In an age of seemingly endless wars where nations can no longer even way when they’ve achieved objectives, let alone satisfying victories, it’s tempting for military students to look to the past. Historians have drawn us neat, definitive maps and provided definitive starts and end dates. What’s more, it brings with it the vicarious sense of power and accomplishment to anyone who projects themselves onto the victors. 

This is TopTenz’s salute to those monarchs with the largest lands to survey. Whether restricted to one continent or encircling the entire globe. We won’t only discuss the conquests of nations that became part of the standard curriculum. It’s surprising just how many times militaries steered the course of human history and then drifted out of the cultural memory. But not for now. 

10. The Rise of the Parthians

 We all know the name Alexander the Great, and as a result, his conquest of the Persian Empire and invasion of the Indian Empire are common knowledge. Much less well-known is what happened to Alexander’s immense Greco-Persian Empire after he died in 323 BC without a named heir. Consequently, civil wars broke out which would endure for decades on and off. The most successful of any claimants to the empire was Seleucus I Nicator. By 300 BC, his armies had taken most of modern Turkey through modern Pakistan. Unlike Alexander’s empire, the Seleucid Empire endured for centuries, spreading a religiously tolerant and financially vibrant trade hub. Yet by 247 BC, a kingdom known as the Parthian Empire emerged with its capital in Nisa which over roughly the next 160 years conquered most of the Seleucid Empire. Afterward, the Parthian Empire would be the most prominent force in the Middle East for centuries, eventually falling in 223 AD. 

The real enduring relevance of the Parthian Empire was its role as a rival to the Roman Empire. After Parthian armies demonstrated they could annihilate far larger Roman forces at Carrhae in 44 BC, the Parthian Empire took the initiative for Eastward expansion away from Rome and spent the next few centuries bleeding Rome white, leaving it vulnerable to such invaders as the German tribes. Although the Roman Empire outlasted it by centuries, the Parthians did as much to bring about Rome’s downfall as any barbarian army. 

9. Ashoka The Great

Ashoka took the throne of the Mauryan Empire in 268 BC. He inherited a realm that stretched from the Hindu Kush through much of modern Northern India along the Ganges River to the Subarnarekha River. By the end of Ashoka’s reign in 232 BC, it stretched down all but the tip of the Deccan Peninsula and from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal. The human toll of this conquest was vast, even by the standards of the time. At the Battle of Kalinga alone, Ashoka’s army was said to have killed 100,000 people while also suffering tremendous losses themselves due to the valor of the Kalingas allowing them to nearly win the day. With those losses in mind, it’s not so surprising that the Mauryans were willing to force a reported 150,000 women and child prisoners into slavery. 

Today Ashoka is at least as celebrated for his alleged attempt at redemption after his conquests left such flows of blood in their wake. He greatly improved the infrastructure of the Mauryan Empire (particularly regarding roads). He not only promoted religious tolerance but helped legitimize Buddhism. Most important of all, he was credited with laws abolishing slavery during his reign.  

8. The Swedish Empire

After staying neutral for World Wars I and II, Sweden isn’t thought of as a military powerhouse. But in the 1600s, Sweden was one of the most prominent powers in Central Europe. Beginning in 1560, Sweden fought several wars with Denmark for dominance of the Baltic Sea and came out massively ahead. By 1618 when Ferdinand II of Bohemia attempted to reinstitute absolute Catholic rule in Central and Eastern Europe, the Swedish military had been honed into a disciplined, well-compensated, and well-equipped modern military. It would defeat Poland over a four-year war from 1625 to 1629, defeat Denmark again, and then win over Germany to reject the authority of the Catholic League. By its height in 1658, Sweden had gained control of most of modern Finland, middle Norway, Estonia, and lucrative territory in modern Northern Germany such as Bremen-Verden.

Sweden had the good luck of being ruled by a couple of military geniuses. First, there was Gustavus Adolphus, who in addition to his numerous battlefield victories reformed Swedish trade and industry to allow a flow of foreign capital and trade so that Swedish weaponry became the envy of much of Europe. His greatest single victory was at the battle of Breitenfeld in 1631, where his mobile infantry and artillery ruined the previously undefeatable Catholic League army under Count Tilly. It was only his death at his second greatest victory in 1632 at Luetzen that stopped him from creating a preeminent unified German nation centuries early and forming a league with Sweden that could dominate Europe. 

After Adolphus came Charles XI. He reformed the entire Swedish government into a combination of absolute monarchy and parliament, which held the economy together and with it Sweden’s many territorial acquisitions, though even in these Charles XI needed to put down rebellion after rebellion. He also overhauled the Swedish Navy so that it became one of the finest in the world.  

