The British Empire At Its Territorial Peak Covered Nearly The Same Area As The Moon

The illustration above shows just how big the British Empire was at its territorial peak in the early 1920s. At that time it covered 35.5 million sq km (13.71 million sq mi), which represents 23.84% of the Earth’s land area or equivalent to 93.67% of the Moon’s surface area (37.9 million sq km).

And if that doesn’t surprise you, perhaps the fact that the British Empire was almost exactly twice as large as the surface area of Pluto (17.8 million sq km) will.

Although both the Mongol Empire (24 million sq km) and Russian Empire (22.8 million sq km) were bigger than Pluto as well and the Spanish Empire (13.7 to 20.0 million sq km) may have been depending on when you consider it having reached it’s territorial peak.

The 13 largest Empires (in terms of land area) were:

1. British Empire: 23.84% of the world (35.5 million sq km), 1920
2. Mongol Empire: 16.11% of the world (24.0 million sq km), 1270 or 1309
3. Russian Empire: 15.31% of the world (22.8 million sq km), 1895
4. Spanish Empire: 9.20%–13.43% of the world (13.7–20.0 million sq km), 1750 or 1810
5. Qing dynasty: 8.80%–9.87% of world (13.1–14.7 million sq km), 1790
6. Second French colonial empire: 7.72% of the world (11.5 million sq km), 1920
7. Abbasid Caliphate: 7.45% of the world (11.1 million sq km), 750
8. Umayyad Caliphate: 7.45% of the world (11.1 million sq km), 720
9. Yuan dynasty: 7.39%–9.21% of the world (11.0 – 13.72 million sq km), 1310 or 1330
10. Xiongnu Empire: 6.04% of the world (9.0 million sq km), 176 BC
11. Brazilian Empire: 5.60% of the world (8.337 million sq km), 1889
12. Empire of Japan: 4.97%–5.71% of the world (7.4–8.51 million sq km), 1938 or 1942
13. Iberian Union: 4.77% of the world (7.1 million sq km), 1640

For some related books have a look at:

• The Penguin Historical Atlas of the British Empire
• War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires
• The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
• The Rise and Fall of the British Empire

You may also be interested in our previously published map: All The Land In Our Solar System

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