Multiple empires have been described as such, often for the same time period, resulting in a problematic assessment of the conflicting scholarly opinions and points of view on the matter.
There is therefore a general lack of consensus between the various authors and scholars in reference to the nations and empires that were allegedly the world's most powerful at various points in history.
[18][19] Giovanni Botero, one of the first scholars of international relations, identified the Papacy, head of the Roman Catholic church, as the foremost power of the Renaissance and Counter-Reformation era.
[20] In reference to the 16th and 17th centuries, when globalization emerged, the term has been applied to a variety of states including: the empires of Portugal, Spain, and their Iberian Union, and later that of the Netherlands, which all ventured out from Europe to establish colonies in the Americas, Africa and Asia; the Austrian Habsburgs in Europe; the Ottomans, Mughals and Safavids in the Middle East and Central Asia; and the Ming dynasty in the Far East.
The concept of superpower, developed in order to describe these two nations and (earlier) the British Empire, became more common than that of foremost power largely because it was not possible to identity a single hegemonic force in global affairs.