Greatest Empire?

The point of this thread is to discuss this question: What empire in history most profoundly influenced the world today.

My choice would lay with the Romans, as without them much of Europe may not be as civilized as they are today, the Roman constitution has provided the basis for many of today's republics, and the Romans had a high level of society unmatched until the Renaissance. This included the bureaucracy of their government, road, aqueducts and public works, basic rights for all, economic system, and the organization of their armed forces.

I think as far as technical stuff like that the roman empire is king. But for greatest impact on people I'd say the Third Reich.

Eh, I disagree... Nazi-Germany only seems to have a huge impact because how recently it was active. In a thousand years, it will be impossible to see its influence on the world when compared to the Roman Empire. Besides, it only lasted a few dozen years and is only remembered by the restof the world for having a funny mustache and killing jews.

I believe that the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Mongol were all very influential.

Roman Empire: Obvious, really. Many languages originated from its language, Latin, and also many of its ideas, items and others echo in today's world.

Ottoman Empire: This empire greatly influenced Eastern Europe, the Arab World, and the Mediterranean. It also caused the final collapse of the "Roman" or Byzantine Empire.

Mongol Empire: This enormous empire covered all the way from the South China Sea to the Baltic Sea. This empire and the ravenous Mongols terrorized the lands they conquered and destroyed many cities.

A world without Nazi Germany would be recognizable to people today, while one without the Romans would not be so. If there were no Nazis, perhaps the World population would be higher because o all of those who died in WWII, technology would be slightly behind as technology advances in war more quickly than normal, and maybe there would have been a war between Russia and the USA if Germany never became a superpower.

The Ottomans also had a profound influence. They really contributed in the spread of Islam, and many argue the Renaissance began when the Ottomans took Constantinople and the scholars there fled to Italy, sparking a new wave of enlightenment.

USA wouldn't be a superpwoer if not for ww2, they would've stayed isolationist fro god-knows how long. The british empire would've also lasted a lot longer.

The ottomans are pretty important to, they actually killed the last remanants of the Roman Empire in Constantinople. Their empire stretched so far they fought wars with the Holy Roman Empire.

WWI was what made the USA a superpower, but I have to agree with you on the British Empire. Even if the US didn't become as powerful as it is today, the world would still be similar. The Romans changed society, technology, politics, and the functioning of militaries forever. I can't even think about what the world would look like without the Romans.

I'm not arguing with that, but I'm saying other empires were just as improtant. In addition, the US was still isolationist after WWI, infact unitl Pearl harbor most americans wanted to stay out of wrold affairs, for ever.

Yes, the USA was an isolationist superpower. theres no doubt that their citizens didn't want to lose a generation over the affairs of the Europeans.

You can't be a superpower if you are isolationist, the whole point of being a superpower is that you get involved in international affairs, and dominate them.

The Americans were very hesitant to enter a war between European countries, and that was as far as the isolationism I talked of goes. the Americans established Liberia, annexed Hawaii, fought against Spain, Alaska Boundary dispute, the dependancy of Cuba, the Philippines, and the list goes on.

The Americans were exerting themselves on the global stage, but the population didn't want to go into a major war if it wouldn't be to their benefit, but rather that of the Europeans. The element of not helping other nations unless it would help them was the aspect of isolationism.