Read on to discover the lives and legacies of history's 12 largest empires... In the early 19th century, Japan was a feudal society ruled by the Tokugawa Shogunate, which enforced a closed borders ...

The Empire of Japan was one of the largest maritime empires in history, spanning 2.86 million square miles at its peak in 1942 before surrendering to the Allies on September 2, 1945. The ...

The British Empire stretched over 13 million square miles across several continents—23 percent of the world's land—at its height in 1922, whence comes the phrase: "The sun never sets on the ...

When it comes to empires, one of the most famous is probably the British Empire—which lasted from 1583 to 1997. And while 414 years might seem like a long time, in the history of empires, it's ...

For as long as humans have lived in settled communities, some groups have sought to assert dominance over others, and through history the biggest empires grew to cover millions of square miles. But ...