Top 9 most influential empires

I am looking a list of the top 6-9 most influential empires .  This is for a class I am looking to create for juniors and seniors in high school who have a decent background in world history.

Persia * = Persia
because not so influential 1800-present

Chinese * = Chinese
same as Persia. However, will be influential

Egypt* = Russia/USSR
 self explanatory

These are the 8 most influential empires, IMO, in chronological order:

Achaemenid Empire - (first true empire)
Roman Empire - (first western empire)
Han Empire - (first stable chinese empire)
Muslim Empire - (largest empire so far in history, rising culture in religion)
Tang Empire - (similar role as above, but in the east)
Mongol Empire - (largest land empire in history)
Spanish Empire - (first truly global empire, colonization)
British Empire - (largest sea empire in history, english language)

Other Notable Empires:
Egypt, Assyria, Hittites, Mauryan, Macedonian, Sassanids, Song, Holy Roman Empire, Timurid, Seljuk, Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal, Ming Empire, Russian Empire, Qing Empire.

The above can also make a claim as most influential, so that's plenty of empires to chose 9 from.



Edited by Imperator Invictus

Hi,

Before giving you my list, I'd like to stress two points out.
a) What is an Empire (defently your first lesson in my opinion)? A system
of domination based on a smaller political entity that extends its power
over its traditionnal boundaries through violent and/or economic means
(and cultural maybe). I'd add for a fairly long period of time (in that sense
IIIe Reich is not properly an empire).
b) There are much much more than 6 or 9 Empires, what would be
interesting in these you'll pick is to choose them as different one from
another as possible.

Sorry for this pedantic (but not too much I hope) introduction. Here is my
list.

1 Sumer (more than the Egyptian empires because they have less chances
to hear about it somewhere else in their studies).
2 The classical visions of empires: the land (Perian empire, Spartan and
Alexander) against the sea (Phenician, Athenian and Rhodian's ways of
empire).
3 The roman idea of empire from the Republic to 1918 (Augustus,
Byzance, the Ottomans, the Arabs, the pope, the HRE, the western
European kings: emperors in their own lands). History of the concept not
of the reality.
4 The Chinese ways of empires.
5 Ghngis Khan and sons or India: a country without an empire?
6 Something very PC such as: Bantou and Zoulou empires or the natives
pre-colombian empires (anyhow would be an interesting non-Euro-Asian
point of view.
7 The Portugese and/or Spanish and/or Dutch colonial empires.
8 The English Empire 19-20th century (or the French one or both).
9 The USA (a new form of empire? a comparison is to be drawn with
USSR).

Here are some other ideas: the power of belief: are religions empires?; are
the medieval commercial diasporas empires?, city-states, nation-states
and federal-satates: against the empire

Bye. (enjoyed the topic).

1-Roman empire
2-Ottoman empire
3-British empire
4-Hittite empire
5-persian empire
6-Seldjuk empire
7-�slam empire

Originally posted by finikis  iranian can you describe this dominant influences of persian empire at present?Now the only certain effects of iran are religeonal(especially on �raq) and petrol-price effects.

Originally posted by merced12 persian culture now arabic culture.not dominant. in 1000 years ago maybe

well, besides influence on oil and shia islam, iranian culture has been integrated into modern societies from china all the way to turkey, and the western world.

for one thing, the ottoman empire is a great example of iranian culture. until ataturks pan turk ideology came to turkey and wiped out most of the influence of arabic and persian on turkish culture, the cultural language of the ottoman empire was persian, and the turkish language was full of arabic and persian words.

many cities and countries in the world today have places with iranic names that have survived for hundreds of years. the best example of these are in the caucasus, iraq, and central asia.  and the stan which follows the names of the central asian countries is also iranic, as well as the name azerbiajan, iraq, and countless cities.

iranian culture and language was not only spoken by people of different ethnicity from turkey to china, but also adopted as the official languages of several empires, some of whose legacies still remain in central asia and india.

iranian poetry is also read and admired in many parts of asia outside of iran, afghanistan, and tadjikistan.

and we all know of nouroz right, which is celebrated all over asia. iranian culture has also affected both christianity and islam, as well as many other pagan religions.

now for the west:

the west has inherited many things from Persia which were passed on through the greeks/romans and muslims.

these include the modern political organisation (states/provinces, governers, etc...)

human rights (from the book written by Xenophon about the first human rights declaration, which was a must read for all european politicians in europe during the 17 and 18 hundreds) and religous tolerance.

poetry (the most famous being Rumi and the Shahnameh by ferdowsi)

science (biruni, ibn sina, and many others...)

math (khwarizmi, better known as al jabr)

and many many other things.

and not to mention that Cyrus the Great is mentioned in the jewish torah and the old testament, which is read by hundreds of millions of people. this has not only caused christians to name their children cyrus, or darius, but has also given them some knowledge of persia.

infact, if you ask me, Iran, china, egypt, greece and the european world (including USA, australia, etc...) have given more to the world than any other culture/empire.

unfortunatly after the arrival of pan turkism, the governments in central asia and azerbaijan are begining to change history like ataturk to bring about a sense of nationalism. and like turkey has gotten ridden most of its outside influences these countries will probably do the same, and they will forget their pasts and only learn the new history writtern by their governments.

Edited by Iranian41ife

until ataturks pan turk ideology came to turkey and wiped out most of the influence of arabic and persian on turkish culture, the cultural language of the ottoman empire was persian, and the turkish language was full of arabic and persian words.

It is of course true that Ottoman culture, and Turkic cultures in general had huge Persian influence, but there are two very big mistakes in this sentence:

1. Ataturk was not pan-Turkist. He was a Turkish nationalist. He didn't give a rat's ass about the 'Turks' in Central Asia.

2. Cultural language in the Ottoman language was not Persian. It was Ottoman Turkish. 

and we all know of nouroz right, which is celebrated all over asia. iranian culture has also affected both christianity and islam, as well as many other pagan religions.

Pagans everywhere celebrate the spring equinox (what you call Nourouz). This is not because Persian cultural influence reached Siberia and America, but because this event can be observed all around the globe.

Originally posted by Beylerbeyi It is of course true that Ottoman culture, and Turkic cultures in general had huge Persian influence, but there are two very big mistakes in this sentence: 1. Ataturk was not pan-Turkist. He was a Turkish nationalist. He didn't give a rat's ass about the 'Turks' in Central Asia.

ok, learned something new. well, his turkish nationalism wiped out almost everything that wasnt turkic, and the things he couldnt wipe out he just changed history to make it seem turkic.

Originally posted by Beylerbeyi 2. Cultural language in the Ottoman language was not Persian. It was Ottoman Turkish.

cultural language was persian, political was turkish, and religious was arabic.

Originally posted by Beylerbeyi and we all know of nouroz right, which is celebrated all over asia. iranian culture has also affected both christianity and islam, as well as many other pagan religions. Pagans everywhere celebrate the spring equinox (what you call Nourouz). This is not because Persian cultural influence reached Siberia and America, but because this event can be observed all around the globe.

the way you celebrate is what makes it iranian. and nevrus (i believe thats what turks call it) is just a variation of the word norous.

just like christmas. the way the christian world celebrates christmas is actually from the german influence (like decorating a tree).

 

Edited by Iranian41ife

Originally posted by Imperator Invictus Civilization is not the same thing as empire. A civilization may span many empires. An empire may be the produce of many civilizations.

yea, i would agree with you but this guy is look for empires so there are no other options but to post empires.

question: can you change the class curriculum from empires to civilisations or do you have to do empires?

persian culture now is a arabic culture.my eyes saudi arabia iran bahrein sames.