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There are several that I can think of but I’m going to address the elephant in the room and say the Roman Empire. I know, the Roman Empire was the grandest empire ever to reign on the face of the Earth and they are the basis of Western society, etc. However, let me go point by point on the most oft-cited reasons for the empire’s grandeur:
我能想到的有几个，但我要讲的是很明显的，是罗马帝国。我知道，罗马帝国是地球表面上史上最伟大的帝国，它是西方社会的基础，等等，但是，让我一点一点地指出那些帝国经常被说伟大的原因:
Size/Scope of Expansion/Diversity: While it is undeniable that the Roman Empire was big, it was not all that massive in relation to some of the other empires of its time. The Han dynasty, which ruled in China around the same time as the Roman Empire reached its territorial peak, was around 30% bigger. Even India’s Maurya Empire, which united the country for around 200 years during the mid-ascension period of the Roman Republic was bigger than the empire at its peak. Now I am aware that the Roman Empire is often singled out for its ethnic diversity. However, one must consider that at this point in history there was no such thing as, for example, an Indian nation-state. Given the sheer number of ethnolinguistic groups on the subcontinent, the Maurya Empire was for all intents and purposes around as diverse as the Roman Empire. While the Roman Empire was pretty big and pretty diverse, it was not much more special than some of the ancient empires that flourished in China or India (and possibly even Persia seeing as the Achaemenid Empire was able to successfully unify an area stretching from modern-day Pakistan to Libya).
大小/多样性的规模/范围:不可否认的是，罗马帝国是巨大的，但它并不比当时其他的帝国大。当汉朝统治中国时，罗马帝国也达到了它的领土顶峰，汉朝大约比罗马大30%。甚至还有印度的孔雀王朝，统一了印度这个国家大约200年，当时罗马帝国还在中期上升期，但孔雀王朝比罗马帝国鼎盛时期还要大。现在我们知道，罗马帝国经常被挑出来说它的民族多样性。然而，人们必须考虑到，在历史的这一点上，这不是什么了不起的事情，例如，印度这个国家。考虑到印度次大陆上种族语言群体的数量庞大，孔雀王朝就像罗马帝国一样，内部有着各种各样的目的和方向。虽然罗马帝国相当大，而且相当多样化，但它并不比繁荣的中国或印度等古代帝国更为特殊(甚至还有波斯，因为波斯帝国能够成功地将从巴基斯坦地区到利比亚的地区统一起来)。
Economy: I direct you to this graph. Notice that even during the Roman Empire’s peak, the empire only contributed approximately 10% of the world’s GDP. India and China on the other hand contributed about 40 and 30 percent of the world GDP respectively.
经济:我告诉你这个图表。请注意，即使在罗马帝国的鼎盛时期，这个帝国也只贡献了世界GDP的10%。另一方面，印度和中国分别贡献了世界GDP的40%和30%。
Legal System: Another reason for the overrated nature of the Roman Empire was the fact that the ostensibly progressive governance system of the Roman Republic set the foundation for all modern models of democratic governance. However, I’d like to point out that the Roman legal system in terms of social hierarchy was really not much more progressive than any other society of its time. Slaves made up a plurality of the population, military might was prioritized over all else, and nearly all political power was concentrated in the hands of the aristocracy making the Roman legal and social hierarchy not that easily discernible from any of the other systems of its age. I will grant that the Roman Senate existed. However the Senate was unelected, composed completely of members of the aristocracy, and had very little political power, making it not a whole lot different from a glorified royal advisory council.