7. The Conquest of the Aztecs and Beyond

Hernán Cortés first arrived in Hispaniola (modern Cuba) in 1504. After rising through the ranks through taking part in completing the conquest of that island, in 1519 he disobeyed orders from Governor Velazquez and sailed with 500 men and eleven ships to the Mexican mainland. Over the next two years, he made local allies through feats of arms among a collection of roughly 200 anti-Aztec communities called the Tlaxcala. With them at his back, in 1519 Cortés’s men entered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan under initially cordial terms, and then had to shelter with them after the Aztecs soured on the Spanish and then attempted to kill them. In 1520 the Tlaxcala sided with Cortés as he confronted Conquistador Narvaez, who’d been sent by Velazquez to displace Cortés. Instead, the Cortés-Tlaxcala alliance defeated and absorbed the new army that had been sent to put them in line, then marched on the Aztec capital again, which they sacked in 1521. 

This is a well-covered piece of history, but much less known is what happened next. In 1527, viceroys that the Spanish crown had sent to help administer New Spain accused Cortés of poisoning them, forcing him to return to Spain to defend himself. Even though he was acquitted, while he was away he was stripped of his governorship. This was a real pity for the Spanish Empire, as Cortés’s men had been enthusiastically moving through modern Mexico and beginning to settle in Alta California, modern California. However the initiative for northern expansion was slowed greatly, and thus American settlers were able to outsettle and eventually overwhelm Spanish settlers in the 19th Century. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be a maverick conqueror.     

6. The Forging of the Russian Empire 

Today Russia is not only the largest nation in the world, at 6.6 million square miles it’s nearly twice the size of Canada, the second largest. This is a nation that in 1462 when it was known as Muscovy was scarcely larger than modern Germany. How did that happen? 

The story Russia first swelling into a giant power begins with two Ivans. The first was Ivan III who took the throne in 1462 and by the end of his reign had more than tripled the size of the nation by annexing several small principalities and in 1478 annexing the Republic of Novgorod. In 1480, the Mongolian Golden Horde came to confront the rising power and was sent packing. 

What’s particularly notable about Ivan III’s successes was how bloodless many of them were. For example in seizing Novgorod, he mostly exploited internal rivalries to win over the territory without a major battle. When confronting the Mongols, the Horde’s military was sent retreating without a fight at all. One of his greatest conquests wasn’t another principality, it was the Princess Sofia Paleologue of the Byzantine Empire. That offered tremendous wealth and legitimacy to the rising Eastern European power. 

Then there was the 1547 ascension of Ivan IV, not for nothing better known as “the Terrible” for his purges and draconian treatment of all rebels. His military career was decidedly mixed, such as the 24-year-long Livonian War to conquer modern Estonia and Lithuania that ended with at best a stalemate and was marked by Moscow being burned. Still, he was successful with such major territorial gains as the major cities across the Volga River (while driving the Mongols away from Astrakhan without a fight) and the first conquests outside of the Slavic areas.  

The single largest conquest that expanded the size of Russia was begun in 1581 when Cossack cavalry under the command of Yermak invaded Siberia. As it happened, the invasion was in retaliation to raids by Mongols under Kuchum as part of an effort to reinstate a great Khanate. Instead of uniting a new empire, Kuchum set his communities to infighting. Yet again infighting greatly aided the Russians in the short term as they established forts throughout Siberia, and also left Siberians much more amenable to rule from Moscow to end the constant raids on each other. Also, the Russian government immediately made Siberian leaders part of the Russian government itself instead of semi-independent colonies as European powers did in such places as the Americas. It also helped that as with colonizations in so much of the world during the Age of Exploration, the Russians brought extremely deadly diseases with them. By 1742, the last of the rebel indigenous groups, the Chukchi, was put down. It seems more than the French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte, the rise of the Russian Empire was characterized by dividing and conquering.      

5. Japanese Empire

By 1905, the expansionist ambitions of Japan got a massive validation when it destroyed the Russian Navy at the Battle of Tsushima Straits. By 1910, it had added Korea to its holdings. For the next couple of decades there was a lull in new conquests as the Meiji Dynasty dealt with such internal matters as putting down a socialist movement, dealing with massively destructive Earthquakes, and reorganizing a largely agrarian economy into a more industrial one. 

The conquests restarted dramatically in 1931 when under the pretext that the Chinese military attempted to bomb a civilian train, it invaded and annexed the Manchurian Province, which was particularly shocking as the invasion had been carried out without the approval of the Japanese civilian government. A similarly flimsy pretext of the disappearance of two Japanese soldiers on the border to China would be used in 1937 to justify another Sino-Japanese War wherein most of the Kiangsu and Inner Mongolian provinces were seized, putting such significant cities as Shanghai, Hong Kong, and the capital city of Nanking under Japanese control. By 1942, the high-water mark for the empire, was Burma, Thailand, most of Malaysia and Indonesia, and the Philippines. In less than half a century an island nation of less than 150,000 had swelled to 2.68 million square miles.     

The Japanese Empire was particularly aggressive in cultural erasure. For example in Korea, not only did 100,000 Japanese people move to Korea while many Koreans were taken to Japan. Korean historical documents were destroyed en masse. Even forests of native Korean trees were clear-cut so that they could be replaced by Japanese trees. Even today, Japan has many descendants of slaves from its imperial age who attempt to conceal their heritage.

