1583 — Claim to Newfoundland
Description: Humphrey Gilbert declares Newfoundland a possession of the English crown — the first English colony.
From the Umayyads to Britain: each power’s key events as dots. All lanes are on by default. Click a chip to hide an empire; click again to bring it back. “All empires” turns every lane on. Zoom in (the + / − buttons, or Ctrl + mouse wheel) and names appear on the lanes.
The largest empire in history by territorial extent — at its peak about 35.5 million km² and 23% of the world’s population.
Description: Humphrey Gilbert declares Newfoundland a possession of the English crown — the first English colony.
Description: Granted a royal charter to trade with India and the East, the company would in time become the de facto ruler of India.
Description: The first permanent English settlement in North America, the future United States.
Description: The English fleet seizes the island from Spain — a foothold in the Caribbean.
Description: The union of England and Scotland forms Great Britain.
Description: The East India Company’s victory over the Nawab of Bengal opens the way to colonial dominance over India.
Description: The US Declaration of Independence — the empire’s largest territorial loss to that point.
Description: The First Fleet founds a colony at Botany Bay.
Description: Victory at Waterloo and the Congress of Vienna cement British naval and economic dominance for a century to come.
Description: After the Sepoy Mutiny, power passes from the East India Company directly to the British Crown.
Description: Symbolic confirmation of India’s status as the “jewel of the empire.”
Description: The empire reaches its maximum area — about 35.5 million km², a quarter of the world’s land surface.
Description: The largest colony gains independence with partition into India and Pakistan — the beginning of decolonization.
Description: Symbolic end of the British Empire’s colonial era.
The largest contiguous land empire in history — from Korea to Hungary, created in a record-short span of time.
Description: The future Genghis Khan was born into a noble but impoverished Mongol family.
Description: An assembly of Mongol nobility unites warring tribes under a single ruler.
Description: The beginning of the conquest of northern China.
Description: Rapid annihilation of Central Asia’s greatest power in revenge for the execution of Mongol envoys.
Description: The empire passes to his sons and grandsons; a period of further expansion under their command begins.
Description: The defeat of Rus’ and invasion of Poland and Hungary; the campaign ends after the death of Great Khan Ögedei.
Description: Hulagu Khan destroys the city and executes the last Abbasid caliph — the end of a five-century caliphate.
Description: The unified empire effectively fragments into the Golden Horde, the Ilkhanate, the Chagatai Khanate, and Kublai’s domains.
Description: The Mamluks of Egypt inflict the first major defeat on the Mongols, halting their advance in the Middle East.
Description: Kublai adopts the Chinese imperial title, uniting Mongol and Chinese traditions of rule.
Description: The Red Turbans uprising overthrows the Yuan — the Chinese part of Genghis Khan’s legacy is the last to collapse.
From Peter the Great to the February Revolution — the largest land state of its time.
Description: After the Great Northern War and the Treaty of Nystad, Peter I assumes the title of emperor.
Description: Large-scale territorial expansion to the south and west, and the partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Description: The liquidation of the Crimean Khanate secures Russia’s access to the Black Sea.
Description: The defeat of Napoleon’s army sharply raises the empire’s international prestige.
Description: The Congress of Vienna confirms Russia’s status as one of the continent’s leading powers.
Description: The empire’s greatest social reform, freeing about 23 million peasants.
Description: The empire cedes its North American possessions to the United States for $7.2 million.
Description: The empire reaches its maximum area — about 22.8 million km².
Description: The first defeat of a European power by an Asian country in the modern era, a blow to the empire’s prestige.
Description: The October Manifesto forces the regime into political concessions.
Description: The war sharply aggravates internal social and economic contradictions.
Description: The abdication of Nicholas II and the Bolsheviks’ rise to power put an end to the empire’s history.
The last imperial dynasty of China — Manchu in origin, but ruling according to Chinese state canons.
Description: The fall of the Ming dynasty and the beginning of Manchu Qing rule over China.
Description: A long and stable reign, consolidation of power, and territorial growth.
Description: The island is included in the Chinese state for the first time.
Description: Annexation of Xinjiang and establishment of control over Tibet.
Description: Defeat by Britain opens Chinese ports to Western trade and begins a period of unequal treaties (the so-called “century of humiliation”).
Description: The largest civil war of the 19th century, with tens of millions of dead, seriously weakening the dynasty.
Description: Loss of influence over Korea and Taiwan, revealing a military-technical gap with Japan.
Description: An anti-Western uprising suppressed by an eight-nation coalition that imposed a heavy indemnity on China.
Description: The departure of the empire’s de facto long-time ruler; the throne passes to the infant Puyi.
Description: An uprising against the monarchy spreads across most of the country.
Description: The last Chinese emperor abdicates — the end of more than two millennia of China’s imperial tradition.
The first truly global colonial power — possessions on every inhabited continent.
