Infographic: The World’s Biggest Empires of History

Key Takeaways

This visual timeline attempts to plot all of the world’s empires throughout history, based on geographic area and size.
The rise and fall of familiar civilizations, like the Romans, Mongols, or Ottomans can be seen, as well as modern powerhouses like the U.S. or China.
Attempting to plot this all on one timeline is bold, but also comes with its many challenges and some omissions.

All of the world’s biggest empires. All on one timeline. At least that was the goal set out to achieve with the World GeoHistogram, a teaching creation by the Michigan Geographic Alliance at Central Michigan University.