4. The Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates 

It can hardly be overstated just how much the arrival of Islam energized the Middle East. After the Prophet Muhammad died in 632 AD, the Rashidun Caliphate began when Abu Bakr was elected his successor and finished the conquest of the Arabian Peninsula that the prophet started. He finished the conquest of the region but did not have long to enjoy it as he died in 634. His successor Umar waged war on modern Iran, and although he died by assassination in 644 they would conquer Iran by 651 under his successor Uthman, who also conquered Armenia. Uthman was assassinated in 656, and his successor was Ali, whose reign would bring Egypt, Libya, and a portion of modern Turkey into the fold. This was all accomplished by a military force that never numbered over 100,000 troops in total.    

As indicated by the line of rulers who died shortly after taking power, trouble was brewing in the caliphate from its conception. Not only did the schism of Sunni and Shia Muslims that continues to this day emerge during this time, but Ali was ousted in 661 and replaced by the Umayyad Caliphate. The change in management did nothing to slow down the expansion. By 700, the Caliphate conquered modern Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco in the West. In the East, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan were absorbed and India itself invaded. By 711, the Iberian Peninsula was invaded, and Portugal and almost all of Spain would fall. It wasn’t until the 732 Battle of Poitiers during a raid deep into France that the tide would begin to turn against the Caliphate. In that time, it had reached 5.79 million square miles and was approaching a third of the world’s population at the time. 

3. Timur the Lame/Tamerlane

It is surprising how little discussed Tamerlane is today despite being such a colorful and successful figure in military history. Born in 1336 into a minor noble family in modern-day Uzbekistan, he collaborated with the Mongols and by 1364 had distinguished himself both as a mercenary and helped the Mongols conquer the region of Transoxiana. Then he joined forces with his brother-in-law Amir Husayn and conquered Transoxiana for himself by 1366. It was also during this period that he received the infected arrow wound that would leave him incapable of using his right arm and leg properly, hence his “lame” nickname.

Despite betraying a Mongol leader being key to his rise to power, Tamerlane styled himself as a sort of fusion of Mongol power and Islam, and to that end, he married his sister-in-law Saray Mulk Khanum, a supposed descendant of Genghis Khan. He certainly emulated the Mongol reliance on cavalry and tendency to treat cities horribly to the point of destroying landmarks if they resisted as was the case with Herat while generously sparing cities that didn’t such as Tehran. Considering that the lands that he conquered by 1405 included Modern Afghanistan, half of modern Pakistan, Turkmenistan, all of Iran, most of Iraq including Baghdad, the Caucasus Region, and much of Western Turkey, you’ve got to admit it was a working strategy for him.  

2. The Mongol Empire

TopTenz has devoted lists to the Mongol Empire before, but it’s time for a rundown of their conquests. In 1206, Temujin united the Steppe (i.e. plateau) people of central Asia, and by 1209, they had conquered Xi Xia, a kingdom on the Northern border of China. War with China came shortly after and by 1215 they had conquered the capital Beijing. In 1219 the Genghis’s wrath moved to the West when the Khwarezm Empire (modern Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran) insulted the Khanate first by attacking a caravan under Mongol protection and then by murdering the emissary that the Mongols sent in response. Genghis Khan died in 1227, four years before the Mongols completed crushing the Khwarezm. He was still alive when the Mongols penetrated modern Russian territory in 1223, which started a remarkably successful campaign, even by Mongol standards. 

By 1240, the Mongols would add most of modern Russia and Ukraine, most significantly sacking Kyiv. In 1242 they invaded modern Eastern Europe including Poland and Bulgaria. A very inconveniently timed death of the Khan Ogodei spared much of Central Europe from being crushed under the Mongol horse hooves. By 1258, they shifted their sights to the Middle East and conquered Baghdad in a particularly horrific manner. It would be in 1260 in Egypt that they were thoroughly repulsed for the first time and fate turned against the Mongols with a series of defeats, including Vietnam and Japan. It had reached a height of 12 million square miles, incontestably the largest contiguous empire in World history.  

1. The “Sun Never Sets” Empires

The United Kingdom did not have the first empire that could claim the sun never set on it. The Portuguese Empire reached that milestone first, having colonies in Africa, India, and the Portuguese East Indies as a result of Vasco Da Gama’s voyage in 1497 and Brazil in 1500. Then it was overshadowed by the rise of the Spanish Empire under the very incestuous Philip II, which with the aforementioned conquest of the Aztecs owned huge portions of North and South America,  Equatorial Guinea in Africa, the Philipines, the Cananary, Mariana, and Caroline Islands. Close to home, it could also claim portions of Italy, Austria, and the Netherlands. Unfortunately for Spain Philip II also made the grievous mistake of sending the Spanish Armada to the English Channel in 1588, which would result in a catastrophic defeat that cost half the 130, and the initiative swung massively to Britain’s favor. 