法律制度:罗马帝国被高估的另一个原因，罗马共和国表面上进步的治理体系为所有现代民主治理模式奠定了基础。然而，我想指出的是，罗马法律体系在社会等级上的表现并不比当时的其它帝国显得进步。奴隶是人口的大多数，军队优先于一切，几乎所有的政治权力都集中在贵族手中，使得罗马的法律和社会等级制度和同时代的其它帝国没有明显的区别。我承认罗马元老院的存在。然而，参议院是未经选举产生的，完全由贵族组成，并且几乎没有政治权力，这使得它与一个光荣的皇家顾问委员会并没有什么不同。
Engineering/Science/Architecture: For this, I’ll simply show some pictures of contemporary societies to the Roman Empire in order to demonstrate that while the Roman Empire did certainly accomplish several incredible architectural and engineering feats, its contemporaries and several of its predecessors accomplished several equally incredible feats:
工程/科学/建筑学:为了证明这一点，我将简单地展示一些罗马帝国同时代国家的图片，以证明尽管罗马帝国确实完成了几项令人难以置信的建筑和工程壮举，但它的同时代人和一些前辈们也都完成了许多同样令人难以置信的壮举:
Mohenjo Daro - Indus Valley Civilization, Pakistan - c.a. 2500 BCE (This city, with its primitive sewer system, would be the envy of Victorian Era London)
摩亨佐-达罗 -印度河流域文明，现巴基斯坦区域——公元前2500年(这个城市，以其原始的下水道系统，是维多利亚时代伦敦都嫉妒的)
Persepolis - Achaemenid Empire, Iran - 515 BCE (This city was the ceremonial capital of the world’s first major empire and was known for its splendor)
波斯波利斯- 阿契美尼德帝国，伊朗-公元前515年(这座城市是世界上第一个大帝国的正式首都，以辉煌而闻名)
Dujiangyan Irrigation System - Qin State, China - 256 BCE (This ancient flood control system is, incredibly, still used today)
都江堰灌溉系统-秦国，中国-公元前256年(这个古老的防洪系统，令人难以置信的是，至今仍在使用)
Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor - Qin Dynasty, China - 208 BCE (Yes, that is an artificial mountain in the background)
秦始皇陵，秦帝国，中国- 公元前208年(是的，这是一个人造山)
Tikal - Maya Classical Period, Guatemala - c.a. 400 CE (New studies reveal that Tikal was the capital of a kingdom in the Mesoamerican jungle that contained about 10 million people packed into an area about the size of England)
蒂卡尔-玛雅古典时期，危地马拉——公元400年(新的研究表明，蒂卡尔是中美洲丛林中的一个王国的首都，那里大约有1000万人聚集在一个面积相当于英格兰大小的地区)
University at Nalanda - Gupta Empire, India - c.a. 500 CE (A renowned center of learning and Buddhist scholarship that attracted scholars from as far away as Indonesia and Korea)
笈多帝国的大学，印度-公元500年(一个著名的学习中心，以及其佛教徒奖学金吸引了远至印度尼西亚和韩国的学者)
Grand Canal - Sui Dynasty, China - c.a. 600 CE (At 1,104 miles long, this is still the longest canal in the world by far)
大运河-隋朝，中国-公元600年(全长1104英里，至今仍是世界上最长的运河)
Leshan Giant Buddha - Tang Dynasty, China - 713 CE (At 233 feet tall this was the tallest statue built before the Industrial Revolution and was carved out of a single cliff face)
乐山大佛-中国-公元713年(在233英尺高的地方，这是工业革命前建造的最高的雕像，是由一个悬崖表面雕刻而成的)
In conclusion, the Roman Empire was grand. No doubt about it. I love studying the history of the Roman Empire and view it as utterly fascinating. However, the truth is that the glory of the empire is vastly overstated to the point that we neglect to realize that the Roman Empire was not really that significantly more progressive or impressive than its contemporaries.
总之，罗马帝国是伟大的，毫无疑问。我喜欢研究罗马帝国的历史，并认为它是非常的迷人。然而，事实是，帝国的荣耀被过分夸大了，以至于我们忽视了罗马帝国并没有比同时代的国家更进步或更令人印象深刻。
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The Mongol Empire. Largest contiguous empire in history, it was, with a devastating army and a charismatic leader. The thing is… It didn’t last very long. Much like the Alexandrian empire, it fell apart fairly quickly compared to other empires; incidentally, I think that both are somewhat overrated, and they are similar in that they were both basically the project of one really effective leader at the outset. Both of them also fell apart and split up into smaller sub-kingdoms.
The Mongol Empire lasted about 160 years, which sounds like a long time, until you compare it to other empires of similar scale (not counting smaller ones).
蒙古帝国。它是历史上最大的连续领土帝国，拥有着毁灭性的军队和有魅力的领导人。问题是，它没有持续很长时间。就像亚历山大帝国一样，它与其他帝国相比，迅速解体了;顺便说一下，我认为两者都有些被高估了，他们的相似之处在于他们基本上都是一个有效的领导者铸就的。他们两个也都分崩离析，分裂成更小的子王国。
蒙古帝国持续了大约160年，听起来很长，直到你把它和其他类似规模的帝国进行比较时(不包括较小的帝国)。
Rome: 507 years of continuous rule.
British Empire: depending on how you date it, 350 to 450 years.
Ottoman Empire: about 600 years.
