Who was the greatest conqueror the world has ever known?

[Memnoch]

I saw this top 10 list from the Coming Anarchy blog site. Which of these muppets is the greatest conqueror of all time?

I'm defining conqueror in a purely militaristic way, and in terms of ENEMY lands conquered, which excludes religious conversion such as with Jesus of Nazareth, the Prophet Mohammed, Buddha, etc. as well as subjugation of internal lands, such as what Stalin or Lenin did. I'm also excluding conquests that happened with multiple leaders over a long period of time, such as what the Poms did.

Here's the list:

1. Genghis Khan (4,860,000) [Mongolia]
2. Alexander the Great (2,180,000) [Macedonia]
3. Tamerlane (2,145,000) [Turkestan]
4. Cyrus the Great (2,090,000) [Persia]
5. Attila the Hun (1,450,000) [Hun Empire]
6. Adolf Hitler (1,370,000) [Germany]
7. Napoleon (720,000) [France]
8. Mahmud of Ghazni (680,000) [Afghanistan]
9. Francisco Pizarro (480,000) [Spain]
10. George W. Bush (423,424) [United States]

Discuss.

[Bithron]

My Pick:

1.Genghis Khan. Had at best half of the worlds population in his army...

OR

6.Adolf Hitler. I liked the way how he could talk people into doing horrible things. I also liked how he conquered almost whole of Europe.

[Memnoch]

I did some calculations, apparently if Geedubya decides to invade Canada, he'll jump all the way to #2. Be warned, Canucks.

[Bungleau]

Hmmm.... seems like this belongs in CE, but...

the numbers are either bogus or bizarre. If it's population, Afghanistan has 27 million people, and Iraq 24 million. If it's land size, Afghanistan is 647,000 square kilometers, and Iraq 437,000. Numbers rounded for simplicity. And I'm just picking those two countries for the obvious flame-bait reasons.

So it's a list of names with seemingly random numbers added after them, listed in decending number order. I'm surprised Choc's not on there, what with the number of trolls he's dealt with.

That said, the answer is 42.

[JrKASperov]

Ghengis Khan is amazing, conquering the biggest empire known to man(though it didn't last as long as the Roman one) and threatening the whole world, if only he didn't die prematurely...

[Captain Obvious]

I'm a big Alexander the Great fan. Started when he was 16, conquered pretty much all the known world (discovering previously unknown bits, likt "India") and then died at 33. same age as Jesus, ironically.

For his age, he was a legend. He was also very good at uniting the people he conquered, even though they were all very different (e.g persian pansies compared to macedonian hardmen).

He also led the companion cavalry in the charge, was the first man in (and when you are charging in wedge formation, that takes balls the size of watermelons!)

He was also occasionally a good guy - like when they captured the persian King Daruis wife and family, he treated them with respect, rather than giving them to the troops...

although he did order all the babies thrown from the walls in Tyre. which wasnt overly nice. Interestingly, the Israelis have been pounding Tyre again...sucks to live there!

[Madman-Rogovich]

What about Kull the Conguerer eh?

Ah wait he was fictitious

I'm with Bungleau, what does the number represent?

[Sir Krustin]

I suspect the number is standing army.

edit: no, that's not right.

It must be in area of land conquered. Whether its acres, square kilomters, or what have you.

[ 07-24-2006, 05:31 PM: Message edited by: Sir Krustin ]

[johnny]

What i'd like to know is why Gaius Julius Caesar is not on that list ?

[Kakero]

Originally posted by JrKASperov: Ghengis Khan is amazing, conquering the biggest empire known to man(though it didn't last as long as the Roman one) and threatening the whole world, if only he didn't die prematurely...

Eyup, he could have added Japan on the list of lands conquered had not the divine winds help the Japanese once but twice!

Sadly though, his first born son was rumuored not to be his.