Control of India began in the 1600s, with the acquisition of the major trading centers of Madras in 1639 and Bombay by 1661. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris at the end of the French-Indian War would yield control of Canada and give the Kingdom massive holdings in North America even after the American colonies left in 1783. Around that time in 1788, 736 convicts were landed in Australia. In Africa, colonization started in 1787 when 300 freed slaves who had been loyal to Britain during the American Revolution and 70 white prostitutes were landed in Sierra Leone. From that awkward beginning, control expanded to include lands from South Africa in 1820 to Egypt by 1899. By that time, in 1841, Britain had acquired the extremely lucrative islands of Hong Kong and Taiwan. By the time Britain reached its greatest size in 1920 with territorial concessions from Germany and the Ottoman Empire, it was 13.71 million miles, and 412 million people, a quarter of the world’s population, lived in it. Let’s hope we don’t live to see another nation try to top that. 

Dustin Koski’s horror comedy Return of the Living which he co-wrote with Jonathan “Bogleech” Wojcik will be the seed of a literary empire to rival any of these empires.  

Big oddities in nature tend to get noticed. But sometimes it takes a list to showcase the events that deserve more attention. Indeed, some are so strange that they seem fictional—like the air patch that wipes data and the migration of trillions of rocks across the ocean’s surface. For those who like their strange times a little bit more threatening, there is a toxic sea and the first earthquake that, uhm, boomeranged.

10 Most Terrifying Places on Earth

10 A Crater Turned Pink Overnight

Lonar Lake in India resembles most other lakes. You know, kind of round and filled with water. But Lonar, which was created by a meteorite strike 50,000 years ago, recently did something that set it apart from the rest. In June 2020, the water was dull and normal one day—and flamingo pink the next.

At the moment, the vivid flip remains a mystery. The leading theory suggests that several factors combined to create the color. A drop in the water level made the lake saltier and the days were also hot. This mix of saltiness and heat triggered a bloom of algae. More specifically, a kind that often turns red. Only in this case, the bloom went nuts and the overgrowth caused the flamingo moment.^[1]

9 Waterfalls Flowing In Reverse

During another insane 2020 moment, somebody claimed that several waterfalls in Australia were running backwards. News crews investigated and found a grain of truth. The waterfalls were not reversing like a movie in Rewind Mode. However, in each case, misty water flowed back up and over the top of the cliffs. As magical as it seemed, the whole thing was a trick of the wind.

A few days before the waterfalls got weird, Sydney and the surrounding areas experienced storm conditions. The winds were strong enough to flood rivers and trigger evacuation orders for many families. But their speed, howling at roughly 70 km/h (45 mph), was also sufficiently powerful to sweep the course of the falls the wrong way. Once the weather settled, the waterfalls resumed their old look.^[2]

8 The Red Sea Is A Natural Air Killer

Nestled between Africa and Arabia, the Red Sea is a busy bee. Thanks to the Suez Canal, this is one of the world’s most heavily used shipping lanes. The air is badly polluted and the prime suspects are clear. Indeed, industrial shipping and the intense use of fossil fuels in the area are not exactly filling the air with daisies. Unfortunately, the Red Sea is a busy bee in another way too.

In 2017, when researchers measured different gases in the region, the math did not add up. Even when they took into account the gross pollution caused by humans, the northern part of the Red Sea had 40 times too much ethane and propane. The only explanation was that both greenhouse gases are naturally released from reservoirs beneath the sea. The sheer volume that bubbles to the surface make the Red Sea a natural but major source of air pollution.^[3]

7 The Godzilla Dust Plume

Each year, a cloud of sand leaves the Sahara Desert in Africa and heads out over the Atlantic Ocean. The technical term for this dust bunny is the Saharan Air Layer (SAL). But in 2020, the plume was so massive that scientists folded to awe and called this year’s cloud “Godzilla.”

The plume was the biggest since the first SAL event was logged 20 years ago. For some reason, it packed up to 70 percent more sand and despite its size and weight managed to travel for a greater distance than other Sahara plumes. Usually, the clouds face-plant in the Atlantic Ocean. Godzilla ghosted through the atmosphere for 8,000 kilometres (5,000 miles) and reached the United States.^[4]

6 This Lightning Bolt Was Ridiculously Long

Two years ago, the weather turned crabby above Brazil. Some people might have appreciated the thunder and lightning because it was Halloween night after all. But one bolt took things to the extreme. When it cut through the atmosphere, it ran from the Atlantic coast into Argentina. All told, it measured over 700 kilometres (440 miles) long.

The mega-flash was long enough to link Chicago with Toronto or even Washington, D.C., with Boston. Satellite technology confirmed that this was a new record. The previous champion singed Oklahoma in 2007 and measured 320 kilometres (200 miles) long. Interestingly, neither holds the record for the most enduring flash. That bolt appeared over northern Argentina in 2019 and remained visible for 17 seconds.^[5]

10 Ways Earth Once Looked Like An Alien Planet

5 Australia’s Coast Is Surrounded By Rivers

Nobody is arguing that Australia is the king of weird ecosystems. But in 2020, a new discovery surprised even the most salted experts. The continent appears to be surrounded by something found nowhere else in the world—a network of underwater rivers covering over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) of coastline. While the phenomenon is not unknown, the scale is unprecedented. This alone makes the system one of the most significant finds in oceanography.