Compare some of the semi-imperial civilizations, and you’ll see similar or longer life spans:
Old Egypt: roughly 550 years
Chinese Song Dynasty: about 300 years
罗马:507年的连续统治。
大英帝国:根据你的方式，350到450年。
奥斯曼帝国:大约600年。
比较一些半帝国的文明，你会看到类似或更长的寿命:
古埃及:大约550年。
中国宋朝:大约300年。
The Mongol Empire, by contrast, is on the same level as empires like that of Alexander, or possibly the Maurya Empire. All three were the work of extremely effective leaders who arose somewhat spontaneously (Genghis Khan, Alexander, Asoka) and all three fell apart not too long after those effective leaders died.
Don’t get me wrong: the Mongol Empire was extremely impressive. But it was more of a brief explosion in history than a lasting power. True, some of the smaller states, such as the Golden Horde, continued for a while. But that’s also true of Alexander’s empire; the Seleucids, who were one of the kingdoms that broke off from the rest of the lands conquered during the Alexandrian conquests, lasted another 200 years, much as the Golden Horde lasted another 250.
相比之下，蒙古帝国的地位与亚历山大帝国一样，还有孔雀王朝。这三个人都是非常厉害的领导者，他们都是天生的领导者(成吉思汗、亚历山大、阿苏卡)，而在那些卓有成效的领导者去世后不久，这三个帝国都崩溃了。
不要误解我的意思:蒙古帝国是非常令人印象深刻的。但这更多的体现是在历史上短暂的爆炸，而不是持久的力量。的确，一些较小的王国，如黄金部落，持续了一段时间。但亚历山大帝国的情况也是如此;塞琉西王朝，是亚历山大大帝征服区域中产生的一个王国，延续了200年，就像黄金部落延续了250年一样。
Conquering the world wasn’t easy, I grant you. But the Mongols simply didn’t leave the same mark on history as the Chinese, British, or Roman empires. Rome was so effective that Washington D.C. has a statue of George Washington driving a chariot. It takes some serious cultural pull for countries to depict their leaders dressed in your style of clothing and driving your vehicles 1200 years after the fact! The Chinese were the dominant cultural influence over Tibet, Korea, Japan, andsteppe peoples of Northern Asia, their pictograms were the basis for Japanese writing, and they are, by most reasonable measures, the oldest extant civilization. The British Empire invaded most of the countries on Earth, made English the global lingua franca, and their common law system became the basis for jurisprudence for their former colonies. The Mongols just didn’t have the same cultural staying power.
征服世界并不容易，我承认。但是蒙古人并没有在历史上留下类似中国、英国或罗马帝国那样的印记。罗马是如此的有效，以至于华盛顿特区有一尊乔治·华盛顿的雕像在驾着一辆战车。这肯定是对你的国家有很深的文化影响，才会使得要描绘出他们的领导人穿着你的服装风格，在1200年后还驾驶着你的战车。中国对西藏、朝鲜、日本和亚洲北部的草原民族有着重要的文化影响，他们的象形文字是日本人写作的基础，而且是最古老的现存文明。大英帝国入侵了地球上的大部分国家，使英语成为了全球通用的通用语，他们的共同法律体系成为了他们殖民地的法学基础。而蒙古人却没有同样的文化持久力。
EDIT: a few people have pointed out that the Eastern Roman Empire lasted until the 1400s. All I can say is that it would be a mistake fo rme to count the Eastern Empire as part of the Roman Empire here, because it was a smaller piece of the Roman Empire. If I counted that, then I would have to count the Seleucids as part of Alexander’s Empire, Canada as part of the British Empire, and the Golden Horde as part of the Mongol Empire;
补充:一些人指出，东罗马帝国一直持续到15世纪。我只能说，把东罗马帝国算作罗马帝国的一部分是错误的，因为它只是罗马帝国领土的一小部分。如果可以这样算，那么我就必须把塞留西王朝算作亚历山大帝国的一部分，加拿大作为大英帝国的一部分，以及黄金部落作为蒙古帝国一部分;
The logic behind this is that, after breaking up into smaller states, the culture, economy, and governmental structure of empires tends to change tremendously, so it makes sense to demarcate them as separate political entities from their parent empires. For example, the Eastern Roman Empire was largely defined by Orthodox Christianity, with a smaller economy, and an overall very different culture produced by its very different history, which consisted of fewer glorious conquests - those it had were short lived - and much more begging for support from Western Europe while doggedly attempting to survive the battering of Islamic aggression. This is very different from the history of its parent empire, which was larger, more well-organized, more aggressive and militarily successful, and had a very different culture based on the endemic martial paganism of the Italian peninsula. Overall, the Eastern Roman Empire was more similar to a medi kingdom than to any of the ancient empires.
这背后的逻辑是，在分裂成小国之后，帝国的文化、经济和政府结构往往会发生巨大的变化，因此，将它们从母帝国区分开为独立的政治实体是有意义的。例如,东罗马帝国在很大程度上是正统基督教的,是一个较小的经济体,一个整体非常不同的文化，以及其产生的不同的历史,更少的光荣的征服——而且还是短暂的,更多的乞求西欧的支持，在对抗伊斯兰侵略中顽强的生存。这与其母帝国的历史截然不同，后者规模更大，组织更严密，更有进攻性，军事上也更成功，并且有一种完全不同的文化，以意大利半岛特有的不信教的军事集团为基础。总的来说，东罗马帝国更像一个中世纪的王国，而不是古代的帝国。
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I’ve seen some good answers on here, in particular I like the choices of Aztec, Ottoman, and Greek. Mongolia is another good choice, but I think anyone with an interest in history understands that the Mongol Empire lasted a relatively short time, much like Alexander’s Empire. Which brings me to my answer:
Alexander’s Empire
我在这里看到了一些不错的答案，尤其是我想选择阿兹特克、奥斯曼和希腊。蒙古是另一个不错的选择，但我认为任何对历史感兴趣的人都知道蒙古帝国的历史相对较短，就像亚历山大大帝的帝国一样。于是我的回答是:
亚历山大帝国
Alexander’s military achievements are obviously incredible, which is why they are remembered to this date. Likewise, I don’t think the interesting mesh of cultures that this empire created is well-understood enough in popular knowledge. However, as empires go, it really wasn’t that notable.
亚历山大的军事成就显然是不可思议的，这也是为什么他们会被记住的原因。同样地，我也不认为这个帝国所创造的有趣的文化体系被大众已经足够了解。然而，随着帝国的消逝，它也就变的没那么引人注目。
Alexander managed by the age of 32 to have not only consolidated Greece in name of Macedon, he annexed the entire Achaemenid Empire, and the finished his conquests by invading the Indian Subcontinent, winning more battles there. In reality, he represents a single military leader defeating these three regions, maintaining their empires, and then leaving. The cities he founded serve to cement his legacy and also to spread knowledge of the East and the West to each other. His legacy is as much cultural as it is military, but not so much political. His empire disintegrated shortly after his death and each region fell back under its own control.
亚历山大在32岁的时候，不仅以马其顿的名义统一了希腊，他还吞并了整个波斯帝国，征服了印度次大陆，赢得了很多的战役。在现实中，他以一个军事领袖击败了这三个地区，保持着帝国的存在，然后就消散了。他创立的城市为他的遗产提供了坚实的基础，同时也传播了东方和西方的知识。他的文化遗产好似和军队一样多，但政治上遗产没有那么多。在他死后不久，他的帝国瓦解了，每个地区都回到了各自的统治。
Alexander certainly makes for an interesting subject to study, but as far as empires go it gets way more attention than it deserves.
亚历山大无疑是一个有趣的研究对象，但就帝国而言，它得到的关注远远超过它应得的。
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Definitely the British Empire.
When I was younger, I used to compare British empire to mongol empire or Roman Empire.
But latter when I learned history(especially something like Boer War or British empire’s performance during world wars) and geography, I noticed that British Empire was no empire at all…
It’s big indeed. but the main part of its land is Canada , Australia, India and Africa…India was famous for being invaded frequently in the history. In fact British empire was the one that spent longest time to conquer India of these conquerers before…
大英帝国。
我年轻的时候，曾把大英帝国比作蒙古帝国或罗马帝国。
但当我学习历史(尤其是像布尔战争或大英帝国在世界大战期间的表现)和地理时，我注意到大英帝国根本就不是帝国……
它很大。但其土地的主要部分是加拿大、澳大利亚、印度和非洲……而且印度还因其在历史上经常被侵略而闻名。事实上，在其征服史上，大英帝国花了最长的时间去征服印度。
English got these vacant or fragile lands by powerful navy. However, when coming to empires, conquest will come to our mind first as a word. But there is no real conquest story about British empire. Occupying Indian’s land or some Lands of Australia and Northern America from American Indians or Aborigines who still used weapons made of stone, was not “conquest” at all to me, totally different from what Roman Empire did or Alexander empire did. British empire only needs to use navy to defeat the other powerful countries like France to control the sea, which made it a very powerful naval country, but not an empire yet.
