Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > History
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 05-28-2009, 08:38 AM
 
Location: On a Long Island in NY
7,801 posts, read 10,059,736 times
Reputation: 7366

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by ovcatto View Post
I don't think that you can include Portugal into the ranks of superpowers. Even at its height in only controlled a small stretch of across Africa, part of the eastern half of South America and along the Indian coast and a few key islands. Spain was the more dominate empire and so much so that between 1580 to 1640 Portugal was ruled by Spain.
That is true but the Portuguese controlled their colonies for longer then any of the other European powers ... in some cases from the 1500s until well into the 1960s and 70s. They controlled Goa in India from 1510 until 1961. They dident give up their last colony - Macau - until 1999 (which they had controlled since 1557). Tiny Portugal was also the only European power (besides France) to resist the independence movements.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 05-28-2009, 08:52 AM
 
Location: Victoria TX
42,618 posts, read 86,571,713 times
Reputation: 36637
Portugal certainly had the most disgraceful departure from colonialism, though. The Portuguese colonialists simply went to the airport one day and boarded planes taking off for Lisbon, leaving their African colonies to wallow in whatever squalor they had fallen to. Guinea, Angola and Mozambique immediately collapsed into instant civil war and were the last to reorganize themselves into any semblance of modern nations. Angola has barely done so yet. In fairness, Portugal was by that time by far the poorest of the European colonial "powers", and could ill afford to do a great deal to mitigate the social and economic depression of their charges.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-29-2009, 06:14 AM
 
1,257 posts, read 3,422,987 times
Reputation: 419
Spain, of course.
Spain had the largest Empire, that once included the Portuguese empire during the annexation period that lasted 60 years.
The Spanish empire included America (the totality of America, European prowlers and squatters were illegal).
A large part of Africa.
Japan
Goa in India
Philippines
Most of Italy
Holland and Belgium
Germany
Austria
And if it weren't by the bad weather, Perfid Albion.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-29-2009, 01:52 PM
 
Location: Western Cary, NC
4,348 posts, read 7,332,777 times
Reputation: 7276
We are missing a lot of the older superpowers. The Egyptian Empire, the Persian Empire, the Greek and Roman Empires, and the Chinese Empires all covered large parts of the civilized world. I don’t know enough about the Aztec or other Native American cultures, but I would think with human nature being as it is they would have also had wars to gain lands and control of populations.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-30-2009, 02:16 AM
 
Location: England
3,263 posts, read 3,688,369 times
Reputation: 3256
At it's height Britain had the largest empire in history. That's a fact.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-30-2009, 02:28 AM
 
1,257 posts, read 3,422,987 times
Reputation: 419
No, the Spanish Empire was far larger.
You even copied us "The Empire Where the Sun Never Sets".
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-30-2009, 11:33 AM
 
Location: England
3,263 posts, read 3,688,369 times
Reputation: 3256
Well we took everything else off you Leovigildo, except for that small castanet factory in the Canary Islands.
We sunk your Armada too, Spain just could'nt defeat the Anglo Saxons could they?
If you want to believe that the so called spanish empire was larger than the British one well, feel free then.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-31-2009, 03:08 AM
 
1,257 posts, read 3,422,987 times
Reputation: 419
You are talking about different eras, different times.
English, as predatory pirates and thiefs, the only thing that took from Spain were territories that Spanish did not use at that time, the so-called Colonies settled by expelled zealots and prisoners, Jamaica, and few things else.
England became powerful during the XIXth Century, the height of the Spanish Empire was the XVIth Century.
The Spanish Empire lasted 300 hundred years, the English Empire barely a century.
English did not take everything from Spain because at that time they were just a bunch of pirates with no money, whose main source of income was stolen Spanish gold.
The Americans, yes, two/third of American territory was Spanish.
Anglo Saxons? You are not English, obviously.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-31-2009, 03:19 AM
 
Location: Earth
17,440 posts, read 28,462,274 times
Reputation: 7472
Quote:
Originally Posted by nicet4 View Post
Don't forget little Portugal.

But the greatest empire of all time has to be the Mongol empire under the reign of the Great Khan Mongke.

Mongke's brother Hulegu

From Korea to modern day Israel.

That was an empire.


From Korea to Poland, actually.

Genghis Khan could have gone even farther west in Europe but decided to go back home for some reason.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-31-2009, 03:23 AM
 
1,257 posts, read 3,422,987 times
Reputation: 419
Majoun

He didn't invade Europe because some insurrection back home.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > History

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top