The underwater rivers are possible because their water is different; being more salt-dense and heavier than the ocean’s slosh. They also respond to the seasons. They are weaker in summer but during winter, the cascades turn denser and sink to the seafloor where they flow more strongly.^[6]

4 Volcano F’s Stupendously Huge Rafts

The name might be dull but Volcano F is the source of something amazing. This underwater volcano hugs the seafloor near Tonga and erupts every few years. When that happens, pumice rocks are released and that is when things get interesting.

In 2019, Volcano F belched so much pumice that the floating rocks formed a raft the size of 20,000 football fields. For nearly a year, the raft floated across the ocean to Australia. By 2020, trillions of these rocks started washing up along 1,300 kilometres (807 miles) of coastline, reaching from Queensland to New South Wales. But that was not all.

On the way, each rock picked up organisms like barnacles, corals, and algae. The endless bobbing mass was like a bus bringing new recruits of reef-building critters to the beleaguered Great Barrier Reef. The event was not a one-time deal, either. Volcano F sends a pumice raft to the Reef roughly every five years for a much-needed boost.^[7]

3 This Blip Is The Bane Of NASA

The Earth is a ginormous magnet. Its magnetic field protects the planet’s atmosphere—and human technology—from the sun’s particles. But this protective bubble has a weak spot. Called the SAA (the South Atlantic Anomaly), this is the one place where solar particles can enter the atmosphere and mess with expensive equipment.

The SAA covers a large area over South America and the Southern Atlantic sea. Any space station or equipment that passes through this region run the risk of data wipes or hardware damage. For this reason, NASA often switches off satellites that travel through the SAA until they are back under the proverbial magnetic umbrella.^[8]

2 The Firefall Of Yosemite

During certain years, in February, a spectacular sight occurs in Yosemite National Park. There is a high waterfall with a delicate drop called Horsetail Fall. For most of the time, it looks like a thousand other waterfalls but for a few weeks at the beginning of the year, the transformation is so remarkable that tourists flock to the site.

Some call the event a “firefall” and it is easy to see why. The water seems to have mysteriously vanished. In its place, orange lava pours over the cliff, glowing with heat, steam, and fire. This optical illusion lasts for about 10 minutes and is caused by the setting sun’s position in the sky. Once the sun dips below a certain point, the waterfall returns to normal.^[9]

1 An Earthquake That Boomeranged

A normal earthquake is bad enough. But one that suddenly turns around and runs over the same area? Definitely worse. In the past, something like this seemed impossible. Then it happened in August 2016. Nobody noticed the game-changing event because it happened deep under the ocean.

A 2020 study discovered the strange quake when researchers analysed the data from undersea seismometers. Nothing about the earthquake’s development was normal. Since it was born from a simple fault (the Romanche fracture zone near the equator), it should have been a textbook tremor. Instead, it mysteriously released the world’s first confirmed boomerang shake.

This was no hiccup. It was a major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1. Even more terrifying, once it turned around the speed increased. The tremors raced back towards the centre of the fault with speeds clocking up to 6 kilometres per second (3.7 miles per second).^[10]

Top 10 Iconic Places As You’ve Never Seen Them . . . Pictured From Behind

Disco ruled the music scene during the 1970s and it is out of this era that hugely popular disco artists emerged with hit songs like “You Should Be Dancing”, “Rock The Boat”, “Never Can Say Goodbye”, and “Le Freak”, to mention but a few. Over the years, several artists from other genres have taken it upon themselves to record their own versions of some of the most popular disco songs.

10 “Gloria” – Gloria Trevi

Laura Branigan enjoyed great success with her cover of “Gloria” after it was released in 1982. The song stayed on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for 36 weeks and peaked at No. 2.

Originally, “Gloria” was an Italian love song written and composed by Umberto Tozzi and Giancarlo Bigazzi in 1979, after which it was translated into English by Jonathan King.

Mexican singer Gloria Trevi, who is also know as the ‘The Supreme Diva of Mexican Pop’ has had worldwide success with several albums and number one hits. She recorded a lively Spanish version of “Gloria” for her Gloria Live album in 2012 and performed it live to much fanfare that same year.

9 “Funkytown” – Pseudo Echo

“Funkytown” became a monster hit for Lipps Inc. after its release in 1980, reaching the number one spot in several countries. Unfortunately, they could never replicate the success of this song, which was also used as part of the soundtrack for various movies and TV series.

Australian pop group, Pseudo Echo, released a cover of “Funkytown” in the mid-80s and it peaked at number one in Australia, number 6 in the US and number one in Canada. The song gave them their biggest international chart success, and much the same as with Lipps Inc. a repeat of this achievement eluded them in the years to come.