英国人通过强大的海军获得了那些空闲的或脆弱的土地。然而，当来到帝国时代，征服开始出现在我们的脑海中，但关于大英帝国，没有真正的征服故事。占领印第安人的土地，或者从美洲印第安人,土著人那里得到的一些澳大利亚和北美的土地，但他们却仍然在使用着石头制造的武器，对我来说，并不是“征服”。这完全不同于罗马帝国或亚历山大帝国。大英帝国只需要用海军打败其他强大的国家，比如法国，从而控制海洋，这使它成为一个强大的海军国家，但还不是一个帝国。
Why mongol empire is an empire to me? It conquered civilizations—China, Persia and Arab world , which were the most powerful countries at that time and it defeated the union army of Europe.
So, did British conquer France,Germany Spain or Russia? If British conquered any powerful country at that time in the world. I’ll admit I’m wrong.
为什么蒙古帝国对我来说是一个帝国?因为它征服了当时最强大的国家们——中国、波斯和阿拉伯世界，打败了欧洲联盟军。
那么，英国征服过法国、德国、西班牙还是俄罗斯?如果英国当时征服了世界上任何一个强国。我就承认我错了。
British empire in fact was more like a “business empire” to me.
Thus, just in imagination, America created a space army in 70s and claimed the whole moon as its land, which made it the biggest country in history. Except for that, she couldn’ t solve Soviet or Korea problems. You really would regard that “America” as the same status as Roman or Mongol empire in human history?
事实上，大英帝国更像是一个“商业帝国”。
因此，想象下，美国在70年代创造了一个太空军队，并宣称整个月球是它的土地，这使它成为历史上最大的国家。但除此之外，它还是无法解决苏联或朝鲜的问题。你真的会认为“美国”与罗马或蒙古帝国在人类历史上的地位相同吗?
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Since nobody else mentioned it, I nominate the Holy Roman Empire (HRE for short). Voltaire’s famous quote, “The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire” about sums it up. It existed more or less as an amalgamation of principalities, duchies, small kingdoms and city-states that came and went for a great deal of time (depending on how you count roughly 850–1000 years). The Emperor was initially elected to rule by the member states (not everyone had a consistent vote of this artificial construct) and the winner was crowned “King of the Romans,” as a tribute to the glories of ancient Rome. There was never a capital city; Different dynasties ruled over time, but the Hohenstaufens held sway for some time. The emperor was by no means an autocrat as we have come to think of the absolute monarchs of France or England in the 16th century. Here’s the main reason (quoted from the Wikipedia article on the HRE:
既然没有人提到它，我提名神圣罗马帝国(简称HRE)。伏尔泰的名言“神圣罗马帝国既不神圣，也非罗马，更不是帝国”。它的存在或多或少是一种公国、公爵、小国和城邦之间的合并，并持续了大量的时间(这取决于你如何计算，大约850-1000年)。皇帝最初是由成员国选举产生的(不是所有人都对这个人造建筑有着一致的投票)，获胜者被加冕为“罗马之王”，以此作为对古罗马荣耀的赞颂。从来没有一个首都。随着时间的推移，不同的朝代也在统治着，但霍恩斯托夫家族的统治持续了较长一段时间。皇帝绝不是像我们想到的16世纪法国和英国的那种专制君主。以下是主要原因，摘自维基百科上关于神圣罗马帝国的文章:
“The Holy Roman Empire was not a highly centralized state like most countries today. Instead, it was divided into dozens—eventually hundreds—of individual entities governed by kings, dukes, counts, bishops, abbots and other rulers. There were also some areas ruled directly by the Emperor. At no time could the Emperor simply issue decrees and govern autonomously over the Empire. His power was severely restricted by the various local leaders.”
神圣罗马帝国不是像今天大多数国家那样是高度集权的。取而代之的是，它被划分为数十个独立的实体，由国王、公爵、伯爵、主教、修道院院长和其他统治者管理。还有一些地区由皇帝直接统治。皇帝在任何时候都不能简单地颁布法令，没法直接统治整个帝国。他的权力受到了各地方领导人的严格限制。
The size of the HRE peaked in the 12th and 13th century . Parts of Europe from Scandinavia to Sicily on the north-south axis, and France to Poland and Ukraine on the east-west axis sometimes under the sway of the Emperor, at least in name.
