What was History's Greatest Empire?

[South Aztlan]

Where's Egypt????

Meh, Akkad was better.

I don't think so

[Napkiraly]

Meh, Akkad was better.

I don't think so

Sargon doth not care! *Raises spear*

[South Aztlan]

I don't think so

Sargon doth not care! *Raises spear*

Ramses the Great don't care either *raises Kopesh*

[Doliwa]

The greatest empire was Mongol Empire! From Poland to Kamchatka, from Siberia to Indonesia. The greatest and deadly emipre! Second was Napoleon's French Empire - Empire of power, liberty and progress!

[Napkiraly]

Sargon doth not care! *Raises spear*

Ramses the Great don't care either *raises Kopesh*

Sturdy spear defeats brittle sword, foul Aegyptian!

[Napkiraly]

The greatest empire was Mongol Empire! From Poland to Kamchatka, from Siberia to Indonesia. The greatest and deadly emipre! Second was Napoleon's French Empire - Empire of power, liberty and progress!

So great it fell apart within two generations.

[Salus Maior]

The greatest empire was Mongol Empire! From Poland to Kamchatka, from Siberia to Indonesia. The greatest and deadly emipre! Second was Napoleon's French Empire - Empire of power, liberty and progress!

So great it fell apart within two generations.

Well, it did better than Alexander's Empire

[Santeriea]

The Roman Empire, and the holy Roman empire wasn't holy nor Roman nor an empire.

[Altito Asmoro]

So great it fell apart within two generations.

Well, it did better than Alexander's Empire

More so than Napoleon?

[Arumdaum]

The greatest empire was Mongol Empire! From Poland to Kamchatka, from Siberia to Indonesia. The greatest and deadly emipre! Second was Napoleon's French Empire - Empire of power, liberty and progress!

So great it fell apart within two generations.

Well, no one ever brings that up for the shorter Greek, German, and Napoleonic Empires.

[Altito Asmoro]

So great it fell apart within two generations.

Well, no one ever brings that up for the shorter Greek, German, and Napoleonic Empires.

German? As in the unified German led by Wilhelm?

[The Grey Wolf]

Torn between the British Empire and the Roman Empire.

[Altito Asmoro]

Torn between the British Empire and the Roman Empire.

Try British-Roman Empire.

[South Aztlan]

Ramses the Great don't care either *raises Kopesh*

Sturdy spear defeats brittle sword, foul Aegyptian!

Egypt is so great, it's art and architecture continues to inspire people. I see the Washington Monument, the Luxor Hotel, the Louvre Pyramid, but I don't see a modern ziggurat.

[Lyncanestria]

Napoleon's French Empire in terms of the ideas and the end goals it was trying to achieve: a unified Europe under the light of the French revolution's enlightenment and a modern form of governing which was much progressive for its time, the Code Napoleon.

[Lyncanestria]

Should the HRE even be considered an Empire, per se? In the words of Voltaire: This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.

In all but name it was much like the German Confederacy which succeeded it, a conglomeration of states with no real loyalty to the 'Emperor' as was seen numerous times when the Princes would refuse to help the Emperor or even fought him outright like Francis of France's Wars against Charles V, the Thirty Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars. It only really resembled something close under the Hohenstaufens, but the medieval notion of feudalism makes it hard to classify it so.

[Lyncanestria]

Why do we have the Persian Empire listed, and then not even mention Alexander's Empire who conquered it and more from the Peloponnese to Bactria and from Thrace to the Nile? I'd rather have that on the poll than the HRE whose status as an Empire I find debatable...

[Southern Hampshire]

Where is the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth?

[Lyncanestria]

Where is the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth?

Not an empire.

[Southern Hampshire]

Where is the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth?

Not an empire.

Then why is the HRE and Chinese Empire on there?

[The Archregimancy]

Should the HRE even be considered an Empire, per se? In the words of Voltaire: This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.

In all but name it was much like the German Confederacy which succeeded it, a conglomeration of states with no real loyalty to the 'Emperor' as was seen numerous times when the Princes would refuse to help the Emperor or even fought him outright like Francis of France's Wars against Charles V, the Thirty Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars. It only really resembled something close under the Hohenstaufens, but the medieval notion of feudalism makes it hard to classify it so.

Not just the Hohenstaufens. It was a perfectly legitimate Imperial state through the Ottonian, Salian, and Hohenstaufen dynasties. Certainly its contemporaries recognised it as a legitimate imperial entity under the principle of translatio imperii, and both Otto II and III went out of their way to adopt Byzantine imperial forms to symbolically legitimise their status.

