Greatest Western empire in history

[dave lukins]

Oh it is certainly true that a lot of Egyptian culture was preserved by the Greeks. In fact Herodotus dedicates a whole book to the natural and man-made wonders of Egypt at the time of his visit there.

That is because the Greeks ruled Egypt at the time of his visit..in 333BC Alexander the Great pushed out the Persians and proclamed himself Pharaoh .The final attempt to restore Egypt ended up in the hands of Cleopatra who ,as we know killed herself ,thus ending one of the greatest civilisations in human history.

[durtyburd]

Well, I think that having the "French Empire" as a choice and not having the Spanish empire as a choice is somewhat odd.

I mean, if you take into account size, longevity, and cultural impact, the Spanish have to be up there somewhere. I'd say above the French somewhere.

I mean, if you include that pre-1640 period when the King of Spain was also the King of Portugal, it was pretty huge (and king of the low-countries...and holy roman emperor...and king of naples...) Hapbsburg Spain was pretty solid, for the most part.

1520-1820 is a long, time, too. That's 300 years of empire.

I think that Spanish culture spawned more lines than French culture. There are more spanish-speaking people in the world than french-speaking people, right? (and I mean spanish speaking vs french speaking as a first language)

No offense to any french out there, but the Spanish at least were #1 in the world for a brief period. I don't think the French were ever #1...they might have been a close #2 a couple of times, but they've always been beat out by someone (portuguese, spanish, British, Russians, Americans).

I'm not saying that I would vote for the Spanish, since I actually voted for the Romans, but I think that if the French could be a choice, then the Spanish should be a choice, too.

After all, it was the Spanish that first brought the fight to the Arab world. Granted, the French beat the Moors at Tours, but that was on French territory. After pushing the Moors back to Africa, the Spanish went on the offensive, invading Tunisia. It was also a combined Venetian/Spanish fleet that first made the Ottomans taste defeat, too (Lepanto?). The Spanish heralded the decline of Muslim civilization and the rise of European civilization. I doubt Europe would have had much progress if not for the copious amounts of gold that the Spanish were bringing into Europe from the Americas. It was basically the need to manage all of the influx of Spanish gold that created the modern banking system (Switzerland!).

I'm just asking for a little bit of credit to be given where it is due, is all.

[crooks]

Well, I think that having the "French Empire" as a choice and not having the Spanish empire as a choice is somewhat odd.

I mean, if you take into account size, longevity, and cultural impact, the Spanish have to be up there somewhere. I'd say above the French somewhere.

I mean, if you include that pre-1640 period when the King of Spain was also the King of Portugal, it was pretty huge (and king of the low-countries...and holy roman emperor...and king of naples...) Hapbsburg Spain was pretty solid, for the most part.

1520-1820 is a long, time, too. That's 300 years of empire.

I think that Spanish culture spawned more lines than French culture. There are more spanish-speaking people in the world than french-speaking people, right? (and I mean spanish speaking vs french speaking as a first language)

No offense to any french out there, but the Spanish at least were #1 in the world for a brief period. I don't think the French were ever #1...they might have been a close #2 a couple of times, but they've always been beat out by someone (portuguese, spanish, British, Russians, Americans).

I'm not saying that I would vote for the Spanish, since I actually voted for the Romans, but I think that if the French could be a choice, then the Spanish should be a choice, too.

After all, it was the Spanish that first brought the fight to the Arab world. Granted, the French beat the Moors at Tours, but that was on French territory. After pushing the Moors back to Africa, the Spanish went on the offensive, invading Tunisia. It was also a combined Venetian/Spanish fleet that first made the Ottomans taste defeat, too (Lepanto?). The Spanish heralded the decline of Muslim civilization and the rise of European civilization. I doubt Europe would have had much progress if not for the copious amounts of gold that the Spanish were bringing into Europe from the Americas. It was basically the need to manage all of the influx of Spanish gold that created the modern banking system (Switzerland!).

I'm just asking for a little bit of credit to be given where it is due, is all.

I agree.

