Greatest ever economic expansion

[RedRalph]

Percentage.

 

[Karalysia]

If conquest is considered a type of economic expansion, the addition of new lands, peoples, resources, taxation base and so forth then any state that rapidly accumulated a large empire. Personally I would think the the Mongols would have the single greatest "economic expansion" in history, perhaps closely followed by the Rashidun, Mughals, and Macedonians like Dachs said.

 

[Dachs]

Personally I would think the the Mongols would have the single greatest "economic expansion" in history

In ten years? Which ten do you pick?

 

[Tee Kay]

In ten years? Which ten do you pick?

1269 - 1279 sounds like a decent bet.

 

[Dachs]

In terms of percentages, though, would that really be bigger than Mak expansion between 335 BC and 325 BC?

 

[ParkCungHee]

It's pretty hard to draw a percentage when starting with nothing.

 

[Dachs]

Since 1269 was long after the Mongols created a state that encompassed most of north China - even if you rule out the Central Asiatic and Middle Eastern territories on the grounds of loltsagadai and the lolilkhans - you can hardly say that the Mongol state "started from nothing" in that year.

 

[amadeus]

How about this one? (in constant 2010 dollars)

Equatorial Guinea, 1995: $1,249 m
2005: $16,624m

Increase of 1,165% in 10 years. Of course, the livelihoods of the people of Equatorial Guinea haven't changed, it's just that the oil exploitation (and oil price) has increased so greatly in recent years.

 

[Karalysia]

In that case I suppose it would have to be the Mughals. Babur was only King of Kabul when he invaded with 10,000 men. A relatively prosperous city but nowhere near as wealthy as as Samarkquand or Delhi let alone all of Hindustan (the Indo-Gangetic plain) as well as Rajputana.

Oh also the first 10 years of the reign of Reza Khan Palhavi. The sheer break from the weak and pathetic Qajar state (god I hate the Qajar), the establishement of government factories, the vast expansion of the beuracracy, roads, railroads, the general rise of the middle class.

 

[W|M]

In terms of most gold received in one year, it was Egypt in 1324.

 

[Tee Kay]

Could be an apocryphal story though.

 

[Zardnaar]

In terms of most gold received in one year, it was Egypt in 1324.

That dude from Mali spending up? Mansa whatshisname?

 

[W|M]

Musa I, who devalued the value of gold in Egypt and ruined the Egyptian economy for years.

 

[Masada]

Right, that's an absolute load of tosh.

 

[W|M]

This seems to give suprisingly detailed accounts of Musa I's wealth and power...

 

[SeekTruthFromFacts]

That dude from Mali spending up? Mansa whatshisname?

This is a Civ site! What have you been playing (at) for the last five years?!

 

[ParkCungHee]

Since 1269 was long after the Mongols created a state that encompassed most of north China - even if you rule out the Central Asiatic and Middle Eastern territories on the grounds of loltsagadai and the lolilkhans - you can hardly say that the Mongol state "started from nothing" in that year.

Well are we talking Mongolia or the Mongol state?

 

[Dachs]

Well are we talking Mongolia or the Mongol state?

We're talking about the entity that conquered southern China.

 

[ParkCungHee]

Woops, should have date checked. What about Mongolia from about 1210-1220?

 

[h0ncho]

This seems to give suprisingly detailed accounts of Musa I's wealth and power...

While Mansa Musa was devout, he was not an ascetic. His imperial power was widely respected, and he was feared throughout Africa. Ibn Battuta’s accounts show that Musa expected the same traditional etiquette of reverence to be performed for him as for any other king. These included demonstrating one’s submission before the king. People who greeted him had to kneel down and scatter dust over themselves. Even in Cairo, Mansa Musa was greeted by his subjects in the traditional way. “No one was allowed into the king’s presence with his sandals on; negligence was punished by death. No one was allowed to sneeze in the king’s presence, and when the king himself sneezed, those present beat their breasts with their hands” (Levtzion, 108).


The shaded portion indicates the empire of Mali in the fourteenth century, and the dashed lines trace the main trans-Saharan routes of the period.

Another custom was that the king would never give orders personally. He would pass instructions to a spokesman, who would then convey his words. He never wrote anything himself and asked his scribes to put together a book, which he then sent to the Sultan of Egypt. However, Mansa Musa had to face his own test of humility because it was required, when greeting the sultan, to kiss the ground. This was an act that Mansa Musa could not bring himself to perform. Ibn Fadl Allah Al-Omari, who spent time with Musa in Egypt, reports that Musa had made many excuses before he could be persuaded to enter the sultan’s court. In the end, he made a compromise by announcing that if he had to prostrate on entering the court, it would be before Allah only, and this he did.

Talk about having an inflated ego! Those two sounds like a bunch of wasteful pricks.