century, the Mongol Empire conquered what is now Central Asia, China,
Korea, Poland, Syria, and Vietnam—amassing 12 million contiguous square miles at its
peak.
This made them the largest land empire and the second-largest in terms of landmass.
And did you know that today, there’s a 0.5% chance you’re related to Genghis Khan?
And 8% chances if you’re Asian.
This was due to Genghis, his son Tushi and his grandson Kublai Khan keeping a host of
concubines in the hopes of establishing a genetic dynasty.
Man: Genghis Khan’s grandson Kublai Khan had a harem of 7,000 women when Marco Polo
visited him in China.
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#1 British Empire Considered the largest empire of all time,
the British Empire, at one point, held around 13 million square miles of territory.
In fact, by 1938, the empire was ruling over 20% of the world’s population!
Woman: notions such as fair play, justice, freedom, democracy re fundamental key British
values which need to be universalized, and the white man’s burden is to take these
values to other parts of the globe.
The British Empire started its conquest in the late 16th century.
At its peak, the empire had 57 colonies, dominions, protectorates, and mandates, such as Australia,
Canada, Singapore, New Zealand, and the jewel on the empire’s crown—India.
Man :The Britain came to one of the richest countries in the world in the early 18th century,
and reduced it after 200 years of plunder to one of the poorest.
But the financial burdens of the two World Wars and the rising anti-colonial movements
forced the British to start decolonizing.
It only ended with the official handover of British Hong Kong to China in 1997.
So, which of these empires had the greatest influence in your own country?
Tell us about it in the comments section below.
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Awesome, right!
With great power comes great responsibility, but some people abused their great influence
to their advantage.
Check out our list of the 10 Most Infamous Cults in Modern History!
‘Til then, stay benevolent, fact-natics!
And see you in the next video!