We can certainly compare Imperial Britain with the Romans though. Colonisation, conquest and elite socialisation.

^^ Joseph Conrad did just that.

Anyway I want to second the vote for Trezibond. Lol.

The Total War series is classic I have all of them. Amazing fun. And I always quickly unlock the Byzantines so I can play as them and restore the glory of the Roman Empire, kick out the impostor Pope and drive the poser Holy Romans into the sea.

Soooo much fun hahaha.

@Sean - "Wilson's Eddorians" Who the hell's Wilson? Did somebody called Wilson write some SciFi ripping off E.E."Doc"Smiths aliens name?

Really? I always like to be the HRE and reclaim the Empire from there!

no, i was just using "wilson" as a generic sfi name because i didnt know who wrote about this empire you mentioned.

Thucydides:
"...Constantinople was the biggest city in Europe (the world?)..."
Tokyo was bigger at the time. But for Europe, yes.
"Belisarius"
Belisarius +10000 (about half of what I'd give to Bismarck, which is a lot)

Still, I have to vote British Empire. To this day the Commonwealth still holds territory in every single timezone. Still, "The sun never sets on the Commonwealth" sounds kinda stupid.

Empires of great influence:

British Empire - Its colonial policies started the notion of 'world trade'.
Roman Empire - It spread civilization to the whole of Europe, indirectly causing Europe to become the center of world politics.

Austro-Hungarian Empire stretching back to the rise of the Habsburgs, they controlled and kept Southern Europe stable for centuries, as evidenced by the constant conflict and infighting between the Serbs, Bosnians and Croats and any other ethnic group you want to name once the Empire was dissolved after WWI.

Speaker, His Divine Shadow rules the two universes (the Universe of Light and the Universe of Dark, home of the Earth). The Lexx was supposed to be his "Death Star" if only Stanley Tweedle hadn't become the key and stolen it. And the Lexx didn't just destroy planets, he then ate them, including the Earth.

how bout the french ....they are great.

<sarcasm a great tool>

@sean - Ok. In this situation Google is your friend.

@Draugnar - I'd forgotten the Lexx universe. Good call.

@WH40k..
The Imperium of man (last I read, which was 3rd edition stuff..) is hardly crumbling. It may be a hellish mess in some respects, losing giant space armadas to warp storms and the like.. But it has still managed to hold off the other forces pretty well.. and if I recall correctly the Imperium even came out ahead in some of their recent campaigns, crushing the first Tyrannid invasions fleets and beating back the forces of Chaos.

Now the Eldar.. there's a sad story.. but one ripped straight from the lore of Tolkien if you ask me. :)

Sorry folks, but the Mongols have everyone beat. They conquered better than half of the Eurasian landmass in under fifty years while drunk off their asses. Imagine what would've happened if they'd sobered up and patched up those family quarrels.

As for their impact on world history, if it weren't for the Mongols, Europeans never would've known about China and had a reason to find a better route there; Europe would probably still be a primitive backwater, cut off from global trade routes after countries in other parts of the world grabbed all the good colonies around the world. If it weren't for the Mongol invasion of the Middle East and the immense damage it caused (like the sack of Baghdad), the Islamic world very likely would not have gone into the steep decline it did. And of course there was the incredible diffusion of knowledge, technology, and goods around the Mongolosphere.

As for the British Empire, Ghandi demonstrated that it's mostly bluff and bluster; all you have to do is sit down, fold your arms, and say "hell, no!" and it will go away. The Mongols didn't put up with that sort of behavior. The British Empire *always* depended to some extent on the cooperation of the locals, through inducement, fear, and/or manipulation; the Mongols on the other hand had the very real power to kill anyone and everyone who opposed them in. Besides, the Big Bad British army equipped with repeating rifles managed to lose a couple of big battles to a bunch of cowherds armed with spears and leather shields in the 1870's... that kind of an embarrassment ought to knock you out of consideration. :-P

Most of us live in liberal capitalist countries and we are writing to each other in English. The Brits, for better or worse, deserve some credit for that.
As far as the British and Gandhi are concerned that was towards the end, after Britain had been exhausted by two world wars, and the days of empire for empires sake was past. Now days we don't have to conquer people to make sure we have markets for our goods.

@mr pinguin, read some recent fluff. it pretty much makes it sound like humanity is on its way out.

Most Awesome, totally Bavaria. They lost the Napoleonic wars, and GAINED territory. What is more awesome than that. Long live Bayern

Also Jason I have a better question to describe America:

America has 3 apples, Nigeria has 2 apples. America wants Nigeria's apples. How many apples does Nigeria have?