8 “It’s Raining Men” – RuPaul

Donna Summer was offered “It’s Raining Men” in 1979, but she rejected it on account of her Christian faith, saying that the song lyrics were blasphemous. Songwriters Paul Jabara and Paul Shaffer then offered the song to Diana Ross, Cher, and Barbra Streisand but none of them were interested in recording it.

In 1982, Jabara and Shaffer pleaded with Two Tons to record the song which they eventually did, and it was then released to dance club DJs in the US in the middle of that year. The Two Tons in the meantime changed their name to the Weather Girls. “It’s Raining Men” became the number one dance hit in America, was named as one of the Greatest Songs of the 1980s and received a Grammy nomination in 1983.

Weather Girls’ member, Martha Wash, and singer RuPaul covered the song in 1998 under the title “It’s Raining Men, The Sequel and it peaked at number 22 on the Billboard chart.

7 “Y.M.C.A.” – Hideki Saijo

“Y.M.C.A.” was released in 1978 and became Village People’s biggest hit. Today it is still one of the most recognizable disco songs in the world and is often played at sporting events in Europe and America. The song has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and is a popular staple of karaoke nights just about everywhere.

Japanese singer, Hideki Saijo, wanted in on the action, and recorded a cover version of the song, titled “Young Man (Y.M.C.A.)” in 1979. It topped the Oricon chart for five weeks and became one of the top ten best selling singles in Japan that same year.

6 “Disco Inferno” – Tina Turner

The Trammps only really hit the mainstream with their song “Disco Inferno” after it was included on the soundtrack to the 1977 film, Saturday Night Fever. The subsequent re-release of the song saw it climb to number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978.

Tina Turner started performing the song live in her early concerts, and eventually recorded a studio version for her soundtrack album, What’s Love Got To Do With It in 1993. Turner’s version remains one of the most notable covers alongside Cyndi Lauper’s version which was recorded in 1998.

5 “Boogie Shoes” – Alex Chilton

KC and the Sunshine Band had many hit songs including the very catchy “Boogie Shoes”. The song was released in 1975 and, like “Disco Inferno” became massive on the music charts after it appeared on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. “Boogie Shoes” also featured in several other movies, including Boogie Nights, The Wedding Date, No Escape and Mallrats.

Alex Chilton, singer-songwriter, and record producer started his music career as the lead singer for the Box Tops and Big Star in the 1960s. His reputation grew over the years to the extent that alternative rock bands including the Posies and R.E.M. credited him as being a major influence on their music style.

Chilton released a limited-edition album, Like Flies on Sherbert, in 1979 that included covers of songs of several artists including Ernest Tubb and Jimmy. C. Newman. The album also included a unique interpretation of “Boogie Shoes”.

4 “I Will Survive” – CAKE

“I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor is still considered to be one of the most quintessential disco anthems of the 70s and has been preserved in the National Recording Registry. The song was awarded the Grammy for Best Disco Recording in 1980 and was ranked number 1 on the list of 100 Greatest Dance Songs in 2000.

There are many cover versions of the song by well-known artists, including Diana Ross, Billie Jo Spears, and Demi Lovato. American alternative rock band, CAKE, recorded their take on the classic for their album Fashion Nugget in 1996, after playing the song live for many years. Gaynor stated afterwards that she liked their cover version the least, because of the included profanity.

3 “September” – Kirk Franklin

Vocalist Maurice White and songwriter Allee Willis wrote the lyrics to “September” over the course of one month and it became one of Earth, Wind & Fire’s most popular hits, reaching the top ten on a variety of music charts. A remix titled “September 99” hit the dance floors in 1999 and quickly climbed the dance charts.

In 2007 gospel singer-songwriter and choir director, Kirk Franklin, recorded a foot-stomping version of the song that featured on the Billboard Adult R&B Songs and Hot Gospel Songs charts. He rewrote the lyrics to reflect his Christian faith, and included the single on the tribute album, Interpretations: Celebrating the Music of Earth, Wind & Fire.”

2 “I Feel Love” – Blondie

Donna Summer became known as the “Queen of Disco” during the 1970s, and had a total of 42 hit singles on the US Billboard Hot 100. During her lifetime she sold over 100 million records, won five Grammy Awards, and was named one of the leading female singers in the world.

One of her most popular songs, “I Feel Love” has been credited for laying the foundation for electronic dance music and it has been called one of the most influential records ever made. The song also influenced and inspired artists and bands such as the Human League, David Bowie, and Blondie.

Blondie released their hugely popular tune “Heart of Glass” in 1979 which make big waves in the music industry. They followed up this success the following year, by covering “I Feel Love” during a performance at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. This cover was included on the band’s re-released single “Union City Blue” in 1995.

1 “Tragedy” – Foo Fighters

The Bee Gees were well-known for writing their own songs as well as coming up with hit songs for other artists. They were given the nickname, The Disco Kings, and with singles like “Night Fever”, “Stayin Alive”, and “Tragedy”, it is easy to see why.

