Largest Empires by Land Area:
-
British Empire
Land area: 35.5 million km2
Percentage of world land area: 23.84% (in 1920)
Period: 16th to 20th century -
Mongol Empire
Land area: 24.0 million km2
Percentage of world land area: 16.11%
Period: 13th/14th century -
Russian Empire
Land area: 22.8 million km2
Percentage of world land area: 15.31% (in 1985)
Period: 1721 to February 1917 (February Revolution) -
Qing Dynasty (also known as the Manchu Dynasty)
Land area: 14.7 million km2
Percentage of world land area: 9.87% (in 1790)
Period: AD 1644 to AD 1912 -
Spanish Empire
Land area: 13.7 million km2
Percentage of world land area: 9.2% (in 1810)
Period: 16th to 18th century with remnants to the 20th century -
Second French colonial empire
Land area: 11.5 million km2
Percentage of world land area: 7.72% (in 1920)
Period: 19th and 20th century -
Abbasid Caliphate
Land area: 11.1 million km2
Percentage of world land area: 7.45% (in 750)
Period: AD 750 to AD 1517 -
Umayyad Caliphate
Land area: 11.1 million km2
Percentage of world land area: 7.45% (in 720)
Period: AD 661 to AD 750 -
Yuan dynasty (Kublai Khan)
Land area: 11.0 million km2
Percentage of world land area: 7.39% (in 1310)
Period: AD 1271 to AD 1368 -
Portuguese Empire
Land area: 10.4 million km2
Percentage of world land area: 6.98% (in 1815)
Period: 15th to 20th century
and some others…
Ming Dynasty
Land area: 6.5 million km2
Percentage of world land area: 4.36% (in 1450 AD)
Period: 1368 AD to 1644 AD
Achaemenid Empire (Cyrus the Great and Xerxes)
Land area: 5.5 million km2
Percentage of world land area: 2.12% (in 500 BC)
Period: 675 BC to 334 BC
Macedonian Empire (Alexander the Great)
Land area: 5.2 million km2
Percentage of world land area: 3.49% (in 323 BC)
Period: 808 BC to 148 BC
Ottoman Empire
Land area: 5.2 million km2
Percentage of world land area: 3.9% (in 1683 AD)
Period: 1299 AD to 1923 AD
Roman Empire
Land area: 5.0 million km2
Percentage of world land area: 3.36% (in 174 AD)
Period: 27 BC to 1461 AD
Image: By Tataryn (Own work)
[CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons