Which country/culture in history has had the most influential/powerful empire?

[lovejoy]

It is not the British Empire that will rule the world in the next 400 years.

May be we should start learning another eastern language in the next generation !

 

[Member2019]

I would say the US for other reasons ...

Looking to modern times, USA and their economy

Oh no, I wouldn't say because of our economy (which is amid collapse).

I would say the US because it established a nation of neither an official language nor an official religion. That drew everyone from everywhere, and we were richer for it.

The US also spent 180 years of largely staying out of the affairs outside of the Americas, although that changed after the Suez Incident of 1956.

Since then I'd strongly argue we've been a victim of our own set of follies, much in-line with the Romans.

 

[Johan]

As compared the North American continent, Australian continent, African continent, Asian and Central American continents by the British?

Half of the continent was conquered by France...
And all those continents conquered by the british were in their hands a different periods. Noth america was independent by the time England has colonies in Africa, Australia, India...
Central America was spanish.
England has little spots in Asia, they never conquered the whole continent.

 

[Hot Mega]

Half of the continent was conquered by France...

No doubt. My point was these were all the continents GB had colonized as compared Macedonian empire.

 

[lovejoy]

Half of the continent was conquered by France...
And all those continents conquered by the british were in their hands a different periods. Noth america was independent by the time England has colonies in Africa, Australia, India...
Central America was spanish.
England has little spots in Asia, they never conquered the whole continent.

France conquered more countries i.e. number of countries France conquered exceeded the British.

But British conquered much more land mass i.e. Canada and Australia and United States (but lost the British 13 colonies due to partial blockage by French navy and a farmer called Washington !!!)

 

[Hot Mega]

France conquered more countries i.e. number of countries France conquered exceeded the British.

But British conquered much more land mass i.e. Canada and Australia and United States (but lost the British 13 colonies due to partial blockage by French navy and a farmer called Washington !!!)

It's likely the case that more French speak English than English speak French.

 

[lovejoy]

Half of the continent was conquered by France...
And all those continents conquered by the british were in their hands a different periods. Noth america was independent by the time England has colonies in Africa, Australia, India...
Central America was spanish.
England has little spots in Asia, they never conquered the whole continent.

Actually many countries British or France or Spain conquered exchanged hands.

British did hold on to India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Singapore etc.

England did have a large spot in Asia: India subcontinent !!

 

[Shindekudasai]

That question is not that easy to answer.

The British Empire, influential as it may have been, is not necessarily the most influential. The English language for example is spoken worlwide not because of the British Empire. Most scholars are of that opinion. The English language was never been spoken in the areas the British occupied. It was only spoken in that areas by the British and a small part of the assimilated elite. The school curricula including English mostly failed in that time.
The main reason for the worldwide use of the English language today is a different one: the western world has been under the influence (politically und culturally) of the United States for the last 60 years, for example the development of modern communication via computers and internet was driven (while not always spearheaded) by the United States, thus the language evolving and revolving around it was English, same goes for international alliances like the NATO. Furthermore is the English language far easier than all the other languages that played a role equally as big as the English language (German, French, Spanish etc.), that's probably the only reason it's the official language of the European Union. For example German and it's "Verstehensgemeinschaft" (perhaps "comprehension family"), which means the languages you can understand or easily learn, when you can speak German, like Low German, Dutch, Yiddish, Cape Dutch (Afrikaans), Luxembourgian etc., are spoken by far more people in the EU than English. Almost the same goes for French. (Sorry, my British friends, but that's the truth.)

Not only the Romans had an empire with a modern bureaucracy and administration, but the ancient Chinese as well. The Chinese writing system influenced or even established writing systems in Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand etc. and Chinese buddhism migrated into the whole world, making it one of the biggest religions. In the last 3,000 years, the Chinese empire was most of the time the biggest existing empire in population and landmass.

Germany and Italy influenced the world as it is today in a way, that most people fail to recognize on a regular basis. A huge part of the most influential discoveries and inventions go back to Germans/Italians or German/Italian immigrants in other countries (from the axe to the wire to the telephone (yes, we had that 16 years before Bell, believe it or not ). The German (Prussian) school system was "exported" into as many countries as no other school system on this world. So was the German and American military system.

German, Italian, Dutch and French art was way more influential than British art. German writers like Friedrich von Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe or Gotthold Ephraim Lessing were at least as influential as Shakespeare. Goethe was in many respects at least as influential as Shakespeare, he even helped Shakespeare to fame through his famous Shakespeare critique, where he praised Shakespeare's rich use of words and stylistic devices (even though Goethe used 78,000 words wheras Shakespeare only uses around 35,000). And how can anyone forget artists and musicians like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Vincent Willem van Gogh, Jan Vermeer, Eugène Delacroix, Albrecht Dürer, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Peter Paul Rubens, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Joseph Haydn, Richard Wagner, Johann Strauss etc.. none of them British.

Or our modern economic system: it may have been influenced by the industrial revolution which started in Great Britain, but that industrial revolution would have never taken place without it's predecessors (French mercantilism and physiocratism or German cameralism) or with modern capitalism, which was way more advanced in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands or northern Italy than in Great Britain by the time the East India Trading Company set sails for the first time.

In short: just plainly saying "Great Britain" is not merely enough.

The US also spent 180 years of largely staying out of the affairs outside of the Americas, although that changed after the Suez Incident of 1956.

Since then I'd strongly argue we've been a victim of our own set of follies, much in-line with the Romans.

Not true. The US already interfered in other countries business with what they called the "Splendid Little War" and through Theodore Rossevelts "big stick policy" (speak softly but carry a big stick). That was more than a hundred years ago.
And while the politics and policies of the Roman empire and the American empire are quite similar at times (metus gallicus metus punicus for example), they differ very much in certain other areas. Even though the Romans were spread too thin at the end (almost like the US is now) the Roman empire collapsed mostly for different reasons as well (for example the "new religion" called christianity or the partition).

 

[Hot Mega]

The British Empire, influential as it may have been, is not necessarily the most influential. The English language for example is spoken worlwide not because of the British Empire. Most scholars are of that opinion. The English language was never been spoken in the areas the British occupied. It was only spoken in that areas by the British and a small part of the assimilated elite. The school curricula including English mostly failed in that time.
The main reason for the worldwide use of the English language today is a different one: the western world has been under the influence (politically und culturally) of the United States for the last 60 years, for example the development of modern communication via computers and internet was driven (while not always spearheaded) by the United States, thus the language evolving and revolving around it was English, same goes for international alliances like the NATO.

In short: just plainly saying "Great Britain" is not merely enough.

This part of your post is fraught with contradiction IMO. I can understand you attributing part of the promulgation of the English language's universality to the advancement of the US. However, the land that is called the US would likely not be what it is today without British colonization.

If I have a seed and I plant that seed far and wide then by chance in one of the places it not only grows but evolves into something brilliant or beautiful, who gets the credit for that? The seed or the planter?

 

[mrtrebus]

 

[marquis2]

The British Empire was unlike most empires in the past, there never existed the military strength or even the will to assimilate vast areas through conquest.There was a military presence (and also a great Navy though this didn't have much effect inland!) but it was relatively tiny.

 

[sproing99]

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire

. At its height it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1922, the British Empire held sway over a population of about 458 million people, one-quarter of the world's population,[1] and covered more than 13,000,000 square miles (33,670,000 km²): approximately a quarter of the Earth's total land area.

So if it's just a size fight, the British Empire wins.

 

[Ravenholm]

While they started the reign of the anglo empire which the US now heads IMO the US and the history of the last century dwarfs everything that came prior.The 20th century has been history on steroids.Between the immense difference in technology and population that the 20th century and now the 21st have over the past is like night and day.People had relatively still lived tha same as they had for centuries till the late 19th century and that change just accelerated in the 20th.We split the atom ,went to the moon,population exploded,world shrank etc.Empires will never last the timespan they once did,everything just moves so much faster now.Comparing the ancient empires to the modern ones is like comparing the horse to the jet.The ancient ones don't begin to compare.It's like what I say about Jesus.Compared to when he supposedly visited lol to now hardly anyone was alive and the dilemas ( nuclear holocaust,climate change etc facing mankind) are just so vastly beyond now what they were then.

The British Empire reigned for nearly 300 [or more] years. And yet the Americans have been a super power for just over sixty years. Big difference if you ask me. And in those sixty years Americans have probably caused more harm and death than The British Empire ever did in their time. The Roman Empire is also a bigger and better one too. Actions speak louder than words. British and Romans have done more and achieved more in their time than the Americans have.

 

[mrtrebus]

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire



So if it's just a size fight, the British Empire wins.

YES! The sun never set on the British Empire! :hatsoff:

 

[marquis2]

One fact to amaze you all-the Empire at its height was administered by just 143 civil servants working in the Foreign Office at Whitehall.

Not sure how many there are now.............

Edit-despite it all , Britain still has the largest overseas empire!
consisting of 13 dependent territories: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Diego Garcia, Gibraltar, Falkland Islands, Montserrat, Pitcairn, St Helena, South Georgia, and Turks & Caicos Islands.

 

[sproing99]

One fact to amaze you all-the Empire at its height was administered by just 143 civil servants working in the Foreign Office at Whitehall.

Excellent delegation of responsibilities to the colonial administrators in the field

 

[mrtrebus]

Excellent delegation of responsibilities to the colonial administrators in the field

British efficiency at its best. Bravo!!

 

[Hot Mega]

The British Empire reigned for nearly 300 [or more] years. And yet the Americans have been a super power for just over sixty years. Big difference if you ask me. And in those sixty years Americans have probably caused more harm and death than The British Empire ever did in their time. The Roman Empire is also a bigger and better one too. Actions speak louder than words. British and Romans have done more and achieved more in their time than the Americans have.

When has the US ever been been considered an "empire"?? "Empire" implies at minimum it be headed by an Emperor or Ruler. The US has never had one of those so the US has never been or had an "empire" in my book.

But let's just stick to "most powerful/influential" talk as suggesting others have "achieved" more is debatable on scope.

 

[boobmanz]

I would say Liechtenstein. But then I could be wrong

 

[Sky_999]

What about the Chinese empire?:yinyang: