Curated category
Former empires
- Akkadian EmpireIn the year 2334 BC, a man named Sargon stood before the city of Kish as a cupbearer to its ruler. He held no royal blood and wore no crown.
- Carolingian EmpireIn 732, a Muslim army crossed the Pyrenees and marched north toward Tours. Charles Martel stood at the head of Christian European forces to stop them.
- Sasanian EmpireIn 224 AD, Ardashir I defeated Artabanus IV at the Battle of Hormozdgan to end four centuries of Parthian rule. The victor crowned himself shahanshah, or…
- HittitesThe ancestors of the Hittites arrived in Anatolia between 4400 and 4100 BC. Recent genetic research indicates that Proto-Anatolian speakers entered this…
- Achaemenid EmpireIn 550 BC, Cyrus the Great defeated the Median king Astyages and captured Ecbatana. This single event marked the birth of an empire that would stretch from…
- Austrian EmpireOn the 24th of March 1803, the Imperial Recess declared that ecclesiastical states would drop from eighty-one to just three.
- Dzungar KhanateThe word Dzungar comes from the Mongolian term jegün, meaning left or east. The Oirat people originally lived in the Tuva region during the early 13th…
- HunsIn the 18th century, French scholar Joseph de Guignes became the first to propose a link between the Huns and the Xiongnu people.
- Crown of AragonIn 1137, the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona merged through a single dynastic union. Petronilla of Aragon married Raymond Berenguer IV of…
- Maurya EmpireIn 321 BCE, a young man named Chandragupta stood at the edge of the Punjab region. He had just witnessed Alexander the Great's army mutiny at the Beas River…
- Kingdom of FranceThe Treaty of Verdun in 843 divided the Carolingian Empire into three parts, leaving Charles the Bald to rule West Francia.
- Tang dynastyIn the winter of 617, Li Yuan occupied Chang'an while Emperor Yang of Sui was still alive. This action marked the beginning of a new era for China after…
- Ancient CarthageThe year 814 BC marks the arrival of Tyrian colonists on a triangular peninsula in North Africa, where they established a settlement that would become…
- Qin dynastyIn 897 BC, the area that would become Qin was allocated as a dependency dedicated to raising horses. Feizi, said to be a descendant of the legendary…
- Spanish EmpireIn 1492, the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile completed a ten-year war to expel the last Muslim king from Granada.
- Mongol EmpireIn the year 1162, a boy named Temüjin was born on the Mongolian Plateau near Lake Baikal. His father Yesugei had been poisoned by Tatars when the child was…
- Austria-HungaryOn the 20th of March 1867, the Hungarian parliament at Pest began negotiations that would reshape Central Europe. These talks culminated in a formal…
- German EmpireOn the 18th of January 1871, inside the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, King Wilhelm I of Prussia accepted the crown of German Emperor.
- First Bulgarian EmpireIn 681, the Byzantine Empire signed a humiliating peace treaty that acknowledged Bulgaria as an independent state south of the Danube.
- Empire of NicaeaIn 1204, Byzantine emperor Alexios V Doukas Mourtzouphlos fled Constantinople after crusaders invaded the city. Soon after, Theodore I Laskaris, the…
- Habsburg monarchyRadbot of Klettgau built Habsburg Castle in the late 10th century. This stone fortress in present-day Switzerland gave the family its name and foundation.
- First French EmpireOn the 2nd of December 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte stood inside Notre-Dame de Paris to receive his imperial crown. Pope Pius VII had traveled from Rome to…
- Latin EmpireIn April 1204, the crusader army sacked Constantinople instead of Jerusalem. The original plan had been to restore Isaac II Angelos to his throne after he…
- Byzantine EmpireThe citizens of the Eastern Roman Empire called themselves Romans, not Byzantines. They viewed their state as the direct continuation of ancient Rome…
- Nazi GermanyThe stock market crash of 1929 sent shockwaves through Germany that shattered the fragile Weimar Republic. Millions of Germans found themselves unemployed…
- Gallic EmpireIn the summer of 260, King Odaenathus gained control of Egypt and Syria while Emperor Valerian was captured by the Sasanian Empire.
- Soviet empireThe term Soviet empire emerged in academic circles during the late 1950s to describe a specific pattern of global dominance.
- ManchukuoThe Mukden Incident of the 18th of September 1931, marked the beginning of a calculated military operation that would reshape Northeast Asia.
- Holy Roman EmpireOn Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne emperor in Rome. This event revived a title that had lapsed more than three…
- Ancient RomeArchaeological evidence of settlement around Rome starts to emerge in the middle of the 8th century BC. Large-scale organisation appears only then, with the…
- British EmpireIn 1497, John Cabot sailed from England and made landfall on the coast of Newfoundland. He believed he had reached Asia but found no colony to establish.
- Italian EmpireIn 1869, an Italian navigation company purchased Assab Bay on the Red Sea to establish a coaling station while the Suez Canal opened for navigation.
- Roman EmpireIn 27 BC, the Roman Senate granted Octavian overarching military power and bestowed upon him a new title. This single act marked his accession as the first…
- Ottoman EmpireIn 1302, the Battle of Bapheus marked a turning point for Osman I. This Turkish tribal leader commanded forces that defeated Byzantine troops along the…
- German colonial empireIn 1839, a private group founded the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants to Texas. This organization sought to establish a colony called New…