The great empires

Twelve empires that drew the map.

Each one plays like a country story: the year sweeps back, the empire spreads across the globe chapter by chapter, and you see the borders it left behind. Rome and the Ottomans are free to the end; the others open with their first chapters.

Achaemenid Empire550 BC to 330 BCThe first Persian empire, founded by Cyrus the Great around 550 BC. It ruled from Egypt and Thrace to the Indus for two centuries, until Alexander the Great conquered it. 8 chapters FreeRoman Empire509 BC to 476A city republic on the Tiber that conquered Italy, then the whole Mediterranean, became an empire under Augustus and lost its western half in 476. The eastern half lived on as Byzantium. 10 chapters Byzantine Empire330 to 1453The eastern Roman Empire, ruled from Constantinople for over a thousand years. It lost Syria and Egypt to the Arabs, Anatolia to the Turks, and fell to the Ottomans in 1453. 10 chapters Rashidun Caliphate632 to 661The first caliphate, led by four companions of the Prophet Muhammad from Medina. In under thirty years its armies took Syria, Egypt and Persia, before a civil war ended it in 661. 8 chapters Umayyad Caliphate661 to 750The first dynasty of caliphs, ruling from Damascus. In less than a century it stretched from Spain to the Indus, then fell to the Abbasids in 750. One prince escaped and founded a new Umayyad state in Spain. 8 chapters Abbasid Caliphate750 to 1258The caliphs of Baghdad, heirs of the Prophet's uncle al Abbas. Their court was a centre of science and trade, but their real power faded after 900. The Mongols ended the caliphate in Baghdad in 1258. 9 chapters Fatimid Caliphate909 to 1171A Shia Ismaili caliphate that rose in Tunisia in 909, conquered Egypt and founded Cairo. For two centuries it rivalled Baghdad, until Saladin ended it in 1171. 8 chapters Mongol Empire1206 to 1368Chinggis Khan united the steppe peoples in 1206. His sons and grandsons built the largest contiguous land empire in history, which split into four khanates and left heirs from China to Russia. 11 chapters FreeOttoman Empire1299 to 1922A small Turkish emirate in northwest Anatolia that grew into an empire on three continents, took Constantinople in 1453 and lasted more than six centuries, until 1922. 12 chapters Spanish Empire1492 to 1976From Columbus's voyage in 1492, Castile built an empire across the Americas and to the Philippines, financed by silver. Most of it won independence in the 1820s; the last pieces went in 1898 and in Africa in the 1970s. 9 chapters Mughal Empire1526 to 1857Founded by Babur, a descendant of Timur and Chinggis Khan, after his victory at Panipat in 1526. At its height it ruled almost all of South Asia. It faded in the 1700s and was ended by the British in 1857. 8 chapters British Empire1607 to 1997Trading posts and colonies that grew, after the loss of America, into the largest empire in history, covering about a quarter of the world's land around 1920. Most of it became independent between 1947 and the 1980s. 11 chapters