The biggest empire ever.
The Achaemenid, or Persian Empire, was the biggest empire in history in terms of population at its time. It stretched across three continents and included territories in Asia, Africa, and Europe. At its peak, the Achaemenid Empire ruled over 44% of the world’s population, making it the largest empire ever to exist.
The biggest empire ever.
Human civilization arose in the Euphrat/Tigris valley. These two rivers along with a stable and healthy sun made the territory ideal for agriculture. Some of the earliest state structures and some of the biggest empires in history are from this region… Sumer, the Assyrians, the Babylonians. This was the center of the universe 5000 years ago.
The Persians were an ancient people that migrated into the Mesopotamian region around 1000 BC, probably from the north through Kaukasus, but we do not know for certain. They formed a civilization in a part of what is today’s Iran but soon extended their borders. At the beginning of the first millennia BC, the dominant power in the region was the Assyrians. When they were defeated in 609 BC, they left space and possibilities for others to take their place. After a few decades of Median domination, in 550 BC, the Persian King Cyrus defeated them and started a territorial expansion that had, until then, never been seen.
When the Persians ruled the world.
The biggest Empire ever was the Achaemenid/Persian Empire under the rule of King Darius (550–486). It included territories of modern-day Iran, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, much of the Black Sea coastal regions, northeastern Greece and southern Bulgaria, northern Greece and North Macedonia, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories, all significant population centers of ancient Egypt as far west as Libya, Kuwait, northern Saudi Arabia, parts of the United Arab Emirates and Oman, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and much of Central Asia. It was huge.
But how do you measure greatness?
Talking about countries and empires, there could be many ways to define what’s the greatest. The two most common are: Biggest in population, and biggest as surface. Then there’s the question of relativity… You could count in absolute numbers or you could put the numbers in context.
As an example. The roman empire was in its time a world superpower. The Romans ruled everything, and outside of their hemisphere, there were only the outskirts, the periphery, and barbarians… At least from a European/African perspective. It held somewhere between ¼ and ⅙ of the world’s population. Still, the Roman population at its peak was smaller than that of today’s Italy.
Measuring the total population of an empire doesn’t permit a comparison between ages, between now and then, but if you put the numbers in relation to the total number of people who lived in the world at that time. In that case, the Achaemenid- or Persian Empire was the biggest Empire that ever existed.
King Darius the great
At its peak, under King Darius, it had a population of about 50 million. It was actually smaller than the Roman Empire in absolute figures. And it was even smaller than today’s Iran. But since the total world population in 500 BC was about 113 million, 50 million made up 44% of them. That is by far the highest percentage of all the world’s people that any country or empire has ever had.
If we ask which was the biggest Empire ever, but define big in other ways, we get other results:
- The biggest Empire ever as the total surface was the British Empire.
- The biggest Empire ever as the total contiguous surface was the Mongol Empire.
- The biggest Empire ever in the total population is the People’s Republic of China.
So what happened to the Persians?
A Macedonian general by the name of Alexander the Great, maybe the greatest military strategist that ever lived, conquered the biggest empire in history in 330 BC. He then never returned to Greece but stayed as the ruler of the Persians until his death in 323 BC. The once so glorious empire was then divided among his generals, his half-brother Philip Arrhidaeus, and those who promoted Alexander’s unborn child to become the next heir. Wars between the various factions emerged and so, the Achaemenid central power was shattered, and the biggest empire the world has ever seen was no more.
Conclusion
There are many ways to count greatness, but the Achaemenid- or the first Persian Empire was the biggest Empire that ever existed… In terms of percentage of the world population at its time.
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