Description: Columbus’s expedition, fitted out by the Spanish crown, opens the New World to European colonization.
Description: Division of still-undiscovered overseas lands between Spain and Portugal with papal mediation.
Description: Hernán Cortés subdues Mesoamerica’s greatest power.
Description: Francisco Pizarro captures and executes the Inca supreme ruler.
Description: The Spanish fleet, as part of the Holy League, halts Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean.
Description: A personal union of the crowns unites the possessions of the two greatest colonial powers — the peak of Spanish might.
Description: Defeat of the invasion fleet against England undermines Spanish naval dominance.
Description: Recognition of Dutch independence confirms Spain’s loss of status as Europe’s undisputed hegemon.
Description: Loss of several European territories as a result of the War of the Spanish Succession.
Description: Almost all American colonies achieve independence.
Description: The loss of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines effectively ends the empire’s history as a world power.
From Quebec to Algeria — the world’s second-largest colonial empire by area.
Description: Exploration of the mouth of the St. Lawrence River becomes France’s claim to Canada.
Description: The first permanent French settlement in North America.
Description: La Salle declares the vast Mississippi basin a French possession.
Description: Defeat in the Seven Years’ War costs France Canada and most of its possessions in India.
Description: The start of a new phase of colonial expansion in North Africa.
Description: The partition of Africa by European powers confirms extensive French possessions on the continent.
Description: Unification of colonies in Southeast Asia into French Indochina.
Description: The colonies are split between the Vichy regime and the Free French movement.
Description: The rout of French forces in Vietnam leads to the loss of Indochina.
Description: After the war, Algeria gains independence — the effective end of the colonial empire.
The Golden Age of Islam with its capital in Baghdad — a center of science, philosophy, and trade in the medieval world.
Description: Overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty and the rise of a new caliphal dynasty.
Description: The caliphate’s new capital, soon to become one of the world’s largest cities.
Description: The caliphate’s peak of prosperity, immortalized in the legends of the Thousand and One Nights.
Description: A center for the translation and study of Greek, Persian, and Indian scientific texts in Baghdad.
Description: Beginning of a period of political instability and weakening of central authority.
Description: The caliph retains spiritual authority but loses real secular power.
Description: The Turkic dynasty becomes the new secular protector of the caliphs.
Description: A brief restoration of independent caliphal authority before the Mongol invasion.
Description: Hulagu Khan executes the last caliph — the end of a five-century dynasty and the Golden Age of Islam.
A Mongol dynasty that, for the first time in history, united all of China under foreign rulers.
Description: Genghis Khan’s grandson becomes supreme ruler of the Mongol realm.
Description: Kublai adopts the Chinese imperial title on the model of traditional dynasties.
Description: Both invasion fleets are destroyed by typhoons that came to be called “kamikaze” (“divine wind”).
Description: The final unification of China under Mongol rule.
Description: Another Mongol naval expedition ends in failure.
Description: Natural disasters and plague outbreaks sharply weaken the dynasty’s economy and legitimacy.
Description: The beginning of a large-scale peasant revolt against Mongol rule.
Description: Zhu Yuanzhang takes Beijing and proclaims the Ming dynasty — the end of Mongol rule in China.
The first Arab hereditary monarchy, under which Islam rapidly spread from Spain to India.
Description: Founding of the dynasty that turned the elective caliphate into a hereditary monarchy.
Description: The death of Husayn, the Prophet’s grandson, deepens and cements the split between Sunnis and Shiites.
Description: Arab–Berber forces reach the westernmost point of the caliphate’s expansion.
Description: The failed campaign halts the caliphate’s advance into the Balkans.
Description: Defeat by the Franks stops Islamic expansion deeper into Western Europe.
Description: A movement in the eastern caliphate grows into open war for power.
Description: The Abbasids destroy the Umayyad army — the end of the dynasty in the East.
Description: A surviving member of the Umayyad house founds an independent emirate in Spain, continuing the dynasty in the West.
The first truly global maritime power of the early modern era — it lasted longer than almost all its rivals, about 600 years.
Description: The seizure of the North African port is considered the beginning of European colonial expansion as such.
Description: The discovery of the Cape of Good Hope proves the existence of a sea route to India.
Description: The opening of a direct sea route undermines the monopoly of Arab and Venetian middlemen on the spice trade.
Description: Pedro Álvares Cabral accidentally reaches the coast of what would become Portugal’s largest colony.
Description: The Indian port becomes the center of Portuguese possessions in Asia.
Description: The first permanent European settlement in China.
Description: A personal union of the crowns weakens Portugal’s independence and colonial power.
Description: The largest colony secedes; the empire loses its main source of wealth.
Description: India forcibly annexes the last major Portuguese enclave on the subcontinent.
Description: A change of regime in Portugal itself sharply accelerates the decolonization of African possessions.
Description: The largest African colonies gain independence.
Description: The formal and symbolic end of almost 600 years of imperial history.