Back in 2013 I wrote an article about the Longest lived empires/states in history. I thought it would be fun to look at it from the opposite perspective and see which were the shortest lived empires in history. Here is the list of the 13 empires that lasted for less than 100 years.
I have excluded:
| Rank | Name | Time frame | Length | Approx. Max. Land Area | Type | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | First Mexican Empire | 1821-1823 | 2 years | 4,925,000 km² | Expansion | |
| 2. | Second Mexican Empire | 1863-1867 | 4 years | 1,972,550 km² | Name only | |
| 3. | First French Empire | 1804-1814 | 10 years | 3,000,000 km² | Expansion | |
| 4. | Third Reich | 1933-1945 | 12 years | 4,000,000 km² | Expansion | |
| 5. | Macedonian Empire | 336-323 BCE | 13 years | 5,200,000 km² | Expansion | |
| 6. | Second French Empire | 1852-1870 | 18 years | 2,100,000 km² | Colonial | |
| 7. | Old Babylonian Empire | 1792–1750 BCE | 42 years | 360,000 km² | Unification | Size of a kingdom |
| 8. | Second Reich | 1871-1918 | 47 years | 3,000,000 km² | Colonial | |
| 9. | Neo-Babylonian Empire | 612–539 BCE | 73 years | 720,000 km² | Unification | |
| 10. | Empire of Brazil | 1822-1889 | 77 years | 8,8337,000 km² | Name only | |
| 11. | Mongol Empire | 1206-1294 | 88 years | 23,500,000 km² | Expansion | |
| 12. | Aztec Empire | 1428–1521 | 93 years | 235,000 km² | Unification | Size of a kingdom |
| 13. | Inca Empire | 1438–1533 | 95 years | 2,000,000 km² | Expansion |
I have excluded:
- Breakaway empires (e.g. Palmyrene Empire, Gallic Empire, Empire of Thessalonica...).
- Puppet states that were not independent entities (e.g. Empire of Manchukuo, Empire of Vietnam, and Korean Empire, all under Japanese administration, but also the Italian Empire of Ethiopia).
- Wishful empires that were just small states (Haitian Empire, Central African Empire).
- The Empire of China (1915–1916) because it was really a failed attempt of converting a republic into a monarchy.
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