Continental Unions

Before the 20th Century, was there ever a time that a country could have controlled an entire continent (Oceania excluded), or, regarding Asia, at least an entire region? Asides from a surviving and powerful Rome, US North America, or a Gran Colombia covering all of Latin America, I can't seem to think of how this would be possible
 
Continents are meaningless concepts as we see with Europe, the definition of continent is almost literally "a landmass that is generally considered a continent." So if China is defined as its own continent, than why not?

Anyways the most likely option for our continents - still not very likely - is super-US. Romewank gives no reason why it would expand directly into places like northern Scandinavia.
 

Glen

Moderator
Before the 20th Century, was there ever a time that a country could have controlled an entire continent (Oceania excluded), or, regarding Asia, at least an entire region? Asides from a surviving and powerful Rome, US North America, or a Gran Colombia covering all of Latin America, I can't seem to think of how this would be possible

Ummm...Mongols....
 
Before the 20th Century, was there ever a time that a country could have controlled an entire continent (Oceania excluded), or, regarding Asia, at least an entire region? Asides from a surviving and powerful Rome, US North America, or a Gran Colombia covering all of Latin America, I can't seem to think of how this would be possible

South Asia under the British Raj, no? (Also sort of under some previous empires - IIRC the Mughals controlled most but not all of the region.)
 
South Asia under the British Raj, no? (Also sort of under some previous empires - IIRC the Mughals controlled most but not all of the region.)

The problem with South Asia is that it's become defined by the borders of the Raj, which is why Tibet is usually Inner Asian while Nepal is South Asian.
 
Say... Bolivar's dream coming true, maybe? A successful Panama congress that ratifies the treaty of Confederation and Perpetual Union between Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Gran Colombia, Mexico and the United States?
 
Isn't the USA managing to drive the UK off North America and then seizing all mexico the most likely scenario (admittedly some major problems with this in the complete incompetence of the US generals in the early phase of the war of 1812 when a full conquest of Canada was attainable and due to the tension of the slaveholding vs non slaveholding states in 1848 making the complete annexation of Mexico politically -if not really militarily- difficult.) Still the countries that border the US are so much smaller in population and militarily weaker that a US conquest of North America seems the most possible (although not very possible) option.

Napoleon conquering Europe also has potential I guess, although taking England will be very difficult because it means crushing the RN to the degree that it cannot prevent an amphibious invasion (and prevent the subsequent supply train for the French army), which seems like a very difficult task for a France that is facing a near continuous series of land wars on multiple fronts-.
 
Before the 20th Century, was there ever a time that a country could have controlled an entire continent

Sure, UK claiming (and enforcing the claim!) Antartica. Alternatively, France, but they did not quite have the navy to discourage other claimants.
 
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