Photos: Ancient Empires and Modern Superpowers

There was an Empire that is no where to be found on this list. The largest empire in History, they controlled large parts of Europe, 80% of North & South America, portions of the African continent and they even had a presence in Asia. Yes, I am talking about the Spanish Empire. Why is not in this list is beyond me.

The Byzantine Empire was NOT also known as the Holy Roman Empire. The HRE came about in the 9th-10th century AD in Central Europe encompassing all of modern day Germany and parts of Italy, France and other surrounding countries. It lasted into the 19th Century. HRE was principally Roman Catholic (western rite), Latin and predominately German whilst the Byzantines were Orthodox (eastern rite), and Greek. Don't they check their facts before posting?

There is a lot of disinformation in just a few slides. The name Byzantine Empire was used for the first time in a book published in 1557, more than 100 years after the fall of the empire (1453). The official name was Imperium Romanorum, or Basileia ton Rh??mai??n (the Greek translation) but the people called it shortly: Romania. The date of birth is either that of the Roman Empire or at least the date when the empire was permanently split in two halves: 395. The Christian Curch split in 1054 (the great schism). At that moment th Eastern Christian Church took the name of Orthodox Church (orthodox means: right belief) and the Western Christian Church took the name of Catholic Church (catholic means: universal).

You want to get SUPER technical, even the Islamic Republic of Iran could be considered an empire; after the Revolution against the Imperial system 30 years ago, the borders didn't change and the many diverse ethnic groups within didn't scatter, and Persians are in fact only little more than half of the population.

How you don't manage to include the Persian Empire is beyond me

Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire are not the same thing. Byzantine ( or Eastern Roman Empire) can be dated back when Diocletian started to divide in the Roman Empire in the late 3rd century. It was for the most part during its 1000 year plus life a highly centralized, Orthodox Christian state that repeatedly clashed with the pope in Rome. The end came in 1453 after years of misrule and repeated conquests from Turkish tribes.
Holy Roman Empire came about in the later 10th century and was never a strong central state. Catholic yes, but the emperors still would fight time to time with Popes. Lasted in name until the early 19th century.

I am amazed that neither the Persian Empire nor Arab (Islamic) Empire were mentioned, does News Week know that these Empires dominated the world for many centuries? In addition, Holy Roman empire was nether holy, nor Roman or an Empire, go back to the history books.

Interesting, so the American "empire" is dying or dead, huh! Whatch as the rest of the world avoids doing business with, and trying any means to get some of the collected wealth of this dying or dead empire! The dubious value of the "worlds super power" has literally gotten us a steady negative and even if it was a nuetral, our represntatives draw twards their personal pet priorities that exclude all efforts to work as elected under the constraints of his oath of office! Empires change or mutate continually in a cyclic manner(much like all things) and ours was way overdue for massive changes, specifically acting as the pro-bono protectorate of most of the planet! Time for the cycle to to go the way of isolationism, screw the rest of the world, why not they have screwed us!

Now I understand why the media is in such a mess. They were all "to busy" taking far left political science classes to sign up for a history class.
Plus, putting the US in a list of "Empires" is just stupid. Really, really stupid.
Even if you disagree with American foreign policy, we are not making people in foreign nations give us tribute under threat of death.
That is the hallmark of a true Empire, from the Romans to the recent British.
Conquest to make money. We just spend billions to get rid of idiots and the world hates us no matter what we do.
This article shows a lack of editorial supervision and a complete lack of understanding of just about everything on the part of the author.

The Holy Roman Empire was NOT the same as the Byzantine Empire!!!!
The Byzantine Empire had nothing to do with the Catholic church...
The primary brand of christianity adopted in this empire was that of the Eastern Orthodoxy head-quartered in Constantinople and not @ the Vatican. How pathetic is it that you guys don't even do simple Wikipedia searches before presenting news articles.