The Biggest Empire Was 160× the Smallest 🔊 All 48 Ranked

48 empires, from the smallest to the biggest. Every empire's land area over time is drawn as a line and played as a tone: the higher the line, the higher the pitch. Which one surprised you? Method: each empire's land area (million km2) is the graph and the pitch of its own voice; its territory grows and shrinks on the map at the same time. Empires are ranked by their biggest size (peak land area) and counted down from #48 to #1. 0:00 #48 to #41: Aztec Empire to Frankish Empire 0:33 #40 to #33: Mali Empire to Safavid Iran 1:06 #32 to #25: German Colonial Empire to Seljuk Empire 1:39 #24 to #17: Mughal Empire to Alexander's Empire 2:12 #16 to #9: Ottoman Empire to Empire of Japan 2:45 #8 to #1: United States to British Empire 3:19 The full ranking Full ranking (peak land area): #1 British Empire: 35.5M km² #2 Mongol Empire: 24.0M km² #3 Russian Empire / USSR: 22.8M km² #4 Qing China: 14.7M km² #5 Spanish Empire: 13.7M km² #6 French Empire: 11.5M km² #7 Arab Caliphate: 11.1M km² #8 United States: 9.7M km² #9 Empire of Japan: 7.4M km² #10 Ming China: 6.5M km² #11 Han China: 6.5M km² #12 Tang China: 6.5M km² #13 Golden Horde: 6.0M km² #14 Persian Empire: 5.5M km² #15 Portuguese Empire: 5.5M km² #16 Ottoman Empire: 5.2M km² #17 Alexander's Empire: 5.2M km² #18 Roman Empire: 5.0M km² #19 Tibetan Empire: 4.6M km² #20 Timurid Empire: 4.4M km² #21 Fatimid to Mamluk Egypt: 4.1M km² #22 Italian Empire: 4.0M km² #23 Maurya Empire: 4.0M km² #24 Mughal Empire: 4.0M km² #25 Seljuk Empire: 3.9M km² #26 Seleucid Empire: 3.9M km² #27 Khwarazmian Empire: 3.6M km² #28 Sasanian Empire: 3.5M km² #29 Delhi Sultanate: 3.2M km² #30 Song Dynasty: 3.1M km² #31 Parthian Empire: 3.0M km² #32 German Colonial Empire: 3.0M km² #33 Safavid Iran: 2.7M km² #34 Qin Dynasty: 2.3M km² #35 Almoravids and Almohads: 2.3M km² #36 Kievan Rus': 2.1M km² #37 Inca Empire: 2.0M km² #38 Byzantine Empire: 1.8M km² #39 Neo-Assyrian Empire: 1.4M km² #40 Mali Empire: 1.3M km² #41 Frankish Empire: 1.2M km² #42 Poland-Lithuania: 1.1M km² #43 Ptolemaic Egypt: 1.0M km² #44 New Kingdom Egypt: 1.0M km² #45 Khmer Empire: 1.0M km² #46 Austria-Hungary: 0.68M km² #47 Carthage: 0.30M km² #48 Aztec Empire: 0.22M km² Data: Taagepera 1979 (Social Science History 3) and 1997 (International Studies Quarterly 41); Seshat Global History Databank, Polity territory (Equinox 2020 release; ranges use the midpoint); Turchin, Adams and Hall 2006 (Journal of World-Systems Research 12); figures cited in Wikipedia infoboxes where no other source was available. Peaks are published estimates and differ between historians (for example, the Maurya Empire is estimated at 3.4 to 5M km2). Dates between published figures are estimates. Maps: historical-basemaps (A. Ourednik) and Natural Earth, free licences. Animation and sound generated with code. #history #empire #map #sound