At their peaks, who's empire was larger, Alexander the Great's or the Genghis Khan's?

Question

I've heard the Mongolians had the largest empire in history but hearing about how large Alexander's was it's hard to imagine. Also if a Mongolian other than Genghis Khan had a larger empire replace him with them. And please inform me if anyone outdid either of these two.

Answer 1

The Mongolian Empire was the largest land empire the world has ever seen!

Answer 2

Khans was way bigger - China, Mongolia, Modern Day Russia, and other central Asian countries, and Eastern Europe.

Alex - Greece, Middle East, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan (and a few other areas.

While Alex's were bigger by population and culture, Khan's was much much much bigger by land area.

Alex added much to the culture of the areas he conquered, and Khan just conquered, and didnt add much - there is no cultural legacy in Hungary or Eastern Europe - but some Greek ideas and names still last to this day in the Middle East.

Both didnt last much beyond the conquerers life - but existed in other forms.

Neither was the largest empire ever though. The British Empire was 25% of the land area of the planet and 25% the population of the planet - Khans was a distant second. Also, the British Empire lasted for several generations in roughly the same form (plus or minus some areas). But the British wasnt a land empire that was unbroken, and was acquired by methods other than conquest (but this could be disputed by modern native populations).

Check out Wiki articles on the largest Empires - The Romans had 25% of the population at one point - but that was because 25% was concentrated in their area of the world - now it was way more spread out. The Spanish had claimed a huge empire - but did not have effective control over it - it was an empire in name only in most parts (N America).

Answer 3

Khan's was larger and more populous, but Alexander conquered more civilized 'nations.'

And the Mongolian Empire did not extend to France, it extended to Hungary, 1000 miles east.

Nobody ever outdid these two generals. The British Empire was larger than both, but colonization was different than military conquest, so it wasn't an empire in the same way, and the British Empire was certainly not established by a single man. There have never been two single conquerors like Temujin (Khan) and Alexander.

Edit: Actually Alexander's 'empire' did survive his death, it was just splintered into kingdoms ruled by different Greek generals until the rise of Rome in the 2nd cent.-1st cent. BC. The legacies still remained.

Answer 4

Genghis Khan's empire stretched from the Pacific shoreline of China, westward to what would be easter Poland, it's important to note that various Polish and Hungarian princes had unsuccessfully encountered and been defeated in battle by standard Mongol military tactics.

The Mongols had successfully defeated the Hungarians and were planning to use Hungary as a staging area to conquer the rest of Eurasia when the regional generals got the call to come "home" to fight in a succession war. Had that call not been received when it was, they were no more than a few days from going back on campaign to eliminate all resistance


Alexander's empire stretched from Macedonia to the Hindu Kush, and while impressive it did not survive much beyond his death , being broken up into administrative kingdoms which survivde along for some decades after.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_empire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great

Answer 5

Genghis Khan never conquerred what was then known the Great Mongol Empire. His achievement was to unify the Mongol tribes. After that they set out to conquer the world but by that time Genghis Khan was already dead.
However, the Mongol empire war bigger than that of Alexander.

Answer 6

It is based on interpretation whether you believe Alexander or Genghis contributed more to world legacy. One thing for sure is that those Chinese soldiers serving in Khan's armies introduced firearms into Europe via Hungary and Russia. Later, the white man used this technology to colonize the rest of the world.

Answer 7

that's easy, Ghengis Khan's was larger than Alexander's, Hitler's and the Roman Empire...combined!!!

Answer 8

Khan's was, it when from China to what is now northern France.

Answer 9

that is a tricky question.