“Tragedy” was released in 1979 and quickly climbed to number one in the UK and US, knocking “I Will Survive” from the top spot on the American charts. The lyrics were written in a single afternoon along with the lyrics to “Too Much Heaven.”

In 2021, American rock band Foo Fighters, released a disco album as the Dee Gees which is a nod to Dave Grohl’s initials. The album, Hail Satin, includes several Bee Gees cover songs including “Tragedy”, sung in falsetto by Grohl.

+ “Dancing Queen” – Steps

ABBA came up with a winning combination of euro-pop, rock, and disco to conquer the music world. Their hit songs have been covered multiple times by several different artists who attempted to piggyback off the band’s huge success.

“Dancing Queen” was ABBA’s only number one hit in the US, and it topped the charts in a host of other countries as well. Released in 1976, the song contains disco and pop elements and is one of the band’s most recognizable and beloved hits.

In 1999, British pop group S Club 7 put their own unique nineties spin on this classic song. It might not be the perfect cover, but it will certainly get your feet tapping.

Death, the great equalizer, is an inevitable fate cast upon the human race as we are brought into this world. Every breath may well be our last. At times, death comes quicker than others, ravaging large populations swiftly and without mercy. In modern times we’ve seen the horrors of a deadly disease tear apart our culture, families, and societal norms.

Devastating at first, we are now seeing the changes this earth-shattering virus produced. More people are working from home and are connected more than ever via the internet. Also, who doesn’t love food delivered right to their doorstep? While seemingly novel in modern times, it is not the first time the loss of millions of lives carved out a path of progress.

So here are 10 ways massive death tolls have affected human society.

10 Mosquitoes, the Louisiana Purchase, and a Free Haiti

After attempting to quell the first successful slave revolt in the world on the island of Haiti, Napoleon Bonaparte signed off the Louisiana Territory to Thomas Jefferson and the United States, while Haiti became the first independent black nation in the western world.

St. Domingue, as it was called then, had a massive amount of mosquitoes. Many fatalities were caused during the 1791 Haitian Revolution due to diseases such as yellow fever and malaria. General Charles Leclerc, Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother-in-law and commander of the French forces on the island, estimated that 100-200 men were dying a day due to yellow fever.

On November 2, 1802, Leclerc would die of the disease. In addition, over 24,000 colonialists died—out of the 40,000 there—due to the brave efforts of Haitian freedom fighters and the effects of yellow fever. The island had an overwhelming population of 500,000 slaves at the time, and 100,000 of them would die fighting for their independence. Many of them were immune to the disease, instead dying during the brutal fighting. Napoleon cut his losses before their independence in 1804, selling the 828,000-square-mile (2.14-million-square-kilometer) colony of Louisiana to America for $15 million in December of 1803. It still stands as one of the cheapest land deals in world history.^[1]

9 The Black Plague Brings Economic Power to Lower Classes

The Black Plague, Yersinia pestis, spread from the shabby, worn-down docks of Italy to the frost-bitten plains of Russia between 1347 and 1351. Fleas carried the disease from rodents to humans, and in its wake, nearly 20 million people died. Some estimates hike that number even further up to 28 million. While this catastrophe laid waste to a vibrant yet conflicted, flourishing society, it paved the way for an even more prosperous social structure to emerge.

Before the Black Plague, nine out of ten common folk made their living as farmers. Crops were generally of poor quality due to the high demand of the aristocracy. Over-fallowing of the soil led to poor conditions and crops. After the plague, nearly three-fourths of the European population was decimated, including the landowning class. Yet the land prospered. It became healthier as grain stocks now overflowed and fallowing was needed less.

A smaller population also meant higher wages for those who survived, and in turn, many peasants demanded greater economic satisfaction. Cash crops such as olives, grapes, apples, pears, and hops became more common as farmers started attending to their own profits. A mercantile class emerged, forging the early elements of the middle class. This new class of peasants greatly enjoyed their newfound freedoms, and once unheard of in medieval Europe, rebellions began to emerge.^[2]

8 The Black Plague Ushered in Higher Education

Many nuns and holy men passed away due to the Black Plague. Since medicine and general knowledge were lacking at the time, the Catholic Church sent these holy servants to heal the sick with the power of God in hospitals and infirmaries. This, however, only decimated their numbers as they were not immune to the disease, despite their faith in the Lord.

In order for the Church to recoup its losses and train more clergymen quickly, many universities were founded for the first time. In addition, many educators passed due to the bubonic plague, and education standards plummeted. Civic-minded members of the upper class often founded centers of higher education to tackle both issues. For example, Trinity Hall of Cambridge University was founded in 1350 by the Bishop of Norwich, William Bateman.^[3]

7 The American Civil War and U.S. Industrialization

With over 600,000 casualties, the American Civil War represents the largest loss of American life on United States soil. The agricultural and primarily slave-based economy of the southern states fell apart, and the industrial north took control of the once-divided nation. Due to industrial progress and the laissez-faire attitude of American economics, railroad lines quickly sprang up across the country.

