British.
We ruled the world.
My favorite empire is Genghis Kahns Mongols. There is just something raw and amazing about the speed with which they took over an amazing chunk of land. And it's always fun to read about the underdog taking his piece.
I enjoy the british colonization to some extent too, that would probably be my pick from that time period.
I don't really think there are any specific "empires" to talk about in the modern day... But cold war stuff is infinitely intersting.
The great Nobunaga's Japanese Empire as of the year 2060. Starting out all alone on the North American continent he concentrated on commerce, infrastructure and science. When other civilizations dropped by and found his empire they were turned away politely but firmly. In the early 2000's Nobunaga decided to convene a summit of United Nations and nation states to decide who would be fittest to run the world. While it was close with Ramesses II claiming a chunk of the votes it was Nobunaga who received the 8 votes needed to win. These votes were made primarily by nation states that were bribedencouraged by Lord Nobunaga to see things his way.
Shortly thereafter Nobunaga had enough of ruling over the lesser nations of the world from his throne in Kyoto on the shores of what came to be called the "Pretty Awesome Lakes". To remedy this he decided to take a trip across the ocean and drop in on the European continent to show them his new GIANT DEATH ROBOTS. After a few short years of pitiful resistance by the musket toting armies of Suleiman and Songhai the Japanese Empire spread across the continent and Europe as well as Africa became new prefectures.
For now Nobunaga rests. His Giant Death Robots keeping a close eye on "Queen" Elizabeth and "Pharaoh Ramesses II" in nearby Asia. However I think it's inarguable that as of right now the Japanese empire of the year 2060 is the greatest empire small Earth map has ever seen.
Talking in terms of traditional armies, I had a professor in college argue that until the advent of the minie ball and trench warfare during the American Civil War, the Roman Legions would have continued to dominate even the armies of Napoleon due to their organization, mobility, and logistics even without firearms had Rome not fallen. Maybe not the most dominating army ever, but still pretty awesome to think about.
@Silvergun said:
I'd have to give it to the Roman or the Brits at their height.
One thing about the Romans that really struck me was something I heard on Dan Carlin's 'Hardcore History' podcast. I can't remember his source, but he said something to the effect that you could take the legions at their height, transport them 1000 years into (their) future, and they'd STILL wipe the floor with any army on earth. For comparison, that'd be like taking, say, William the Conqueror's army of 1066 and having it stomp today's US military (or if you want to be really accurate, 2066's US military!).
On the Brit side, I read that around the time of the Revolutionary war, the main British battleships (Ship of the Line?) cost about as much to build as a supercarrier today. The Brits had FLEETS of them.
Crazy stuff.
I agree but technology and warfare changed tremendously between the 1066 Normans and the 2012 Americans. At least the Roman Army would be up against similar weaponry (at least at the infantry level) and somewhat similar tactics. The Normans would be up against mechanized warfare which would absolutely obliterate guys with swords, spears, and shields. However, I still agree with the Romans at their peak being, relatively speaking, the best army ever. I mean these guys basically conquered Europe including a large portion of the UK which has never been done by any other country (I will take William's ascension to be more of a civil war of sorts).
I would have loved to see what the world would be like if the Byzantine or Mongolian empires were still around.
Now i realize this might be crazy but what about 1930s and early 1940s nazi germany? i mean what killed the third reich was basically hitlers insane decision no?
@VictoryBlixt said:
Now i realize this might be crazy but what about 1930s and early 1940s nazi germany? i mean what killed the third reich was basically hitlers insane decision no?
Also the fact that he tried to take over the world, there was no way he could have taken on the world and won.
@mnzy said:
I would also say the army of ancient Rome. Their whole giant empire was based around their military strength.
From wiki:
"At its territorial height, the Roman Empire may have contained between 45 million and 120 million people. Historian Edward Gibbon estimated that the size of the Roman army "most probably formed a standing force of 3,750,000" men at the Empire's territorial peak in the time of the Roman Emperor Hadrian" That's biger than any army today, even if the population wasn't that much compared to today.
Hadrian was a giant stinking piece of shit of a person.
This is next to impossible to answer in any satisfactory way, there's so many factors involved in comparing militaries from different time periods. I'd say the U.S. pretty clearly has the most powerful military force in history, if based on nothing but raw destructive potential. But the army of Alexander the Great was maybe more effective at meeting the goals of its leader, whereas the U.S. military's effectiveness has been blunted by social changes, terrorism, a political mire, and other factors. So if you're going to compare those two, where it's clear that if they were actually put together head to head, there would be no contest, why not compare other armies where you take into account factors like that?
Like Finland. They got invaded by Russia right after Poland in WW2, but unlike the Poles, who fought tooth and nail but got their asses kicked pretty fast, they held out for months against a vastly larger, more powerful, more well-armored, and more experienced army. If we're gong to make exceptions for comparing armies across time and technology, why not make exceptions for size too?
I'm going to go with Finland then. Because they were barreling down mountainsides on snow skis mowing down rows of Russian soldiers. That's badass.
There's like a million different variables. In terms of raw force, today the US beats everyone out without question. But in terms of actually deploying that force to effectively achieve objectives, as both Afghanistan and Iraq (and arguably Somalia) have shown, the US has real problems in projecting that huge amount of force. And as was pointed out, the US is not an Empire. IMO either Genghis Kahn's Empire or the British Empire were the strongest. What I think is most important in assessing an Empire is its ability to project force, and both the British and Mongolians were unrivalled in this ability.
Let me boot up Civ V and I'll find out...okay, wait....one more turn and I'll get back to you...hold, just another round...hmm, okay I'm going to need a few more hours to sort this out.
Any modern military would wipe the floor with something like Alexander the Great's. There's a reason why guns are gun-tacular.
I'd say the Mongols, they accomplished more than anyone else before them militarily. The fact that the empire originally was just a bunch of nomads with no experience in siege warfare but's them above Alexander's force for me. Subutai was easily one of the greatest military minds in history and Genghis was a great leader.
well, i googled it and this is what i found
10. Ottoman Empire
9. Umayyad Caliphate (im pretty sure there is like a thousand ways to spell Umayyad, but who cares)
8.Persian
7. Byzantine
6. Han Dynasty
5. British
4. Holy Roman Empire
3. The russian empire
2. The mongol empire
1. the Roman Empire
The Klingon Empire. Period.
My empire or the US. The US owns the sea and the air which makes it easy to own the land as well. My empire because a sloth riding his warbear is enough to conquer anything.
@Ravenlight said:
Why, the Galactic Empire, of course.
Yep, as soon as I saw the title of this thread.
Britain.
Whilst every other nation in the world is busy building expensive bombs and training millions of soldiers as canon fodder, the UK just spends all its money on three Eton grads who can walk without making very much noise to sneak about everywhere killing important duders.
It's the real reason why we don't have proper helicopters in Afghanistan, honestly.
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