Publicado en Iran - Entretenimiento y Ocio - 23 Feb 2026 08:21 - 17
Which Was the Greater Power in History?
Throughout history, two Asian empires expanded across vast territories and reshaped the known world:
the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan, and the Achaemenid Empire founded by Cyrus the Great.
The key question is: which one was more powerful and more influential?
1 Territorial Expansion
The Mongol Empire reached approximately 24 million square kilometers in the 13th century, making it the largest contiguous land empire in history. It stretched from East Asia to Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
In contrast, the Achaemenid Empire, at its height under Darius the Great, covered about 5 to 5.5 million square kilometers, extending from the Indus Valley to Egypt and parts of Greece.
Conclusion: In terms of sheer land area, the Mongol Empire was significantly larger.
2 Military Power
The Mongols
Highly mobile cavalry-based army
Advanced battlefield communication
Psychological warfare tactics
Decimal military organization system
Within a few decades, they conquered China, Persia, Russia, and parts of Central Europe.
The Achaemenids
Multi-ethnic, well-organized army
Strong naval forces
The Royal Road system for rapid troop movement
The Achaemenids combined military strength with long-term administrative stability.
Conclusion: In terms of speed and aggressive expansion, the Mongols had the advantage.
3 Governance and Civilization Building
The Achaemenids
Religious and cultural tolerance
Advanced taxation and administrative systems
Satrapy (provincial governance) structure
The Mongols
Secured trade routes, boosting the Silk Road
Facilitated cultural and technological exchange between East and West
However, early conquests were marked by large-scale destruction
Conclusion: In governance and sustainable state-building, the Achaemenids were more structured and enduring.
4 Longevity
The Mongol Empire fragmented into several khanates after the death of Genghis Khan, gradually losing unity.
The Achaemenid Empire remained unified for over two centuries until it was conquered by Alexander .
Final Assessment
If the standard is rapid military expansion and territorial size, the Mongol Empire stands unmatched.
If the standard is administrative sophistication, governance, and long-term civilizational impact, the Achaemenid Empire demonstrates greater depth.
Both empires were monumental forces in world history — one built on lightning-fast conquest, the other on structured imperial governance.
Endosar
Comentarios (17)
The Achaemenid Empire was conquered by Alexander
The Mongol Empire was not conquered by anybody!
There is nobody remaining from Achaemenid dynasty!
There are still living princes from Genghis Khan dynasty!
Islamic Republic of Iran is the first truly Persian ruled county since Arab Conquest! Before that for more than 1500 years Iran was ruled by Arabs and Turks!
😂 That's right! The empire was huge back then, but today Mongolia is just a small part of that territory. History changes and even the most powerful empires eventually shrink - but Genghis Khan's legacy lives on! No tomb
Iran was ruled by Arabs and Turks! Nice Joke 👏
Much of modern-day Turkey was historically part of the routes used by cavalry and armies from ancient Persia, including during the Achaemenid Empire. 😅
Never forget that the Mongols were savages, and the Iranians were authentic.
Yutukaron . Maybe you are right , we have been ruled by Turks during ling periods , I am a turk originally as well but we can’t deny Persian cultural effect on every Turk dynasty even Ottomans . It was as deep as they talk Persian in court as well as writing poems in Farsi even by Ottoman Sultans .
There are no connection between Mongol people and Azari ones like me . We are Azari Iranians with deep ties with Persian culture as it was dominant for 2500 years in a vast area .before Turkic migration.
At last , I am not into racist talks at all , we are all Middle Easterns with various cultural ties , we should focus on our ties instead of our differences.
Mongols ruled Iran, pers did not rule Mongolia!
Persians needen’t rule Mongolia as it is a desolate place , Persians ruled Mongols by their culture , language, bureaucracy etc ….. it shows who had the upper hand in civilisation.