The HRE was officially dissolved in 1806, leaving no real lasting legacy beyond interminable wars throughout Europe, and the squandering of much wealth to those greedy enough to claim it. It died with a whimper, yielding to the gradual formation of what we think of as the nations of Europe.
神圣罗马帝国的规模在12和13世纪达到顶峰。欧洲的部分地区北到斯堪的纳维亚半岛南到西西里，西到法国东到波兰和乌克兰，这是在皇帝的统治下，至少在名义上。
1806年，神圣罗马帝国正式解散，除了让整个欧洲陷入无休止的战争之外，没有留下任何真正持久的遗产，并将大量财富浪费在那些贪婪的人身上。它以一种呜咽的方式死去，并逐渐形成了我们现在所认知的欧洲国家。
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The Austrian Empire and especially its final incarnation of The Empire of Austria-Hungary was pretty mediocre. The stopped the Ottomans at Vienna and halted their expansion into Europe but, like almost all of their successes, it was done with outside help. I believe the Poles bailed them out in that one. Napoleon made his name by smacking them around and they only won in the end by joining a coalition of pretty much all of Europe against France. During WW1 the Germans referred to their alliance with Austria-Hungary as being “shackled to a corpse”.
奥地利帝国，尤其是最后的奥匈帝国，是相当平庸的。它在维也纳止住了奥斯曼帝国，停止了他们在欧洲的扩张，但是，就像他们几乎所有的成功一样，是在外部帮助下完成的。我相信是波兰人在那个时候帮助他们脱离困境的。拿破仑也通过打败他们而成名，他们最后也是靠联合欧洲所有国家对抗法国才赢的。在第一次世界大战期间，德国人把他们与奥匈帝国的联盟称为“束缚在一具尸体上”。
Austrians and Hungarians were only 50% of the population and they never really seemed to have much political cohesion. Half the people of the empire didn't want to be a part of it and they almost always seemed to be the junior partner in any alliance. Whenever they did go in alone they almost always lost.
奥地利人和匈牙利人只有50%的人口，他们从来没有形成真正的政治凝聚力。帝国的一半人不想成为其中的一员，他们几乎总是在任何联盟中都是初级合伙人。每当他们单独外出时，他们几乎总是会迷路。
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The Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire was an empire that existed in the Eastern Mediterranean until 1918 when it was dissolved. In the beginning it was an incredibly advanced and culturally influential powerhouse. They were also a terrifying military adversary who employed some of the best cannons and gunpowder weapons of the late middle ages.
奥斯曼帝国
奥斯曼帝国是地中海东部的帝国，直到1918年它被解散。起初，它是一个令人难以置信的先进和具有文化影响力的地方。他们也是一个可怕的军事对手，他们使用了中世纪晚期最好的大炮和火药武器。
So if they had all of this influence and powerful weaponry why do I think they are overrated?
Well for one the territory they sat on was pretty much all the historic land of the Byzantine Empire. Not only was the Byzantine empire larger at it’s height, but it also made so many more literary and cultural achievements than the Ottomans.
如果他们拥有这些影响力和强大的武器为什么我认为他们被高估了?
好吧，他们所处的领地几乎是拜占庭帝国的历史领地。拜占庭帝国不仅规模更大，而且在文学和文化方面的成就也比奥斯曼帝国大得多。
The most recognizable building,is the Hagia Sophia. While it’s a visually stunning building, it wasn’t created by the Ottomans. The Ottomans simply took it from the Byzantines when they conquered Constantinople and changed it a little bit. This, I think is a pretty good metaphor for the whole Ottoman Empire, they took Byzantine things and started calling them Ottoman. That isn’t to say they didn’t create things, but there was a lot of “borrowing” old Byzantine accomplishments.
最容易辨认的建筑，是圣索菲亚大教堂。虽然它是一幢视觉震撼的建筑，但它不是由奥斯曼人建造的。因为奥斯曼帝国占领了拜占庭帝国的君士坦丁堡，所以对这个建筑进行了一些改变。我认为这是整个奥斯曼帝国的一个很好的比喻，他们占领了拜占庭帝国，并开始称其为奥斯曼帝国。这并不是说他们没有创造东西，而是有很多“借用”古老的拜占庭式的成就。
Throughout their history they were almost always overshadowed by greater empires. In the 1500s Spain and the Hapsburgs was getting all the attention, in the 1600s the Dutch, in the 1700s the French, etc. The Ottomans were never able to build a vast overseas empire like the other powers of Europe.
