List of largest empires


Several empires in world history have been contenders for the largest of all time, depending on definition and mode of measurement. Possible ways of measuring size include area, population, economy, and power. Of these, area is the most commonly used because it has a fairly precise definition and can be feasibly measured with some degree of accuracy. Estonian political scientist Rein Taagepera, who published a series of academic articles about the territorial extents of historical empires between 1978 and 1997, defined an empire as "any relatively large sovereign political entity whose components are not sovereign" and its size as the area over which the empire has some undisputed military and taxation prerogatives; these are the criteria from which these lists are formed. The list is not exhaustive owing to a lack of available data for several empires; for this reason and because of the inherent uncertainty in the area estimates, no rankings are given.

Largest empires by land area

For context, the land area of the Earth, excluding the continent of Antarctica, is.

Empires at their greatest extent

Empire size in this list is defined as the dry land area it controls. The area controlled may differ considerably from the area claimed; for example, in 1800 European powers collectively claimed approximately % of the Earth's land surface that they did not effectively control. Where estimates vary, entries are sorted by the lowest estimate.

Timeline of largest empires to date

The earliest empire which can with certainty be stated to have been larger than all previous empires was that of Upper and Lower Egypt, which tenfolded the area of the previous largest civilisation.

Timeline of largest empires at the time