A) 0

The British Empire was larger than the Mongol Empire. We win on size. The Mongols also used inducement and coercion of local notables to speed up conquest of regions. The Mongol Empire lasted a fraction as long (in it's united form) as the British Empire did. As for the link to China...the Silk Road and knowledge of the existence of the Far East existed in Ancient Rome, long before mediaeval Europe. Shall we ignore the several centuries of technology, goods and culture diffusion the British Empire created in favour of a few decades of diffusion for the Mongols? I think not.
As I recall the Mongols reached Eastern Europe in the 15th century, just as the Enlightenment was kicking off (and no, it wasn't started by the Mongols, it was started by the sack of Byzantium by Muslim forces and the subsequent flight West of the best and most educated scholars of antiquity, in addition to Muslim adoption and diffusion of ancient learning).

The losses to the 'cowherds' as you put it were actually stunning military engagements with a great deal more depth to them than it may seem. 10% of the Zulu manhood died at Isandhlwana for instance, where 800 British soldiers were killed (under half the force invading Zululand). You also seem to be forgetting Rourke's Drift and the Battle of Ulundi. Then of course there are the hundreds upon hundreds of other stunning victories that were won by British forces.

The Gandhi example makes me laugh. The primary reason for Indian independence was the Second World War and the promise of self-determination if they helped us fight the Japanese. Don't get hung up on Gandhi, he was one small part of a large trend.

In short...British Empire ftw.

1. noone beats the mongol empire in size (second place goes to great alexander's empire)
2. you are the first the calls great britain +colonies an empire...
3. what culture diffusion? Dont make me laugh. UK's role in the history of the world should be maximum 1 page. lol

"America has 3 apples, Nigeria has 2 apples. America wants Nigeria's apples. How many apples does Nigeria have? A) 0"

That was the old, honest way. The new rhetoric is:

A) The world is sharing 5 apples.

n.b. It's the same answer...

@hellalt

1. British Empire maxed out at 33.67 mill km2, the Mongols got to 24 mill

2. Well done, you spotted what the British empire was - the UK plus (a hell of a lot of) colonies. You know, small places like Canada, Australia, India and large chunks of Africa

3. Cultural diffusion. Hmm. What's the most common second language for people to learn. Which country codifed the most popular team sport in the world (football), and exported crcket and rugby as well. Led the Industrial revolution. And so on..

We all know the entertainment industry rules the world and while the UK did it's share in the 50s and 60s, Hollywood and the music industry belong to the US (or maybe Japan via Sony) so I gotta give the edge to the US of A.

pete - the mongol empire is the largest LAND empire... the brits just don't compare.

also, most of the land won by the brits wasn't heavily fought for - the mongols earned every inch

in my opinion the british empire should be considered a failure - it was eclipsed by one of its own colonies, and by a substantial degree. (i.e. the united states of america)

That *was* land area, if we count the seas (Britannia rules the waves and all that :) ) then the figure would be MUCH higher :)

I'm heavily bias having won life's lottery and been born in England. I have to laugh at lazysummer's comment about Britain being eclipsed by the USA. I have the utmost respect for America, it is truly a great country, but the world ha been shaped by a small island of the coast of Europe.

This small island has given the world a dominate language, the industrial revolution, Shakespeare, the BBC, magna-carta, a legal system, the NHS, Maniac, the Beatles, television, John Cleese, football, rugby and cricket, Churchill, and above all a people who are decent, tolerant and multi-cultural. A people who can be relied on to stand up for those less furtunate (everybody).

Even though the Empire has long since gone, Britain is able to cherish its links with its former colonies. It has been able to retain a commonwealth, whilst being a part of the EU and built a special relationship with the USA.

There isn't an Englishman alive that would trade his birthplace for all the tea in China, but I suspect many a man would love to have the advantages of my birthplace.

See? Everybody thought I was a silly jerk for discounting the mongols in reply #1.. but now look what happens. Sooner or later the Mongol lovers show up, all star-eyed with dreams of horses and compound bows, and they totally gloss over its long, long list of short comings.

2 points:
What exactly qualifies the Mongol Kingdoms for 'empire' status, that the British somehow lack in their own history of conquest/dominance?

And does anyone know the relative populations involved? Tax income? I think it's there that the real story would be told. The mongols cruised around big empty fields (some mountains too, I guess), and told people 'Hey you, wear my funny hat and or we'll burn down your town'. So people wore their hats.

But how much influence did they really have even within their empire? The British peaked in a time of empire building. They excelled at colonization and dominating people around the world, and they used the immense resources that they gained from this process to make themselves even stronger, continuing the process against competition from many other famous world empires (i.e. The rest of the colonial powers, China, India, etc.)

I would say acquiring land without having to fight is a sign of superiority over having to fight for it. As for 'fighting for every inch' I'm pretty sure vast swathes of the Mongol Empire were sparsely populated steppes, hardly a grueling war.

The Mongol Empire was an incredible entity with massive achievements and a huge impact on world history, but it loses out to the British Empire in most of these fields as well. Thanks for pointing out the land area Pete. The British Empire is the largest one ever to have existed at any point in history.

One page hellalt? That's the most preposterous thing I've ever heard. Ask any historian and they'll disagree, from whatever nation.