- 2500 BCE: The Assyrian Empire began
- 2350 BCE: The Akkadian Empire began
- 2154 BCE: The Akkadian Empire ended, after 196 years
- 1600 BCE: The Hittite Empire began
- 1178 BCE: The Hittite Empire ended, after 422 years
- 814 BCE: The Carthaginian Empire began
- 609 BCE: The Assyrian Empire ended, after about 1900 years
- 550 BCE: The Achaemenid Empire began
- 335 BCE: The Macedonian Empire began
- 330 BCE: The Achaemenid Empire ended, after 220 years
- 323 BCE: The Macedonian Empire ended, after 12 years
- 312 BCE: The Seleucid Empire began
- 305 BCE: The Ptolemaic Kingdom began
- 146 BCE: The Carthaginian Empire ended, after 668 years
- 63 BCE: The Seleucid Empire ended, after 249 years
- 30 BCE: The Ptolemaic Kingdom ended, after 275 years
- 27 CE: The Roman Empire began
- 395 CE: The Roman Empire split into the Western Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire, after 368 years
- 476 CE: The Western Roman Empire ended, after 81 years
- 661 CE: The Umayyad Caliphate began
- 750 CE: The Umayyad Caliphate ended, after 89 years
- 750 CE: The Abbasid Caliphate began
- 800 CE: The Carolingian Empire began
- 888 CE: The Carolingian Empire ended, after 88 years
- 1206 CE: The Mongol Empire began
- 1271 CE: The Yuan dynasty began
- 1299 CE: The Ottoman Empire began
- 1368 CE: The Mongol Empire ended, after 162 years
- 1368 CE: The Yuan dynasty ended, after 97 years
- 1453 CE: The Byzantine Empire ended, after 1058 years
- 1492 CE: The Spanish Empire began
- 1497 CE: The British Empire began
- 1517 CE: The Abbasid Caliphate ended, after 767 years
- 1543 CE: The Dutch Empire began
- 1636 CE: The Qing dynasty began
- 1721 CE: The Russian Empire began
- 1804 CE: The 1st French Empire began
- 1814 CE: The 1st French Empire ended, after 10 years
- 1852 CE: The 2nd French Empire began
- 1870 CE: The 2nd French Empire ended, after 18 years
- 1871 CE: The German Empire began
- 1882 CE: The Italian Empire began
- 1912 CE: The Qing dynasty ended, after 276 years
- 1917 CE: The Russian Empire ended, after 196 years
- 1918 CE: The German Empire ended, after 47 years
- 1923 CE: The Ottoman Empire ended, after 624 years
- 1960 CE: The Italian Empire ended, after 78 years
- 1975 CE: The Dutch Empire ended, after 432 years
- 1976 CE: The Spanish Empire ended, after 484 years
- 1997 CE: The British Empire ended, after 500 years