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Historical transcontinental empires

  • Fatimid CaliphateIn the year 902, a missionary named Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i stood among the Kutama Berbers of Little Kabylia. He preached to them about an awaited messiah who…
  • Abbasid CaliphateIn the year 747, a man named Abu Muslim stood in the city of Merv and raised a black flag. This banner signaled the start of an armed uprising that would…
  • Afsharid IranIn November 1688, a boy named Nadr Qoli was born into a winter camp in the mountains north of Mashad. His family belonged to the Qereqlu branch of the Afshar…
  • 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…
  • Safavid IranThe story begins in the mountainous region of Ardabil, about 40 miles inland from the Caspian Sea. Here lived Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardabili, a revered Sufi…
  • Timurid EmpireIn 1370, a warlord named Timur established an empire that would dominate Greater Iran and Central Asia for over a century.
  • 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…
  • 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…
  • Byzantine EmpireThe citizens of the Eastern Roman Empire called themselves Romans, not Byzantines. They viewed their state as the direct continuation of ancient Rome…
  • Golden HordeIn 1242, Batu Khan established his capital at Sarai on the lower Volga River. This location sat upon the site of the ancient Khazar capital known as Atil.
  • 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.
  • Western Roman EmpireIn 395, the Roman Empire split into two distinct courts when Emperor Theodosius I died. His son Honorius inherited the western half while his brother…
  • 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.
  • Soviet UnionIn November 1917, Vladimir Lenin led the Bolsheviks to seize power from the Provisional Government in Petrograd. Workers and soldiers had formed councils…
  • 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…
  • Russian EmpireIn November 1721, the Governing Senate and Synod invested Tsar Peter I with the titles of Peter the Great, Pater Patriae, and Imperator of all Russia.