Daniel 2:21 says it is God who “removes kings and sets up kings.” Fortune and power can disappear quickly. Napoleon experienced that. Once he ruled an empire. Then he was exiled to tiny St. Helena Island, where he didn’t even rule his own home.
An empire is a collection of lands owned and controlled by another nation. Often, the lands are far away from the home country.
Napoleon expanded the French Empire by conquering other countries in Europe. But most of the land owned by France was waaaay across the Atlantic Ocean. Where you live might once have been part of the French, Russian, Spanish, or British empires. Those were among the largest in the history of the world. And all of them once claimed huge chunks of what is now the United States of America.
Russian Empire: What is now Alaska was bought from the Russian Empire in 1867. It was mostly just being used for the fur trade. So some people thought U.S. Secretary of State William Seward was crazy to pay $7.2 million dollars for the fur-rozen land. They called it “Seward’s Folly.” But Alaska added more than half a million square miles and valuable natural resources to the United States.
Spanish Empire: At one time, it seemed like the Spanish Empire would claim most of the world. It included lands that are now Florida, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Texas, and Louisiana. But claiming land and keeping it are two different things. The list of the world’s former empires makes that clear! Spain was losing parts of its empire in America long before the United States was formed.
British Empire: It took a brutal war for one George to wrestle independence from another George. You know that George Washington helped the 13 colonies of the British Empire become the United States of America in 1776. Did you know that another enormous chunk of the U.S. once belonged to England’s King George III? Thankfully, the 286,000-square-mile Oregon Territory was won by negotiation and not shooting.
French Empire: In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson made a deal for land owned by the French. Napoleon walked away with a bundle of cash—$15 million. The United States got . . . well, no one was quite sure what. Maybe you have heard of the explorers Lewis and Clark? They were sent to figure out just what Jefferson had bought in his “Louisiana Purchase.”