They were powerful, sure, but they had a habit of overextending their forces and suffering catastrophic defeats at the hands of otherwise inferior armies.
在他们的历史中，他们几乎总是被更强大的帝国所遮盖。在16世纪，西班牙和哈布斯堡王朝得到了所有的关注，17世纪的是荷兰，18世纪的是法国，等等，奥斯曼帝国无法像欧洲其他国家那样建立一个庞大的海外帝国。
他们是强大的，当然，但是他们有一种习惯，那就是过度扩张他们的军队，但却总是会在面对其他劣势军队时遭受灾难性的失败。
At the battle of Lepanto the Ottomans had a huge fleet of warships that was almost completely wiped out by their Western European opponents. They tried to invade Vienna multiple times, each time with an army numbering well over 100,000, but each time they were decisively defeated by a numerically inferior foe. When they attempted to invade Romania they met a brick wall when they ran into the dreaded Vlad Dracula(Vlad III), and the Kingdom of Hungary. At one point the Ottomans controlled most of this region, but they couldn’t hold it. From the 18th century onwards they were dealing with almost constant rebellions in Serbia, Bosnia, and other Balkan states. They were also involved in several wars with Russia that almost never turned out well for the Ottomans. In short, Their command was sub par, tactics and strategy lagged more and more behind as time passed, and their effect on the world was negligible after the 17th century. During the 19th century they were often referred to as the sick man of Europe, because they were clearly not a healthy country.
在勒班托战役中，奥斯曼帝国拥有一支庞大的舰队，但几乎被西欧的对手彻底摧毁。他们多次试图入侵维也纳，每次都有超过10万人的军队，但每次都被数量更少的敌人打败。当他们试图入侵罗马尼亚时，他们遇到了一堵墙，他们碰到了可怕的弗拉德·德古拉和匈牙利王国。奥斯曼人一度占领了这个地区的大部分地区，但他们无法控制。从18世纪开始，在塞尔维亚、波斯尼亚和其他巴尔干半岛地区发生了几乎持续的叛乱。他们还参与了与俄罗斯的几次战争，但奥斯曼帝国几乎从来没有赢过。简而言之，随着时间的推移，他们的战术和策略越来越落后，在17世纪之后，他们对世界的影响可以忽略不计。在19世纪，他们经常被称为欧洲的病夫，因为他们显然不是一个健康的国家。
They never actually fully industrialized, and on the eve of World War I were still a mostly agricultural state. Other nations in Europe such as France, Germany, the UK, and even Russia had industrialized to some extent, but the Ottomans were lagging behind and were still incredibly underdeveloped. Their rail networks were laughably bad, and it could take a month for them to transport an army from one end of the Empire to another because roads and rail networks were 30 years behind.
他们从来没有完全工业化，在第一次世界大战前夕，它仍然是一个农业大国。欧洲其他国家，如法国、德国、英国，甚至俄罗斯，都在某种程度上都实现了工业化，但奥斯曼人落后了，而且非常落后。他们的铁路网络非常糟糕，他们需要一个月的时间才能能把军队从帝国的一端运送到另一端，因为道路和铁路网已经落后了30年。
During World War IThey had a couple major victories, like Gallipoli, but their effects on the war were negligible as they spent most of their time at war in the Balkans and Middle East. They tried(and failed) to seize the Suez canal, tried(and failed) to seize Russian ports in the Black sea, tried(and failed) to seize the Caucuses, etc. Lots of failure and not a lot of success.
And of course while this is going on, the Ottomans decided to conduct one of the most horrific genocides in history, the Armenian genocide.
在第一次世界大战期间，他们有过几次重大胜利，比如加里波利战役，但是他们在战争中的作用可以忽略不计，因为他们大部分时间都在巴尔干半岛和中东的战争中度过。他们试图(失败)占领了苏伊士运河，尝试(失败)占领了黑海的俄罗斯港口，尝试(失败)占领了党团会议，等等。失败很多，没有成功。
当然，当这一切发生的时候，奥斯曼人决定进行历史上最可怕的种族屠杀，亚美尼亚种族灭绝。
After World War I the empire was dissolved completely. Their effect on history was large, but the positive effects started to drop off after the 18th century and they started to become a rather oppressive regime. In the beginning they were obsessed with capturing Byzantine lands and renaming them as Ottoman lands, though they never really achieved the level of prosperity that the Byzantines did. By the time of World War I they were the sick man of Europe, living decades behind the times. They were an agricultural nation in an industrialized world.People talk about how powerful this nation was, but even in it’s heyday the Ottoman empire struggled to accomplish much. They invaded a lot of countries in the beginning, and created a lot of enemies with their aggression.
