Download Excel File List of Largest Empires

An empire involves the extension of a state's sovereignty over external territories and variety of different ethnic groups. The term "empire" does not have a precise definition, but is generally applied to political entities that are considered to be especially large by the standards of their time and that have acquired a significant part of their territory by conquest. For example, first the Spanish Empire and then the British Empire were called "the empires on which the sun never sets", because of their vast territories and possessions around the globe. This article provides a list of the largest empires in world history, but the list is not and cannot be definitive, since the decision about which entities to consider as "empires" is difficult and fraught with controversy.