alternatehistory.com

Which historical empires do you think could be considered among the greatest in history?

I'd have to go with the Hawaiian Empire. Everybody knew that Hawaii would grow to be a formidable power when King Kamehameha III introduced Western Industrial and Naval technology to his people but who would have predicted that in a hundred years time, it would unite all of the island nations in the Pacific and eventually snatch New Zealand and the Southern parts of Australia from the British. Although they only managed to do the latter two tasks under the tyrannical and militaristic dictatorship of Emperor Kalakua V, it was still an impressive feat for the Hawaiian people to pull off. However, the proud, daring, expansionistic attitude of the 19th and early 20th centuries soon faded away and by the 60's, the Hawiian Empire, faced with economic difficulties in managing their Pacific satellites and maintaining their vast Navy collapsed on its own weight. It ended officially when on September 23, 1967, a palace coup deposed the royal family and declared the empire defunct. Out of its ashes, however would rise the modern Oceanic Federation, the new political entity that would lead the Pacific peoples into a new and more prosperous century.

Another good choice would be the Hazaraspid Empire. They are credited with turning the tide in the Sunni dominated Islamic world when they launched a series of massive incursions into the Arabian lands under the Shi'ite banner. It spanned four bloody wars over the span of two and a half centuries but the end result was the hegemony of Shi'ite Islam from the Afghan mountains to the Arabian Peninsula and into the Eastern half of the Maghreb. Even long after their slow decline and ultimate defeat at the hands of British and Russian colonizers, their legacy lives on in the religious, social and cultural fabric of the modern Middle East. An eternal testament to their achievements could be seen to this day in their ancient capital, Idjal where the magnificent, towering "Shah Mozaffar III Mosque", named after one of its greatest shahs, reminds the world of the glory and splendor that were the Hazaraspids.

OOC: None of the empires have to be from the same TL.
Top