第一次世界大战后，这个帝国完全瓦解了。他们对历史的影响很大，但在18世纪之后，积极的影响开始变少，他们开始变成一个相当专制的政权。起初，他们痴迷于占领拜占庭帝国，并将自己命名为奥斯曼帝国，尽管他们从未真正达到拜占庭帝国的繁荣程度。当第一次世界大战时，他们是欧洲的病夫，持续了几十年。他们是生活在工业化世界中的农业国家。人们都在谈论这个国家有多么强大，但即使是在鼎盛时期，奥斯曼帝国也很难取得成功。他们一开始就侵略了许多国家，但也用他们的侵略创造了许多敌人。
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Ming dynasty of China. Ming is famous for its “treasure voyages” led by Zheng He, and there is also a famous picture showing the size of Ming’s treasure ships in comparison to Colombia’s little boat.
Looks fancy, right? So people thought, with these gigantic ships, Ming must be a superpower dominating the maritime trade routes. But, the truth is, Ming is the weakest Chinese dynasty. Soon after Zheng He finished his voyages, the gigantic treasure ships were buried, the documents about the voyages were burnt and the Ming court banned people from trading using sea routes. It was the turning moment for China as the West was heading for the Age of Discovery and Renaissance while China was isolating itself from the rest of the world. It was under Ming’s rule that China started to decline and West started to catch up and eventually surpass China.
中国的明朝。明朝以郑和率领的“郑和下西洋”闻名于世，还有一幅著名的图片显示了明的宝船的大小，和哥伦比亚的小船相比。
看起来漂亮的,对吗?所以人们认为，在这些巨大的船只之上，明朝一定是一个主宰海上贸易路线的超级大国。但事实是，明朝是中国最弱的王朝。郑和下西洋后不久，巨大的宝船就被埋了，关于航海的文件被烧毁，明朝的官方禁止人们使用海上通道进行交易。对中国来说，这是一个转折点，因为西方正走向发现和复兴的时代，而中国正将自己与世界隔绝。在明朝的统治下，中国开始衰落，西方开始赶上并最终超过中国。
2. Maurya empire of India
This map is extremely misleading. I guarantee you Maurya empire is not as big as this picture shows. The empire controlled vast plains near the Ganges River in Northern India, but the empire had very weak control of the territory in the south. In other words, Maurya empire controlled little territory outside Northern India and I consider Gupta empire to be the actual golden age of India.
2。印度孔雀王朝帝国
这张地图极具误导性。我保证孔雀不像这张图片那么大。这个帝国控制了印度北部的恒河流域，但是帝国对南部地区的控制非常薄弱。换句话说，孔雀王朝只控制着印度北部以外的很少领土，我认为笈多帝国是印度真正的黄金时代。
3. Roman Empire.
Euro-Centrism makes people think Roman Empire was a superpower, not it was not.
I will provide some reasons why I believe Roman Empire is overrated.
It’s governing system is very immature. There isn’t a rule for the succession of emperors, and the local officials had way more power than they should have. These flaws of the governing system directly caused the Crisis of the Third Century.
3。罗马帝国。
欧洲中心主义使人们认为罗马帝国是一个超级大国，然而它并不是。
我会提供一些理由来解释为什么我认为罗马帝国被高估了。
它的管理体制非常不成熟。对皇帝的继承没有规定，地方官员的权力也比他们应有的多。这些管理制度的缺陷直接导致了其在三世纪的危机。
Although Roman Empire is powerful, It is not a superpower as the Romans did not have vastly superior army compare to other contemporary empires such as Han dynasty of China or Sassanian Persia.
Roman Empire didn’t manage to spread its culture over the conquered territory. The empire remained a political entity instead of a cultural one. This is why Persia/ China / Ancient Egypt can unified itself several times while Roman Empire collapsed without any successor states.
虽然罗马帝国是强大的，但它不是一个超级大国，因为罗马人没有比其他当时代帝国(如中国汉朝或波斯)更强大的军队。
罗马帝国没有把它的文化传播到被征服的领土上。帝国仍然是一个政治实体，而不是文化实体。这就是为什么波斯/中国/古埃及可以重新统一好几次，而罗马帝国会在没有任何继承国的情况下崩溃。
