History's Top 5 Most Influential Empires

Personally, I would say that the "Spanish Empire" should rank somewhere on that list.

I largely agree with the OP, although I might replace the "Islamic" Empire with Greece.

These are my top 5 list in any order:

Egyptian Empire: They are the forerunner of civilization and they were powerful for 4 millenia.

Roman Empire: Their influence is still showing up to this age. Architectures, Law, Education, Philosophy are some of their contributions that lasts.

Spanish Empire: Though they only dominate the Europe and the world for only a century, they have widespread influence and got many colonies that have been en-cultured. And they are the one who spread the Roman Catholic religion that's why it is the largest religion today.

British Empire: They exceeded Spain with regards to colonies and they have lasting influence which is the English language that is used all over the world. Their innovation, and revolution are also followed by other countries.

Islamic Empire: They have lasting culture that is not influenced by other great empire. They are really over dedicated and religious when it comes to defending their belief and social customs. They have inventions and products that are being copied by other countries.

*Chinese Empire is also a rich culture and empire but they are only confined within their territory and they have not influenced other countries. But they have so many products that other countries have also copied.

*American: I can't say that they are an Empire, but they really do dominate the world today. Let's see how long they would last. But this age is their golden age. Lots of invention, innovation and modernization, we owe to them. They set trends.

there was less population at tat time.larger army would win there was less need of strategies at time so i dont think they fit into this category

I agree with you only to the extent that those groups of people and in only three cases, empires, were historically infuential. However there were multiple Islamic empires and multiple Chinese empires as well. Without the specificity as to which you refer I must infer that you are wrong until you prove otherwise.

Originally Posted by McGonigal

I agree with you only to the extent that those groups of people and in only three cases, empires, were historically infuential. However there were multiple Islamic empires and multiple Chinese empires as well. Without the specificity as to which you refer I must infer that you are wrong until you prove otherwise.

I definitely think that considering "Islam" as one "empire" is a bit of a stretch.

Top five empires. Man.

1:Rome
Editor and expander of western thought.
2:China
Editor and expander of eastern thought.
3:United States(less certain of this one)
Most affluent empire in the most affluent era yet, exercises "Father Knows Best" leadership on most of the world(that is, is the source of a great amount of political red tape and positions on rights)
4:Imperial Europe
Wiped out civilizations completely, remapped the face of almost all continents, influenced culture on a wide scale
5:Tossup between the Mongols and the Hellenistic States
Conquered nations, remapped the face of Asia and parts of Africa and Europe, influenced culture on a wide scale

Also, Islamic Empire refers to the Rashidun Caliphate, which was started by the supposed successor to Muhammad, and culminating variously around the end of the Abbasid Caliphate due to the Mongols. Each successive dynasty, or empire if that's what you prefer to call it, inherited the culture and land of the one before it, similar to the Chinese and Romans, and a lot more where that came from.

I'm not sure 1,000 years from now people will view the British and American time lines as being very sperate.

Originally Posted by noxchi

This might be a bit off topic but i found an interesting article on the brain and the Qurans affects on it and it may answer how these Arabs were able to advance so quickly in a short amount of time, and that when they strayed away from religion they stunted their growth basically...How the Quran shapes the brain - MuslimVillage.com | MuslimVillage.com

Uhhh... no....

personally, i tend to think of the great empires as
1. roman. they shaped literally all of europe into their way of thinking. existed until Constantinople was taken in about 1400 AD, or so.
2. egyptian. first true civ, and you can see their effects until today ( pyramids, sphinxes, and the monuments, like the washington monument, all are taken from egypts style, so to speak.)
3. chinese. so many contributions are granted to china that it is ridiculous. printing press, gunpowder, and so forth. all chinese in the beginning.
4. the russian empire. by their simply being there, they have stopped conquerors like napoleon, and Hitler. all by simply retreating into themselves. thus changing the course of world wars, and total domination of the world by European powers.
5. british/american empires. like it or not, america was formed by britain. without britain, there wouldn't be an america. britain shaped the world, by greating a global empire of trade, they managed to become the undisputed champions of the world, until america rose up and declared our independence. since then, america has become the, or one of the, world powers. we still hold great influence over most of the world, and have even influenced other people simply by our culture (mcdonalds in europe, asia, and the oceania for instance.