The problem with the HRE is that most people posting in these threads insist on defining it according to its later post-medieval confederal form rather than its earlier more centralised form. It was however, a state that evolved slowly over time from its centralised form through to its confederal form, only finally losing its last vestiges of effective centralised authority in the wake of the 30 Years War - though it limped on for another 150 years after the Peace of Westphalia, like a headless imperial chicken that doesn't quite realise it's dead.

[Lyncanestria]

Not an empire.

Then why is the HRE and Chinese Empire on there?

I juat argued that the HRE was no empire. I should also argue that there was also no Chinese Empire, but it was much in the format of the HRE, a ruling dynasty over 'vassals' who were not always willing to conply with the Emperor and constantly fought him or sought to replace him. There were a number of strong ones like the Qin or lengthy like the Qing, but yes, there was no Chinese Empire.

And I don't know why you would point to the inclusion of those two nations in the poll of these as reason to include the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. I don't agree with it and I didn't make the poll.

Also, I would consider the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth simply a puppet of the western Europeans after their first Free Election when the Sjem and the nobles were just being bought to place Germans and French people on their throne, resulting in the other powers partitioning it in 1795. But even before that, their only great king, in my opinion was John III, before and after him there being incompetent kings that never managed to control the Sjem's reactionaryness and allow for progressivism like the western Europeans were experiencing. If they could've had a Polish equivalent of Russia's Peter the Great perhaps we would have had a Polish Empire but as for how history played out I can't acquiese to you and say that Poland-Lithuania deserves statua among the greatest empires.

[Conscentia]

Not an empire.

Then why is the HRE and Chinese Empire on there?

The Chinese empire was an empire.
The HRE is debatable.

[Old Tyrannia]

Not an empire.

Then why is the HRE and Chinese Empire on there?

In case you haven't noticed, quite a few empires are missing from the poll. For instance, the Akkadian Empire, the New Kingdom Egyptian Empire, the Hittite Empire, the Babylonian Empire, the Assyrian Empire, Mitanni, the Macedonian Empire, the Seleucid Empire, the Ptolemaic Egyptian Empire, the Carthaginian Empire, all of the Islamic caliphates prior to the Ottoman Empire, the Mameluke Empire, the Khmer Empire, the Gupta Empire, the Khazar Empire, the Kara-Khitai Khanate, the North Sea Empire, the Angevin Empire, the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, the Axumite Empire, the Ashanti Empire, Goguryeo, the Omani Empire, the Zulu Empire, the Toltec Empire, the Inca Empire, the Aztec Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Portuguese Empire, the Italian Empire, the Belgian Empire, the Swedish Empire, the Mexican Empire, the Brazilian Empire... And that's just off the top of my head. It would be impossible to fit them all; the most sensible solution would simply be not to post a poll with this thread.

EDIT: Oops, I forgot the Byzantine Empire- better add it before Archregimancy bites my head off.

[Conscentia]

Then why is the HRE and Chinese Empire on there?

In case you haven't noticed, quite a few empires are missing from the poll. For instance, the Akkadian Empire, the New Kingdom Egyptian Empire, the Hittite Empire, the Babylonian Empire, the Assyrian Empire, Mitanni, the Macedonian Empire, the Seleucid Empire, the Ptolemaic Egyptian Empire, the Carthaginian Empire, all of the Islamic caliphates prior to the Ottoman Empire, the Mameluke Empire, the Khmer Empire, the Gupta Empire, the Khazar Empire, the Kara-Khitai Khanate, the North Sea Empire, the Angevin Empire, the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, the Axumite Empire, the Ashanti Empire, Goguryeo, the Omani Empire, the Zulu Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Portuguese Empire, the Italian Empire, the Belgian Empire, the Swedish Empire, the Mexican Empire, the Brazilian Empire... And that's just off the top of my head. It would be impossible to fit them all; the most sensible solution would simply be not to post a poll with this thread.

Could have at least put an "Other" option at the bottom of the poll.
And the options that are there seem to be arbitrary choices. Especially since dynasties are not distinguished between for China, but only Napoleon's France is listed.

EDIT: Oops, I forgot the Byzantine Empire- better add it before Archregimancy bites my head off.

The "Byzantine Empire" is the Roman Empire, or the Eastern half of it anyway. The distinction was not made by contemporaries of the empire.