The post-war economy boomed as many southern workers moved north for work, and the cloistered wartime economy came to an end. Soon the United States was outproducing many western European nations. Coupled with continuous waves of immigration and a larger workforce, this led to large amounts of exports to other nations via foodstuffs, raw materials, textiles, and crafted goods. While the legacy of the Civil War did not end racial tensions in the United States, and industrialization led the world to the effects of climate change we see today, it did power progress. And this created many of the modern amenities we often take for granted.^[4]

6 The Ambulance Emerged from the American Civil War

In 1864, the United States Congress created the Union Army Ambulance Corps to swiftly whisk wounded soldiers away from the battlefield to safety. While not the first ambulance service to be used in world history, the first civilian ambulance service being created in London in 1832, it was the beginning of the modern ambulance that continues to save countless lives today.

The first hospital civilian ambulance service was offered by a hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1865. In 1869, a former Union Surgeon, Edward B. Dalton, started a service out of Bellevue Hospital in New York City. Due to the economic boom and industrialization following the Civil War, American ambulance services quickly grew and set the bar for hospital transportation to this day.^[5]

5 The Vietnam War Ended the World Economy’s Dependency on Gold

Before 1944, the world economy was based on the price of gold. After WW2, the United States held the highest amount of gold reserves in the world, roughly three-fourths of the world supply. When the International Monetary Fund was founded in July of 1944, it was formed to help war-torn European nations recover from the devastation of WW2 and counteract hyperinflation that emerged due to wartime costs. Countries could redeem U.S. dollars for gold at $35 an ounce, stabilizing a formerly shaky economic system.

Due to the high cost of the Vietnam War—$141 billion in 14 years supporting both American troops and the South Vietnamese army—a devalued dollar, and a competitive market, there was an influx of U.S. dollars within the world system. By 1971, American President Richard Nixon had imposed wage/price controls and ended the world’s reliance on the U.S. dollar, essentially ending the gold standard.

Currencies of the world floated against each other as they still do today. Two million Vietnamese lives were lost during the war, along with 58,000 American casualties. The war is largely seen as the first American military loss in world history. It permanently changed the world’s economy and marked the downfall of America’s most prosperous period.^[6]

4 From World War II Nazis to the Moon

On June 20, 1945, Dr. Wernher Von Braun was brought to the United States to assist American scientists in developing intercontinental ballistic missiles. Van Braun, however, was a former Nazi officer, a part of the Nazi party since the 1930s, and an SS officer. The Nazis devastated the population of Europe, killing an estimated 17 million people in their efforts to “cleanse” human society during and leading up to WW2. However, Von Braun was deemed valuable to the U.S. government for inventing the V2 rocket, the first sub-orbital cruiser missile in world history.

Charges against his war crimes were diminished in an effort to further American prowess across the globe. He was one of many scientists brought into the U.S. scientific community in a secret maneuver by the CIA known as Operation Paperclip. Over 500 scientists were brought to the United States to combat Soviet technology following the war. Eventually, this would lead to the founding of NASA and the implementation of the V2 rocket in the Apollo 11 spacecraft. On July 16, 1969, man landed on the moon for the first time—thanks to this notorious war criminal.^[7]

3 The Atomic Bomb Helped Create Toyota and Hitachi

Before World War II and the horrors of the atomic bomb, Japan’s economy was controlled by ten major companies known as “Zaibatsu.” They had been in existence since 1868, when 70% of Japan’s population was agricultural, using large tax revenues to fund their enterprises.

When Japan accepted the terms of the Postdam Agreement and an unconditional surrender on August 10, 1945, over 200,000 people had died due to the release of two atomic bombs on the island nation. During the American reconstruction of Japan, the Zaibatsu was disintegrated, and free-market capitalism flourished. Companies such as Toyota and Hitachi emerged and brought us the technological wonders we continue to enjoy today.^[8]

2 WWI Solidified Women’s Right to Vote in America

World War I acted as the final straw for women across the globe during the start of the 20th century. Men were away at war, and women took their place across factories and workplaces around the world. It added fire to an already growing movement. Women in various countries demanded equality for their efforts and the right to vote.

In the years following the deadliest war in world history, with somewhere between nine and ten million wartime casualties, women in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Poland, Austria, and the Netherlands gained this right and much more.^[9]

1 Volcanic Eruption of Pompeii and Western Art & Culture

The destruction of Pompeii claimed over 16,000 lives in total, encasing over 2,000 villagers of the small Italian town eternally in ash. Abandoned until 1748, the rediscovery of the ruins in Pompeii uncovered the beautiful classical buildings of the city. This led to an explosion in Neoclassical, Greek, and Italianate architecture around the world.

Stucco, a distinct discovery within the ruins of Pompeii, became more commonly used among Western buildings. Most noted as being used by Scottish architect Robert Adam, it is still used to this day in many Western homes. This and other archaeological excavations helped to spur the Greek revival cultural movement that many western countries lived by throughout the 1800s.^[10]