Persian language and culture was integrated into Turkic, Arabic, Mongol world, just because, we/they are not nazis, we do not care about the nationality and did not force assimilation upon those whom we conquered! that is why Greek still speaks Greek, Pers still speaks Persian! We were accepting and Open minded Culture! Also Pers is not a superior culture! Pers took Greek Gods, Arabic Alpahbet, Turkic Traditions, even iranian Shiisim came from Turkic Safavids! So it is both way culture share! Just like influence of indian culture to British! pers were always conquered and ruled! Turks, Mongols always ruled!
Yutukaron you know a lot but not enough. Besides you are prejudice.
So I prefer not to continue just there is an obvious fact : The Egypt and Babylon had too much affect on Persia because when they flourished Persian people were in Middle Asia , having a nomadic life , so the Turks was nomadic 2500 years ago when Achemanid Empire stabilised.
One other fact , why almost all literature in the area is in Persian ? I think it is enough to understand the precedence and cultural effect .
Rumi’s poems are in persian
Nizami the same
Don’t you think you are unfair?
Safavids adopted Shiism from Lebanon in many ways by bringing scholars from there , they were Sufis originally and yes they were Turks and we are proud of them as well .
Yutukaron, I left this game I came just to surf and watch here I saw this conversation. Turk savavid? yes they were, but what you miss here is language ethnicity, or culture doesn't define geography,for example Azerbaican is a 36-year-old nation,b ut it has more than a thousand years of history ,a question do you consider yourself an Iranian or russian by roots? ofcourse Iran becasue for more than 5thousand years we were the same poople same nation, modern politic seperated all of us. Of course, you know what the roots of ayriliq poems and music? then Persia ,Iran wasan't only persians it is an honor for the geography of our region that it consisted of multicultural beliefs.
Iran is not Persians; Iran is a geography that keeps all people with all different culture and languages togeather, Iran is Turks,Persians,Balouchs,Kurds,Lurs,Arabs (these are groups divided by language)
We have Armenians,jews, Christians, Baha'is, and... which are iranians but different religions (an Iranian can be both for example Turk and christian at the same time) so don't mix the language, which is part of culture, with geography. so telling Iran is ruled by Turks is not the correct thing to tell, Turks were and are and will be part of Iranains so Iranians ruled Iran with a different language and culture which can be good and terrible ruling good like achamendis,safavids or Afshars and bad like Gajars and Islamic Republic.
then I correct you all when there was a empire made by Iranians there were no Mongolia or mongolian empire.
Yutukaron :
You are right that cultures influence each other. Persian culture influenced and was influenced — just like Greek, Arab, Turkic and Indian civilizations. Cultural exchange is normal in history.
But saying Persians were “always conquered and ruled” is historically inaccurate.
The Achaemenid Empire was one of the largest empires in ancient history and ruled over Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia and beyond.
The Parthian Empire defeated Rome multiple times.
The Sasanian Empire was Rome and Byzantium’s main rival for centuries.
As for culture:
Persian literature shaped the Islamic world.
Persian was the administrative and cultural language of many Turkic dynasties.
Even the Safavid Empire that established Shiism in Iran was culturally Persianized, not the other way around.
Taking an alphabet does not mean losing identity. English uses the Latin alphabet — that doesn’t make England Roman.
History is not about superiority. Every civilization rises, falls, influences and is influenced. But saying Persians were always ruled by Turks and Mongols ignores 2,500 years of documented imperial history.
Mongols ruled Iran for a period, yes. But ruling a land militarily is not the same as erasing its civilization.
The Mongols who ruled Iran eventually converted to Islam, adopted Persian administration, and became culturally Persianized. Persian language and literature actually flourished after the Mongol conquest.
Persia didn’t rule Mongolia — true. But Mongolia also didn’t culturally absorb Persia. In fact, Mongol rulers in Iran were absorbed into Persian civilization.
History isn’t a scoreboard of “who ruled who.” It’s about which cultures endured and influenced others — and Persian culture clearly did.