Why aren't the Spanish up there?
I was also curious about native speakers, so I went on wiki:

"Spanish (español (help·info) or Castilian (castellano (help·info)) is an Iberian Romance language. It was spoken by roughly 364 million people in the year 2000.[1] Current estimation accounts up to 400 million[2], making Spanish the second language in the world in number of speakers (after Mandarin Chinese) and the most widely spoken and the most widely studied Romance language. It is arguably the most widely studied foreign language for native speakers of English due to its perceived sense of practicality in a largely globalized 21st Century, as both languages have similar numbers of native speakers, are very widely dispersed on a global scale, and are spoken in many countries. For similar reasons, it is also the most widely studied foreign language in Brazil, which is almost entirely surrounded by Spanish-speaking nations."

And the French:

"French (IPA: [fʁɑ̃ˈsɛ]) is a Romance language spoken originally in France, Belgium, and Switzerland, and today by about 175 million people around the world as a mother tongue or fluent second language,[1] with significant populations in 54 countries.

Descended from the Latin of the Roman Empire, along with languages such as Spanish, Italian, Romanian and Portuguese, its development was influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul (particularly in pronunciation), and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. This is one of the reasons why certain French sounds and spellings are distinctly different from those of Spanish and Italian, for example, and why Spanish and Italian sound more similar to one another than French does to either one of them.

It is an official language in 41 countries, most of which form what is called in French La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations".

Spanish wins by a mile.

[ExNavyAmerican]

This thread is as old as the hills, and I don't know if this will ever be read. Whether or not people ever read this; I'm going to post. This is the order of great empires-

1) British
2) Roman
3) Byzantine
4) Greek Empire
5) Holy Roman Empire
6) French Empire
7) Athenian Empire

[Guest]

Napoleon

[neilmpenny]

The British empire tops them all. Prime example: English language.

The worlds most widely spoken language.

Not to mention that wherever they were they left the Westminster system, whether adopted or modified by the host country. Public infrastructure being another of note.

Roman Empire for me though.

[Guest]

Napoleon

[Big K]

What about the Vikings? they reached to America and also came to Anatolia too. didnt they?

[deadkenny]

The 'Vikings' were far too 'decentralized' to be considered an 'Empire' though.

[Big K]

The 'Vikings' were far too 'decentralized' to be considered an 'Empire' though.

yes, i heard of it. and i wonder why is that?

[deadkenny]

My understanding is that part of it was their culture / tradition. The terrain in Scandinavia naturally separated the people into small groups, with 'local government' being relatively important. There are other instances in Northern Europe (e.g. 'Germany' - i.e. Holy Roman Empire and Poland) where 'nations' remained highly de-centralized for centuries.

[Pepe]

First: Sorry, im not a good english speaker (and a bad english writer too, ha ha).

Second: Why the spanish empire is not on the list?

Remember that when the spanish empire rules, Spain was the major land power in Europe (with the Tercios army units), and was the major world naval power.

When the great english empire was (after the spanish empire declined), England was "only" the major naval power of the world, but not the principal land army in Europe (not by far). By this time, France was the major land power in Europe, later Germany became the first power in continental Europe, and after the World War II the Soviet Union became it (but in the 20th century USA was the greatest country in the world).

I think that the two major western modern empires were the british empire and the spanish empire. The point is the economy, the spanish empire has territories like Mexico, Peru or Bolivia with a lot of gold and silver mines, and the british empire has very rich possesions in South Asia (like the great India).

In the other side, the French empire was only dessert and jungle, with no decisive possesions like India, Mexico or Peru. Côte d'Ivoire or Cochinchina were not economically decisive colonial territories.

So, why is not the spanish empire on the list?...

black legend?... anti-spanish propaganda?... ha ha i´m joking.

Saludos.

[Dwarven Pirate]

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

From nothing in 1918 to what amounts to half the world. Say what you want about them, but no greater rise to power exists in history to my knowledge. Not only military conquest, but a completely new form of government and societal paradigm.

France post-revolution was pretty amazing as well.

[ExNavyAmerican]

The USSR was not a western empire.

[HistoricalDavid]

So long as we're doing global empires anyway, Dwarven Pirate; the USA put millions of men into combat across two oceans in WWII. They sustained a force peaking at 500,000 men across the world in Vietnam on a relatively non-mobilised economy and they did that again in Gulf War. In what instance did the Soviet Union, or could the Soviet Union, ever demonstrate that sort of gigantic and often war-winning force projection which is essential to a true empire? The Soviet Union covered up to one fifth (IIRC) of total landmass, not one half.